Wind turbines are too intrusive

Zoning industrial power plants, known euphemistically as windmills, must be a matter of local decisionmaking. The merits of which should be fully vetted in a separate billbefore the legislature and not stuffed into the budget bill.

Wind turbines today are reaching heights of 800 feet with rotor diameters that exceed the length of a football field. They are intrusive in many ways from their sheer size to noise and moving shadows. Ireland has recently determined a zero tolerance for any shadows cast on a neighboring property.

Closer to home this past winter a judge in Maryland ruled the possible benefits of a wind project did “not justify subjecting the local community to the adverse impacts that will result from the wind project’s construction and operation. Even in “green” LA, rural opposition has led to a ban on wind turbines in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.

Ohio has its head in the sand. Sand that has been bought by the American Wind Energy Association that reportedly spends $20 million per year promoting wind power. Better use of those funds would be compensating rural property owners for the land the wind developers take when setbacks are measured from homes not property lines.

Julia Johnson Urbana baby does not suffer in an abortion?

Women have the right to unprotected sex, but I should not have to pay for their birth control. When I was younger and married, we could not afford any more children than the two we had and I paid for my own birth control.

There are more forms of birth control today than when I was young, but it should be that person’s responsibility, not mine. Having birth control is not a medical issue. It does nothing to improve one’s health.

It is just a shame when a country worries more about animal rights than the rights of a child growing inside a womb.