You probably saw the big picture on Page 1 of yesterday’s Times Free Press. It showed a row of windmills along the crest of Buffalo Mountain near Oak Ridge, Tenn. The windmills were in an isolated, wooded area.
The reason for the picture was the report that a company wants to construct atop Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, up to 120 huge, electricity-generating windmills, each as tall as a football field is long – 100 yards – with blades reaching 135 feet higher.
You may be able to imagine what that would do to scenic Lookout Mountain.
You may not be able to imagine the “hum” that prevailing westerly winds would produce from tremendous windmill blades.
Some people fear what many big windmills would do to “the view.”
Some object because of windmill danger to birds and bats.
You may have seen a massive windmill forest if you have driven through a desert in Southern California.
Or maybe, if you have sailed the eastern Mediterranean Sea off Greece, you have seen a similar windmill farm rising on an island ridge over the blue sea.
Can you imagine about 120 such windmills on Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga in North Georgia?
Are you surprised that many local people do not look favorably upon the possibility of such a project?
Well, the time is now to keep our eyes and ears open – in time for local discussion and information so local people may have their input if such a windmill project is seriously being proposed on Lookout Mountain.