Mike Winkler sheds a bright light on the modern wind energy scam that is sweeping across the United States of America and many parts of the world. The book is smart, fast-paced and raw. It is peppered with hilarity as well as insight as to what it is really like to be directly involved in this battle of money and its players-- big business, state and local governments, farmers, landowners, and rural residents. This is an utterly enjoyable read.
Jane

Mike Winkler has written with perception and clarity. The desecration of the hills by massively oversized and under researched steel giants is, indeed, one of the scams of the century.

Decent people in the United States, genuinely concerned for the planet, have been hoodwinked by those wishing to make a fat profit out of wind turbines.

In Europe too, we have seen a similar cynical rush. The dream of environmentally friendly energy has become a nightmare devastation of the ancient landscape - aided and abetted by the very governments who ought to have waded in to stop it.
David Bellamy, the much-respected naturalist who has studied the subject in depth, said, "If I wanted to build in an area of outstanding natural beauty I wouldn't be allowed. Yet these turbines are 22 storeys high and put on hills where everyone can see them. They need 1,000 tonnes of concrete and a road infrastructure. It beggars belief that some environmental groups say they are 'green'."

"Wind Power - it blows!" is an important book for all.

Well-written and entertaining. The author is logical and exposes many of the problems underlying and associated with this particular aspect of the green contagion sweeping the world and threatening our existence. While I don't have any windmills in my backyard, I can see about 20 of them in the distance without binoculars, more than close enough for me. Tilted a bit more in the direction of organizing resistance than I was looking for, the book is definitely a good introduction to the topic and right on target.

My family and I live in the middle of The Bluegrass Ridge Wind Farm.( Tax farm )27 giant, noisy, intrusive,unhealthy Wind Monsters have been erected in EVERY direction of our home.Some as close as 1500 FEET.Yes,FEET from our home.
The overwhelming noise, the loss of the equity in our farm we worked 15 years to build,our loss of our perfect view, the loss of our quiet country way of life, the loss of lifetime friends,the loss of the relationship with half of our family, the proven health risks such as Vibro Acoustic disease and Wind Turbine Syndrome are all extremely devastating, and have ruined our way of life.
21 of the 27 Wind Monsters devastating our life are currently out of service, after only ONE year.The Blades are all breaking up.Considering that they're made in "India", I'm not at all surprised."One gets what one pays for".This project has sent MILLIONS of "U.S. tax dollars" to the middle east, to a country that has vowed on National TV, to take over the U.S. financially.
If all the above isn't bad enough, the points made in Mr. Winklers book, Wind Power -- It Blows, will truely put one over the edge.Mr. Winklers book was very informative, and pointed out some very alarming facts.These Wind Monsters, as bad as even myself would like to see, are simply not the answer.They are a way for slick, smooth talking, "Snake Oil Salesman", to come into small communities, throw their money around and promise small counties a pile of cash, in this particular case, yet to be seen, and fill their own pockets !
Anyone and Everyone considering letting one of these "Tax Farms" trash their property,their equity,their view, and the same for their nieghbors, for a few measley dollars, owe it to themselves,their families,and their nieghbors, to read " Wind Power -- It Blows" by Mike Winkler.
The more research one does, the uglier Wind Monsters/Tax Farms become.NO ONE reading this review has to simply believe me,even though my family is "living the nightmare under Wind Monsters" just do your own research.
A good place to start is "Wind Power -- It Blows", because it truely does !!

A quick read that exposes the emotional and social issues related to the industrialization of rural America by the companies seeking profits in the renewable energy business at the expense of rural communities.

An excellent introduction to the primary points of conflict between the communities targeted for development and the business and political interests that promote that development.

Well worth the time and cost. I bought the electronic version which was a bargain.

In the foreword to the 93-page novella in which he describes himself as a conscientious objector to the concept of wind power, Mike Winkler warns readers to have a grain of salt or an antacid handy as they read it. He believes that persons who are upset before they read it should be calm afterward and that those who were calm at the start should be upset afterward.
Although Winkler calls “Wind Power…It Blows” a fictionalized account of the fight between what he perceives as “the good” and “the tax farms invading Middle America,” it springs from his five-year effort to oppose the 88-turbine wind energy complex that’s under construction in northeast Fond du Lac County today.

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Operating from a fundamental belief that nuclear and coal will continue to be the primary sources for electric power generation for a long time in the region, Winkler views wind energy projects as “tax farms” which depend on federal tax subsidies, sources which will charge consumers more for electric power (a form of double taxation), and as unreliable sources of power which will require even greater production capacities from nuclear and coal. Regarding wind turbine noise, he invites everyone concerned to judge it with their ears rather than with their wallets.

Wind power generation is not a good idea because it will be too small a portion of the energy supply, is too inefficient, and is far too wasteful, Winkler argues. He quotes an observation that good wind speeds seldom coincide with the periods of highest use of electric power (air conditioning and heating days) and believes that the answers to adequate energy supplies are conservation practices and the traditional sources of generation.

Because of the time and resources it would take for a thorough monitoring of wind speeds, Winkler concedes that it’s unlikely that enough facts to prove or disprove the value of wind will ever be accumulated. But he’s also convinced that anyone who believes in the value of wind energy must disavow the first law of economics.

As wind energy projects began to take root in the town of Marshfield and the neighboring town of Calumet in the form of private and official actions, Winkler was in the forefront of objectors. He describes how his stance quickly turned into unpleasantries with longtime friends and neighbors (a forerunner of life today in some portions of Calumet County where a fight looms over how to regulate wind energy systems).

Winkler, some relatives, and a few others of like mind registered their objection in a lawsuit to stop the wind energy project. They spent several thousand dollars on the case but did not prevail when the judge ruled that a suit could be brought in the case of an existing nuisance but not to prevent to a potential one, he indicates.

What bothers Winkler is how enough property owners in Marshfield were willing to cooperate with the wind energy developers in order to come up with a project that proceeded. He suggests it was all about the money they would get (a reported $4,000 or more annually per turbine to landowners with leases plus annual payments to the town and county governments) and that other considerations (visual changes to the landscape, loss of agricultural land, low efficiency of wind power, the role of tax monies in financing the venture) were largely ignored.

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The bottom line for Winkler is that wind energy development and common sense are mutually exclusive. He considers “tax farms” for wind energy as the equivalent of the bearded-lady sideshow in “the circus of energy.”