Wind Turbine Wars

Wind power is a new pot of gold for the trial lawyers.  The litigation over the installation and use of wind turbines has begun in earnest.  ABA Journal:  “Wind farms are a growing source of clean energy.  But some of the neighbors are beginning to complain.  ‘They told us that the noise at 900 feet would be no louder than the hum of a refrigerator,’ says Hal Graham.  But he says the reality has been far different.  “We can’t sleep.  We can’t watch TV.  This has been a disaster for us and our neighbors.’ . . . an increasingly vocal minority says there is another, more sinister, side to wind power.  They acknowledge that, from a distance, the towering sentinels seem to spin lightly and noiselessly in the wind.  But closer up, they insist, turbines emit stomach-jarring whooshes and rumbles, and an impossible-to-ignore rhythmic hum that disrupts sleep and causes headaches, nausea and fatigue in some people.  Another problem is shadow flicker, caused when the spinning blades chop up sunlight, creating a swooping pattern of shadows that some people say makes them woozy and sick.”

“The growing contentiousness over the health effects of wind turbines already has resulted in some sharp legal fights —with more sure to come—over where turbines should be located and how they should be regulated.”