This has to be straight out of the Koch brothers propaganda factory.
Wisconsin is facing a $2 billion budget shortfall, but Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal includes $250,000 to study the health effects of wind farms. Why? My guess is because fossil energy is the core of the Koch brothers’ corporate octopus, and we all know who pays for Republican campaigns these days.
So gird yourself for the latest rightwing witch hunt: Wind farms.
“Last October, health officials in Brown County declared that eight turbines located at the Shirley Wind Farm posed a health hazard to residents. The chairwoman of the local board of health cited ‘ear pain, ear pressure, headaches, nausea’ and ‘sleep deprivation’ as symptoms among nearby residents. … The conservative Heartland Institute … has touted the Brown County decision, and used it as an opportunity to criticize the state for ‘imposing its wind power mandates.’ Heartland has received funding in the past from fossil fuel interests. Walker has appeared as a guest speaker at the group’s events.”
While it’s true wind turbines annoy some people, reputable studies have failed to find adverse health effects:
“‘All peer-reviewed studies to date indicate using the wind is a safe way to generate electricity, far safer for human health than other forms of electricity production, such as coal,’ Tyler Huebner, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, told HuffPost.”
But remember, in the Alice-and-Wonderland world of politics, facts have nuttin’ to do with nuttin’. Burning “witches” at the stake was always about raw naked power. So is climate change denial, Ebola fearmongering, and birther claims. (“Obama is an Arab.”) When political passions are aroused, people take leave of rationality, and tapping into this human vulnerability is why intelligent politicians say stupid things — and why ignoring 
demagoguery is always dangerous.
Photo: What do Bowe Bergdahl, Benghazi, Ebola, vaccinations, and wind farms have in common? In the rightwing mind they’re all existential threats to the American way of life.
Graft in all it’s best forms. Come on that’s a political handout not oil and gas complaining.
You don’t have to produce anything…you get 250K
So .. seems to me there is a poltical opening, right or lefty, for a reformer who would eliminate corporate pork.
Mike, I think you’re missing the connection between Gov. Walker and the Koches. The latter’s fortunes depend on fossil energy. That’s why they oppose alternative energy and are America’s biggest donors to climate deniers. Gov. Walker is a Koch vassal who depends on Koch money.