Last weekend I made my first trip out to my central Texas area dove lease this season - only to find 75 + wind turbines under construction all around my dove lease. I have been hunting this land for over 40 years with my dad, in the area he grew up in. It is an absolute tragedy what those things do to the beauty and quiet of the surrounding countryside. I am hopeful that the dove hunting is not badly diminished next year when those things come on line, but I have to be realistic.

I pointed out the wind turbines to my 9 year-old, who was initially excited to see them. "Those are great" she said, "We learned about them in class. The energy is clean and free." Time for a discussion. I pointed out a house on a small hill, with a wind turbine a few hundred yards away, on an adjoining property. How would she like to be living in that house, with a pretty view and quiet countryside, and a few months later have this enormous, ugly, and noisy behemoth spoiling the view and breaking the quiet? "That is a terrible idea" she said. How do you like looking around the land and seeing them fill the sky around us? "Those things suck!" Then I explained that the same people and politicians that tell us we have to build these things make sure they are never built near their own property. So my daughter learned that 'clean' energy often comes with an enormous cost to the land and people.

We had a great hunt and hopefully not our last there; but that land will never be the quiet, peaceful place to take my kids like my dad took me so may years.

Drove from Austin to San Angelo A few weeks back as well as I spend a lot of time on the coast in south Texas. I hate those things with a passion.

Near Eden?

North of Mart.

Not just an eyesore. Also kills birds, are uneconomical/unenvironmental to remove at the end of their useful life, and don't do jack when the wind isn't blowing (see CA rolling blackouts). And nothing is free.

Didn't know there was a farm over there.


I'm not for or against them, but have you ever thought about it this way?

A wind turbine makes the landowner quite a bit of income, in some cases there isn't much else on their land or beneath it of value, so it's a way for them to use the land to make money.

Same as a pump jack if there is oil there.


You can be against the BS spewed all over the place that wind turbines are the greatest thing to happen to energy since the light bulb, but also support private land owners being able to choose what they want to do with their property and make a little bit of money at the same time?

I'm all for property owners rights, but I also know I would always take my neighbors into account before doing anything to spoil the enjoyment of their land.

That said, I'm a practical man who realizes that a sizable percentage of the population couldn't give a s4it about their neighbors.

So you'd ask your neighbors how they felt before you put in pump jacks?

You're 1 in a million if so.

Big difference in wind turbines versus pump jacks: if you have trees around the pad the pump jacks sit on, not many people see them. Turbines disturb the views for miles around, and they are noisy.

So the negative externalities of the turbines are broad. Sure the immediate landowners and local town/county cash in, but everyone else is screwed.

There is a reason why Teddy Kennedy nixed a wind farm off Martha's Vineyard. There is a reason why much of the wind generated electricity in CA is coming from WY.

Yes, you can 100% see a turbine from MUCH further away that a pump jack (trees or no trees).

But it's still a private property rights thing, imo.

I won't tell you what to do on your property, don't tell me what to do on mine.

Yea. Agreed.


Still ****ing hate those things.

Central Committee said:

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Big difference in wind turbines versus pump jacks: if you have trees around the pad the pump jacks sit on, not many people see them. Turbines disturb the views for mike around, and they are noisy.

So the negative externalities of the turbines are broad. Sure the immediate landowners and local town/county cash in, but everyone else is screwed.

There is a reason why Teddy Kennedy nixed a wind farm off Martha's Vineyard. There is a reason why much of the wind generated electricity in CA is coming from WY.

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So much this. An oil well pad takes a few acres, and once the pumpjack/esp is installed, doesn't make a lot of noise and not a huge amount of moving parts. Those windmills can be seen from miles around, and it's never just one, it's hundreds. They kill tons of birds, and it's starting to look like the areas underneath them are becoming dead zones.

Again, i don't mind what you do on your property, up until the point you are doing something to prevent me from enjoying my property.

I take great pride in respecting my neighbors and discussing anything that might effect their land. I communicate well with them. I find that prevents issues.

I just don't think it's all about me. I don't have the right (morally as opposed to legally) to ruin the enjoyment of their land. Otherwise, yes, I do what I want on my land.

Its sad when both sides (liberals and conservatives) go straight to the outer fringes on topics and not find a middle ground. Instead of having civil conversations and educating others/being open to learn, everyone is on their side of it and anything else is wrong.

Agree. I am all for property rights. But if my neighbor is getting hundreds of thousands of dollars to allow wind turbines on his property, I get zero compensation and have to live with an enormous nuisance that reduces my property value.

On top of that, they kill a lot of bats and birds. It's not that they fly into the blades, it's the pressure drop behind the blades that causes barotrauma.

People who want to tell other people what they can and can't do with their property

OnlyForNow said:

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Yes, you can 100% see a turbine from MUCH further away that a pump jack (trees or no trees).

But it's still a private property rights thing, imo.

I won't tell you what to do on your property, don't tell me what to do on mine.

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The problem is, no one lives in a bubble. What you do on your private property can certainly impact others, and they should have a say in what you can and can't do if it is going to negatively impact them. It's little different than shooting across property lines, IMO. You may be shooting on YOUR property, but the consequence of what you're doing extends to others'. Or, blasting loud music late at night in the burbs. It may be on your property, but your neighbor shouldn't have to hear it at midnight.

It's kind of ironic how all the people who hate the windmills probably are pro border wall which is a taxpayer funded eyesore that generates zero energy.

If joe jackass can fly a drone over my property without penalty then clearly I don't own the air space and therefore do not have authority to sell it to a wind farm. I can sell access to my property. So the issue isn't with landowners it is with the government subsidizing and granting permits.

rootube said:

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It's kind of ironic how all the people who hate the windmills probably are pro border wall which is a taxpayer funded eyesore that generates zero energy.

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no irony at all, all things considered. But you probably haven't considered.

I saw a company pushing some interesting vertical ones, which seem like a much better idea - far closer to the ground, look "solid" so not as much of a wildlife hazard, etc - unfortunately, I think it was being run by con men, as they were more interested in getting investors, than selling windmills.

Might be an excellent way to have windbreaks, but I can't see how it won't always kill birds.

Equating pump jacks to wind turbines....

Central Committee said:

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Agree. I am all for property rights. But if my neighbor is getting hundreds of thousands of dollars to allow wind turbines on his property, I get zero compensation and have to live with an enormous nuisance that reduces my property value.

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Nothing different from a neighbor in the city who lets their yard to to hell. Or parks junk boats in their driveway. Or....

Neighbor actions impacting your property value as well as quality of use have been around forever.

I think I read about this in high school spanish class.

Try having your neighbors put in chicken houses or hog barns, and having to smell that 24/7/365... I would choose wind generators all day over that.

I'm not a fan of wind generators. But I also think there is a lot of fake propaganda on both sides of the argument.

I had a feeling when I started reading this thread you were talking about Mart. They're supposed to keep building them east in a line towards Coolidge.

It's a real shame.

Your 9 yo thought they were cool and you convinced her they were ugly and ruined the view? Lol

There is a ton of energy and raw materials (including petrochemical products) that go into constructing those things so they are hardly "free". They also often fail before breaking even on actual cost.

I did not convince her of anything. She is a smart kid.

I taught her to think critically in terms of the negative externalities that are caused by wind farms, and that not everything they learn in school is correct.

Cromagnum said:

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There is a ton of energy and raw materials (including petrochemical products) that go into constructing those things so they are hardly "free". They also often fail before breaking even on actual cost.

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...which leads to another ecological issue: disposal.

And most importantly not clean and not free

Ragoo said:

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rootube said:

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It's kind of ironic how all the people who hate the windmills probably are pro border wall which is a taxpayer funded eyesore that generates zero energy.

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no irony at all, all things considered. But you probably haven't considered.

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You can try me, but I'm confident I have considered them and determined they are stupid.

Let's see..........

The wind only blows on the coasts (where the rich don't want their views spoiled) or across the plains (where there's insufficient infrastructure and limited population).

The logistics of transporting turbine tower sections and blades can be an absolute challenge.

Bird strikes are common with no real work-around.

The energy companies don't like buying power from a producer that can't predict if/when they'll be feeding power into the grid.

To the casual observer, wind turbines are majestic structures. To neighbors, they're an eyesore.

Without production tax credits from the feds, where would the industry be?

This coming from someone with 5+ years of business development experience in the wind energy industry. It's not all it's cracked up to be.