Citizens in East Texas are sounding the alarm about a proposed 30,000-acre wind farm that could destroy the value of their land and businesses, halting hopes for community growth.
Chris Wilson, leading a grassroots effort called Stop Fannin-Lamar Wind, told KTRH, "Some local businesses, like a small aviation business that had hopes to grow, are now looking to wind down because once those turbines are in place, that business will fail."
Wilson says the development could also threaten the community's access to the internet by interrupting the transmission route. Wilson is also concerned about the broad-scale loss of farmland to wind and solar developments. He said, "Texas, over the last decade, has lost over a million acres of prime farmland to solar development. That is a lost food supply." Wilson says this could lead to even higher grocery prices.
Wilson also says that the project will wind up leaving the community with a much larger tax burden due to the construction that will need to happen on the county roads. Currently, there is one lawsuit against the project that is active, with two more on the way.