Editorials: Tin-foil and windmills

We strolled past the booths Saturday at the Blue Water Festival in Arnolds Park celebrating water quality and spotted a poster made by some kid that claimed wind turbines degrade water quality. Shocking, you might say. It’s not just the kids. Adults are talking that way, which is where Junior picks up on the idea. Prominent people buy into pseudo-science if it means keeping turbines out of their sunsets.

There has been vociferous opposition in Dickinson County to Invenergy’s proposal to put up a network of about 80 turbines. The county stalled its permit last fall but the company continues to attempt to get something going in Emmet and Dickinson counties.

Similar opposition to wind energy has cropped up elsewhere in Iowa, notably in Madison County where turbines would purportedly harm the view of the covered bridges.

They build arguments and fears around junk science that makes all sorts of preposterous claims around flicker, noise and stray energy.

Hog confinements near the river and mansions on the banks of West Okoboji are okay, but wind turbines are opposed.

We long have wondered who funds the junk science. Could it be the fossil fuel industry? Donald Trump claims that wind blades kill geese. Then why do we have so much goose poop around Storm Lake? Eagles, too. We see eagles roosting right here in town, with clear sight of Buffalo Ridge’s wind turbines.

As for water quality, Storm Lake is no worse off with turbines, for sure. We have had them on our horizon for 30 years and stand in awe. More than half of Iowa’s energy is clean, renewable electricity generated by wind and, increasingly, solar. Wind complexes near Schaller and Pomeroy keep school property taxes down at Ridge View and Pocahontas area. We do not hear many complaints around Fonda about wind turbines. You hear the complaints where the turbines are not. Sort of like the most racist people never shook hands with a Mexican.

You would think the Iowa Great Lakes more enlightened, but Dickinson County has always had a strange brew of politics: right-wing with a six-pack to go. That’s how you get tin-foil hat thinking around important issues like renewable energy. Unfortunately, people with money and power are donning the hats.

Iowa is a national leader in wind energy. We make a lot of money from it. Because of it, our electric rates are lower than average. It provides jobs and royalties. It reduces our tax burden. Iowa can power Chicago with wind and solar, and reap the benefits. When we see those turbines at Pomeroy, we see dollar signs and no emissions. We think they’re beautiful.

Iowa is held back by people who are duped by interests that are not their own. Wind energy has been among our greatest success stories but it is stunted by voters feeding on disinformation financed by somebody who really doesn’t care about lake quality.

Book ban affirmed

Iowa’s authority to ban books in schools that offend certain sensibilities was upheld Friday by a federal appeals court, which lifted a district court judge’s injunction against the ban. Despite the injunction school boards across the state assumed that Gov. Kim Reynolds would prevail, as she has, and they banned thousands of books from school libraries and curricula. The City of Alta and the Alta-Aurelia School District were forced to divorce from joint operation of a library because of the ban. It is stupid and costly.

Some school boards, like Storm Lake’s, simply are not taking any action to ban books. It is more likely now, with the injunction lifted, that boards will be confronted with challenges to books that do not meet Puritanical standards set by the legislature. Curriculum that offers “divisive concepts” may be targeted.

“Huck Finn” is inappropriate, along with “Of Mice and Men” or the old standard “Catcher in the Rye.” Banned. The Des Moines Register documented 3,400 books banned since the law passed last year. The law is not popular, but it now can be enforced by the Iowa Department of Education or by citizen complaint that no doubt will result in even more litigation.

As a result, the children will turn out as stupid as their parents, ignorant enough to believe that windmills pollute water. Good work, legislators.