New Members

We welcome citizens interested in improving our energy and environmental policies!

Ultimately, victory or defeat in fighting scourges like wind energy, comes down to how well we understand and utilize Public Relations (PR). How well-intentioned citizens are, or much time effort and money a local group invests in such campaigns, all mean very little if they do not understand and effectively utilize PR techniques. PR may be perceived as “shady” or worse, but actually it is no more than communication. To have a real chance to win a local challenge, community advocates MUST go about this in the right way!

Our representatives often fall short of the mark in writing laws, particularly on complicated technical issues like wind energy. Approaching them directly is one alternative, but typically that is not the most effective tactic for a variety of reasons. These people WILL respond though, to public pressure. So, to win these engagements, we need to have allies — particularly other citizens in the affected community. These people all have busy lives, and are daily inundated by other issues. So how do we get their attention? PR!

Be prepared that your opponent (the advocates of wind energy), will typically try to use three tactics:

1 – to mischaracterize the issue to their advantage (see here for examples), and

2 – make a variety of inaccurate technical claims (see other parts of this website for the facts), and

3 – to falsely pigeonhole local resisters as anti-progress, anti-green, NIMBYs, and worse.

Understanding when you are being “had” is a necessary first step in solving the situation. As such, paying attention to the details, from the beginning, is profoundly important. This page has some ideas about how to do that.

Start by seeing if there is a group in your area (ref Existing Groups). If not you should consider getting some like-minded citizens together. Citizen groups can succeed at creating positive societal changes. To be effective groups need to:

1) be organized,
2) be on the same page,
3) clearly understand the issues, and
4) employ effective PR techniques.

This website is about helping with all four items. Regarding being organized, here is a good field manual for creating a new group. This document about grassroots mobilization also has valuable information. Here is an exceptional summary of PR ideas titled “Techniques for Changing Minds.”

Our basic position is that industrial wind energy fails to deliver the goods. By this we mean that wind energy:

Wind Doesn't Work

 In our view, a focus on siting can be problematic. The key position that citizens should be taking is that: 

Being on the public grid is a privilege. Just because an energy source is “renewable” should not mean that the source gets a free pass from scientific scrutiny. In other words, the government should not permit alternative energy sources to be on the public grid, until there is a genuine scientific analysis proving that they will be a net societal benefit. As of today, no such assessment exists…

 

The following are some important articles that should be very carefully studied:

Worker Hammering Square Peg into Round Hole

Wind Energy Simply Does Not Make Sense

Summary of a Successful Strategy

What Not to Say (the most effective way to frame your message)

Oxymoronic Wind Energy: Part 1Part 2

Go for the Jugular: Wind Energy Simply Does Not Work 

Ten Ways to Defeat Big Wind

An Analysis of Anti-Wind Strategies

Some PR suggestions to win the battle and the war

Keeping morale up in your organization

 

Once all these have been thoroughly absorbed, then move onto the Essential Reading page of the website.