We had our dream destroyed by the scam they call “Big Wind.” Below is our story of corporate greed and betrayal by local politicians & bureaucrats.
“Big Wind” Destroys Family Farms
By Rick & Carolyn Kiesz
ESCAPING CALIFORNIA
After living most of our lives there, we had to leave California because we saw the handwriting on the wall. We bought our farm in Whitman County in the summer of 2004 and moved there from our home in Herald, California in November of 2004. A long time ago, the grandfather of the man we bought it from raised sheep and cattle on it. It was just 10 acres and was in great disrepair. No fencing. The barn was a wreck and needed a new roof, as did the house and garage and bunkhouse.
We put 8 years of blood, sweat & tears and a huge load of cash into it. It was what you call a hobby farm. Not a business. We had 3 horses, 6 goats (for weed-eating and entertainment), a dozen chickens and a huge garden. My husband had his printing press moved with us and installed it in a workshop on the farm. A person could farm on a small scale there. It would certainly sustain a family. We grew our own hay and could get 2 – 3 cuttings a year because the pasture was sub-irrigated naturally. One could, if inclined, do organic farming and sell at a farmer’s market.
When we bought it, it had not been a producing farm for many years. The barn hadn’t been used for a long time and had 2 feet of dried manure inside. There were NO fences at all. We saw the potential and we set to work to make it our little 10 acre “Promised Land Ranch.” We thought we’d die there, until the global corporation came in to turn our world upside down. We never intended to make this into a producing ranch. We just wanted to be self-sustaining for ourselves. The garden and chickens, etc.
Rick had his Heidelberg printing press shipped up to the ranch when we moved there from California. We had a perfect building that served as his print shoppe for 4 years. It had an upstairs, which served as our office until he closed his printing business and sold the equipment, retiring in 2008.
We had it turnkey for horses by the time we sold it in 2012.
The beautiful Palouse before Big Wind’s ugly metal turbines moved in.
BIG WIND DESTROYED THE PALOUSE
Photographers used to travel from all over the world to enjoy the Palouse.^ It was a place like no other, until the ugly metal wind turbines arrived.
Many are unaware of our battle with a global industrial wind corporation and Whitman County politicians & bureaucrats. Our 10-acre farm was in the midst of thousands of acres of dryland wheat. We poured our heart, soul and resources into it. We’d been there just five years when we “discovered” our rural lifestyle would be changed forever. Only a handful fought that global behemoth, “First Wind,” to stop the placement of 50 turbines in one of the most scenic regions in the State, the Palouse.^ The ugly turbines destroy habitat, wildlife and property values via it’s harmful low frequency infrasound, causing health problems for humans and driving animals crazy.
We watched for three decades in California as wind farms went up and electricity rates skyrocketed. Consequently, businesses using electricity fled in droves to other locales, contributing greatly to California’s status as the most bankrupt state in the nation. California’s horrible economic plight was also connected, at the time, to 15,000 wind turbines that produced less than 3% of that state’s electricity. It is the taxpayers and electric ratepayers who pay for this financial boondoggle. TO LEARN MORE DETAILS ABOUT WIND TURBINES, CHECK THE LIST BELOW.*
We researched industrial wind: It is not affordable and cannot be built without subsidies and tax exemptions. In other words, it is artificially sustained with OUR federal & state tax dollars. It is not reliable and does not reduce the dreaded carbon emissions. The ugly turbines destroy habitat, wildlife and property values via it’s harmful low frequency infrasound. It is a money-transfer scheme from ratepayers to corporate fat cats, while dividing communities. Some landowners fell for the scam of promised cash and took their farmland out of production. Once the wind turbines are obsolete the land is contaminated, with no way to remove tons of concrete, rebar, and chemicals in the soil. The land is useless for farming or ranching.
As landowners, our Constitutional Rights were ignored, or denied by Whitman County who cozied-up to these outsiders. What a betrayal! They ignored those who elected them, forgetting the proper role of government is “To protect the People’s rights.”
Using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), we found our County was in constant contact with wind shills. In emails they joked about citizens who opposed the project. At the time, we couldn’t get many to join the fight against the “Renewable Wind” scam. Countless hours of research consumed me to the point of obsession. In Superior Court we lost. The Judge said we had no standing, because we had NOT YET been harmed. We sold our farm, at GREAT financial loss, and walked away from our dream forever.
ARE COUNTY OFFICIALS BEING PAID OFF?
“Industrial wind” has returned to Whitman County, to once again, defraud residents with the aid of County Commissioners. But this time, over 2,000 people are fighting it. Today people are awake. They understand industrial wind is a SWINDLE making a few rich, while ruining land and harming people. But, this time the County has hired an “Environmental Law Firm” to help plan this project to add 45 new turbines to the 50 already polluting the land & killing birds. In effect, County residents’ tax dollars will pay to plan a project the residents don’t want. The County hired lawyers to help take property rights from constituents. Gotta be a conflict of interest somewhere in that.
The threat in Whitman County, WA was & is on private land. In southeastern Idaho, in the Magic Valley, on the other side of the state from where we currently live, there was a similar threat from the Bureau of Land Management using public Land. Luckily, an Idaho Senator, the Idaho Legislature and hoards of citizens, with aid from Trump’s new administration, has stopped Lava Ridge and other projects on public lands!
It’s nearly impossible to stop wind projects on private land, even though they’re based on lies about economic benefits and global climate change. No matter where you live, learn what so-called wind energy is really about, and join the fight against it. You needn’t live nearby to testify, or to write opposing a project. Write, or call our President and legislators in D.C. Urge them to cut all subsidies and tax exemptions to wind corporations. Without those NONE of these ugly structures would EVER be built!
A bright light today is our powerful partner in the White House who knows industrial wind is a destructive FRAUD. Write, phone, protest! If that doesn’t work, lie down in front of the bulldozers to STOP them from doing harm. Never give up.
MONSTROUS METAL THISTLES EVERYWHERE
We got out in November of 2012 and moved to Idaho when the bulldozers were up on the hills around us destroying the beautiful buttes and moving earth all around. Knaff Ridge was about 1/2 mile behind us and there are several turbines within 1/4 mile, maybe nearer, from our farm. If we had stayed, I would have had many ugly turbines in my line of sight as I stood at my kitchen window to do dishes.
It was an amazing place where we had hoped to live until we died. We still miss it. We have gone back since we sold it, and it is painful to see. The monstrous metal thistles are all around there.
Carolyn’s story is similar to Roberta’s. They both escaped California’s madness and moved to Washington well over a decade ago only to watch their “forever” homes being destroyed by corrupt Leftist policies. Both moved a second time, to Idaho, and are currently crossing their fingers that their new neighborhoods are not turned into Liberal Hellholes while they are still alive.
This article was created, with permission, from several articles written by Carolyn Kiesz for “Palouse Advocate” now called “Patriot Advocate.” You can reach her at carolyn@patriotadvocate.com
^Traditionally, the Palouse region was defined as the fertile hills and prairies north of the Snake River, which separated it from Walla Walla County, and north of the Clearwater River, which separated it from the Camas Prairie, extending north along the Washington and Idaho border, south of Spokane and centered on the Palouse River. The region had a settlement and wheat-growing boom during the 1880s, part of a larger process of growing wheat in southeast Washington, originally pioneered in Walla Walla County south of the Snake River. While this definition of the Palouse remains common today, the term is sometimes used to refer to the entire wheat-growing region, including Walla Walla County, the Camas Prairie of Idaho, the Big Bend region of the central Columbia River Plateau, and other smaller agricultural districts such as Asotin County, Washington, and Umatilla County, Oregon.
*Wind Turbines:
• Started Over Thirty Years Ago as a Tax-Evasion Scheme
• Are Misrepresented as a Legitimate Energy Source
• Are Not Now and Never Have Been Financially Viable
• Have Never, Anywhere, Replaced an Existing Energy Source
• Require a Massive, Continuous Back-Up Source of Electricity
• Draw Energy Out of the Grid Over 70% of the Time
• Are a Negative when Included in the Overall Energy Mix
• Destroy the Natural Environment and Wildlife
• Rob Neighbors of Their Property Value
• Create Low Frequency Sound Waves Causing Health Problems
• Transfer Money from Rate Payer/Tax Payer to Fat-Cat Elites
• Have No Net Effect on Carbon Dioxide Reduction
• Cause Electric Rates to Sky-Rocket
• Made Obama’s White House Advisors Filthy Rich
• A Government-Controlled Money Laundering Scheme