Nov. 29—Pittsburg County Commissioners heard a second round of opposition toward wind turbines from a noticeably smaller crowd.
“I vehemently oppose,” said Chade Nash, of Longtown. She said she’s representing her neighborhood with Peggy Davis who also said, “I vehemently oppose.” Davis also said with turbines’ size she’s afraid medical flight transports will not be able to assist an area where one will be located.
Joseph Smietanksi, of Carlton Landing, said Eufaula’s tourism generates $32 million in revenue and welcomes approximately 2 million visitors annually. He said a 720-foot wind turbine will be visible from the lake and visitors will find a lake that isn’t surrounded by turbines.
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{span id=”docs-internal-guid-287b7885-7fff-df5f-351d-d1b78606e98c”}{span id=”docs-internal-guid-287b7885-7fff-df5f-351d-d1b78606e98c”}”Eufaula’s tourism economy will collapse,” Smietanski said.{/span}{/span}
The height of the proposed turbines is somewhere between Oklahoma City’s two tallest buildings. The BOK Tower is 667 feet tall and Devon Energy Center is 844 feet tall.
According to the County Commissioners Office, land records and the memorandum of leases are to an Invenergy Wind Development LLC, which is an American-based multinational power generation development and operations company located in Chicago.
The McAlester News-Capital has reached out to Invenergy without reply. As well as Bradley Fitzgerald and Aaron Hacker associated with the company names listed on the letters submitted by the commissioners that include Red Earth Energy, Inc. and Firefly Energy Holding, LLC without reply.
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Loggan Winn returned to speak to the commissioners once again to follow up with a possible solution. Unlike those who spoke during Public Comments, Winn was noted as an agenda item to address the board and actually discuss what is available at the county level.
Commission Chairman/District 3 Commissioner Ross Selman said, “We can’t keep them out.” He said that the commissioners will be ready for when they request road permits.
Vice-Chairman/District 1 Commissioner Charlie Rogers said, “We can’t afford to fight a trillion-dollar company.” He said as far as he knows, he hasn’t heard of anyone attempting to ask residents to sign any lease agreements for wind turbines in his district, but knows there are wind turbines in Blanco.
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