The Landowner Pledge

An elegant way to tell large-scale wind and solar land speculators to "buzz off, bozos"

Landowner opponents of large-scale wind and solar have been frustrated by:  (1) the industries’ incessant repetition of opponents being “the vocal minority” instead of an obvious rational majority; and (2) being hounded by aggressive land speculation sales people.  Tom Wilcox, Clark County Planning & Zoning Chair, Clark County Town of Green Grove Chairman, farmer, tow truck driver, and Farmland First Board Director came up with an innovative way to address these problems.

Tom, with the help of Farmland First, developed the “Landowner’s Pledge” to not sign Wind or Solar Contracts.  The idea was to give a tangible representation that more people in a given area are against large-scale wind and solar than have expressed support.  The result of Tom’s brainstorm and Farmland First’s efforts have been breathtaking.

Farmland First thought it would make sense to start deep into RWE’s iniquity den.  According to clientearth.com, RWE has been the largest polluter in Europe.  Possibly to superficially atone for its European sins, RWE has spent years in Clark County, Wisconsin signing up about 11,000 acres for a dangerous, resource-consuming industrial wind facility on some of Earth’s most reliably-productive farmland.

To our knowledge, RWE has not signed up a single new landowner in the year since Farmland First has started to educate landowners and the public as to the dangers of Wind Easements and Wind Power.  According to Clark County Register of Deeds Records, RWE has released at least two landowners from their contracts in the last year.   

Contrast the RWE experience of literally losing ground with the results of Tom’s and Farmland First’s experiment.  In less than three days of work with just a handful of people, dozens of Clark County Landowners pledged about 11,700 acres against large-scale wind and solar - more than RWE’s years worth of work and expense of millions of dollars.

If I were Sheikh Tamim ibn Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar (RWE’s largest shareholder), I would be more than a little displeased at the use of my kingdom’s resources.  And, as is well-known, one mistake you do not want to make is to displease the Sheikh (my deepest apologies, I could not help myself).    

Farmland First started with Clark County because that is where our fight started, where many of us live, and where we have the most relationships.  However, our members, friends, and nearly 2,000 Facebook followers have taken it upon themselves to pledge thousands of acres in many other counties against industrial-scale wind and solar.  We are decidedly not the “vocal minority”.

The more human benefit of Tom Wilcox’s innovation and Farmland First’s efforts is how they have helped friends and neighbors repel pesky land speculation sales people.

Many of Tom’s friends, neighbors, and constituents are part of the Anabaptist Community.  They are polite and non-confrontational by faith.  Now Tom has helped pledge signers have an elegant out.  They simply say, “I have already committed my land and I cannot go back on my promise.”  Once that statement is made the carpetbagging land speculators do not return.

All evidence points to the Legislature, the Governor, and Wisconsin State Agencies working against sound energy and land use policy.  Our plan is for these pledges to serve as an important data point for the people who are supposed to be working for us.

Whether you are in Wisconsin or another place, and whether you have a tiny city lot or 10,000 acres, we would appreciate you signing the Pledge.