Wind Turbine Bill Moving through Legislature

The Wisconsin Legislature is considering companion bills (Assembly Bill 256/Senate Bill 185) that would give the Wisconsin Public Service Commission the authority to draft rules regarding the siting of wind turbines and preempt local government control over their placement. Below is a story from the Wisconsin State Journal discussing the bills:

Retired mail carrier Gerry Meyer said he only sleeps two hours a night because of the constant swooshing sound and that his wife has started taking sleep medication. His neighbor Nick Gonnering in South Byron, who lives just as close to the noise, said he finds the sound "relaxing." Either way, the sound of wind turbines is making more ears perk up as a bill moves forward in the Legislature that would empower the Public Service Commission to create statewide rules governing wind power and pre-empt local government control over their placement. The rules would govern the distance between turbines and homes along with their noise and the flicker effects of shadows from their turbine blades. The bill's supporters say the current local ordinances on wind turbines are a patchwork of differing and sometimes unduly restrictive rules that are holding up development of wind farms here.