Rural America is common playing field for disputes about 'green energy' electric transmission lines

While the country continues to look for new "green energy" developments, the method used to transmit the energy those projects create is coming under increased scrutiny. Transmiting wind energy from the Great Plains to the cities requires thousands of miles of transmission lines and the disruption of the land over which they travel, the Daily Yonder reports. "Wind energy is green, but its infrastructure is not," Bill Neiman, president of the anti-transmission-line group Clear View Alliance Inc., recently wrote in the Austin American-Statesman.

The Yonder explains: "The conflict isn't just between landowners and the companies stringing the line and building the towers. It's a contest between East and West, between wind farmers and ranchers, between coal and renewable power and between environmentalists who advocate renewable power and environmentalists who want to protect the land. The common playing field for all is rural America."

Wind farms tend to have local support due to the jobs they bring, the Yonder reports. However, many ranchers oppose them because they don't want large turbines overshadowing their pastures. Eastern utilities prefer to charge their customers for local renewable power than pay taxes for transmission lines that would provide jobs in the Great Plains. The Yonder writes: "For the people who live between the wind farms and urban America, these aren’t normal times." (Read more)