Windfall

The low IMDb rating of this documentary was surely weighted by wind turbine advocates who value technology over aesthetics. This film has a clear bias but I'd call it a morally honest bias. Questioning wind turbines is similar to protesting dam-building (aka larger turbines) or mountaintop-removal coal mining. The CO2 aspect alone shouldn't blind people to the tragedy of lost natural scenery and invasive noise. They forget what makes life worth living.

This film does a good job of following Meredith New York's local planning decisions and the rancor that results when turbine-pushers come into town and pit neighbors against each other. It also plays as a mystery, since you don't know who will prevail until the end. The technical info was more thorough than expected from a catch-all documentary, but more would have been welcome, like a discussion of flashing red lights all night long.

Prior to seeing this, I'd watched a documentary about Tug Hill NY (on YouTube) and this also included a segment on that ravaged town. Good points are made about the number of turbines increasing beyond what was originally claimed. It costs too much to develop a new area without first saturating landscapes they've already invaded.

I am baffled by anyone who claims to be pro-nature and downplays the landscape intrusions of 400-foot spinning towers. One needn't be a global warming denier to see both the windfalls and pitfalls. A lot of dishonest environmentalism surrounds this topic. Turbine impacts are impossible to ignore unless you have pitch black sunglasses and earplugs. Were these people ever true environmentalists or just technology buffs?

The naivety of people who think large wind turbines won't really affect their quality of life has always seemed odd, but documentaries like this and various websites are exposing industry hype. We need as many documentaries as possible on this topic. It's clear that wind power companies are not very concerned about nature, which puts them in the same league as oil and gas drillers, regardless of the "green" badge.

The least they could do is make wind turbines green or brown to try to blend them in, but that would probably result in even more bird kills. I've seen these turbines up close in California and Washington and I've listened to the noise. It's exactly as depicted in this documentary and nobody should remain passive about it. One disappointment was the emphasis on turbines mainly affecting people (with noise and shadow flicker, that is). Surely turbines are affecting land-based animals in remote areas? Those animals have no means of complaining about health until they're autopsied and many probably die unnoticed. Turbines inject unnatural sounds and pressures into landscapes that never evolved in their presence. It can't be a benign effect.

According to a 2009 Stanford study, the future scale of wind turbines calls for nearly 4 million LARGE machines across the globe to just partly help replace oil. That should be depressing to anyone who respects what little acreage remains untrammeled by human activity. If even half those turbines end up being built, I doubt there'd be many places where you wouldn't be able to see them or their transmission lines. "Windfall" has some good graphics on that.

The end of economic & population growthism (to fuel an insane fiat money scheme) should take precedence over ill-advised forms of "green" energy. Wind on a small scale with much shorter towers seems fine, but not these glaring monsters. I hope that large turbines already in place are someday swapped out for something smaller and better on existing concrete pads, if not torn down altogether.

P.S. The 2012 film "Promised Land" was originally going to be about wind turbines before they changed the theme to fracking. Few energy technologies are benign, but solar seems the least disruptive.

The film is visually pleasing and attempts to address an important issue that some communities face. But I have a real problem with the way the film was written. It spends a fair amount of time disparaging wind development companies...making them out to be dishonest, greedy carpetbaggers. Oddly enough, one of the companies looking at developing wind in the area at that time was not even discussed. This company's actions were, in so many ways, the complete opposite of how the film portrayed wind developers. They were a local entity with an open door policy, consistently addressed all inquiries and concerns both in public forums and in ad hoc group meetings, and were clear right from the start that if the community decided wind was ultimately not a good fit, they would not force the issue and move on. In fact, the town thanked this company numerous times for their honesty and being available throughout the process.

Also missing was mention of some of the disrespectful behavior exhibited by certain local citizens: physical threats, spreading of inaccurate information (by name and anonymously), and promises that were never intended to be acted upon. This can be confirmed by several of those individuals that were interviewed in the film.

It is worth noting a number of inaccuracies, misleading visuals, and downright false information or conclusions in the film; for those close to the energy industry these are obvious and frustrating that they are left unchallenged, but to the average viewer they come across as credible. As commented in other reviews, there is no effort made to introduce counterarguments from the wind industry or other experts, and is a most blatant and misleading tactic (doesn't this violate any Code of Ethics in the documentary industry?). Then again, by including boring energy and environmental advocates that would take the steam out of the testimonials of the impassioned locals, this "documentary" would probably not have had the run that it has had up to this point.

Wind companies are bad and can't be trusted? As a documentary filmmaker, Ms. Israel ought to rethink what an honest and informative documentary is, and also better report on people's behavior when they can't agree and/or fear change.

Windfall gets marks for being a fairly polished attack on wind energy.

However, it is deeply one-sided. The primary creator protested against the wind farm from long before it was erected, stirring up anti-wind animosity. The sole technical consultant, Lisa Linowes, is a long-time anti-wind advocate with funding links to the Koch Brothers and the Heartland Institute, large supporters of anti-renewable, pro-fossil fuel propaganda. (Google the Checks and Balances Project entry on Lisa Linowes for full background not this.) No counter-balance was provided to Ms. Linowes inaccurate and biased views.

Windfall promotes and supports the health hysteria named Wind Turbine Syndrome. This syndrome, named by Dr. Nina Pierpont after a set of 23 phone interviews in a methodologically flawed and biased study, is a psychogenic illness.

A true documentary film-maker could have produced an interesting documentary on the small town, the wind farm that went in and the resulting pros and cons. However, this is not that documentary. Instead, it is an anti-wind advocacy center-piece that local anti-wind groups across the USA are airing to spread disinformation and create more opposition to wind energy.

To start, the art direction, the cinematography, the soundtrack, the editing -- all excellent. So the film is a pleasure to look at and a pleasure to listen to - which is sort of unusual for a first film. And the subject matter couldn't be more topical or more important. Ms. Israel has given us a look at wind energy on the local level -- the pros and cons from an energy standpoint and the effects on a small community when the wind company strategy is obviously to divide and conquer. It clearly achieved at least the divide part of that strategy. The film also makes a great case for doing your homework. There are green energy sources that are productive and actually good for the community. But not every energy technology that touts itself as "green" is either productive or good. The wind company in this film, an Irish outfit called Airtricity, seems to be taking advantage of tax incentives and carpetbagger-style quick profits. They certainly aren't looking to fill even local energy needs by scattering isolated wind turbines in residential rural communities. These turbines use more energy than they create and the air company won't be around 10 years from now when the turbines need repair or replacement (images of a 400-foot turbine burning uncontrollably while tiny firetrucks stand by helplessly on the ground far, far below bring that point home very dramatically) - they'll have sold them to another outfit looking for the same subsidies and quick profits. Ms. Israel provides viewpoints from both sides of the aisle and the science is explained clearly and succinctly. Much of her focus is on the local town council as it debates the potential impact of wind power on this one small community. These are real people, most of them really trying to do the right thing -- but their town is never going to be the same. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I recommend that anyone who has an interest in alternative energy technology - or an inclination to do something to help - see this film. It's really first rate.

This is an excellent and balanced view of what can happen when a huge multi-national corporation targets your community for an industrial wind power generation facility. In this case, the townspeople decide to learn more on their own and look beyond the wind company's hype about "green" and "clean" and they discovered the potential for health problems, environmental impact, and the extent to which the development would change their community. In fact, just having the proposal changed the community--probably forever--as it pits people against one another.

For some, all they had to know was that they would be getting a cheque. Others wanted to know what the impact would be from having the huge industrial structures in their community. A key issue was how the elected officials saw their role: take the money or protect the community? Very thoughtful, and well done.