By Sarah Doty
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

KENYON -- Russ Foss has lived on his 500 acre farm, southeast of Kenyon, for more than 42 years. A dairy farmer, Foss has kept busy serving time on the local co-op board and growing crops in his field. But Foss is clear to say that his 500 acres will never be home to what some are calling a "second crop," -- wind energy.

"When they (the turbines) came out, I myself thought it was a good idea," he said. "Wind sounds like a good idea, until you really look into it. Then there are just so many holes in that whole deal that you just start thinking."

Foss and his neighbors were approached a couple years ago by Kenyon Wind, LLC, a small firm from the Twin Cities, to put turbines for a small Community-Based Energy Development.

His first concern was for the field drainage tile systems that he and his neighbors had installed more than 40 years ago.

"Our agreement said no one could tamper with these lines, and that was a legal document, and of course now the lawyer (Kenyon Wind) has an option on these farms to build wind towers," Foss said. "My concern was, now they are going to run out there with these huge cranes and the cranes will be crushing these tile lines as they go and they won't know they are doing it."

Foss said that when he brought that up, he was told that the developers were going to fix everything they broke.

But Foss was still skeptical. So he joined together with some other concerned neighbors who had formed Citizens for Environmental Rights & Safety, a group that opposed the Kenyon Wind project.

"This group, CFERS, they like to label us radicals," Foss said. "But the people that are involved are just common people that live in the neighborhood, but they are concerned about their property and about some of the issues that go with this stuff."

Personally, Foss is concerned with several different aspects of having a turbine on his land, ranging from stray voltage to the throwing of ice and the possibility of one of the turbines spinning out of control.

"Electricity is a very volatile commodity, it truly is, it's dangerous," Foss said.

He also points out that wind as a form of energy isn't dependable.

"When I was growing up, we pumped our water with wind, everybody did," he said. "So when you had only about a dozen cattle and 50 pigs, you could get by five days, but every day it was on your mind, when is the wind blowing? Better pump water to make sure that tank is full."

Foss is also opposed to wind energy because of the cost.

Currently he is paying about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour for energy. A December newsletter he received from the Goodhue County Cooperative Electric, has him fearing that he could be paying 2.5 cents more per kilowatt hour due to wind. Add to the bill the building of new power lines they are suggesting to transport wind power, and Foss isn't happy.

"It's going to raise the electric costs quite a little with this wind power, and I don't know if that's a good deal or not.

"So whether it is a good thing or not, I guess I don't know. I don't know what the answers are, I am truly concerned about some of the safety issues with this stuff."

Currently the Kenyon Wind project has stalled, but in February they received an extension from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission for an additional two years.

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