Is Big Wind the New Big Tobacco?

Feb 17, 2014

— Curt Devlin, Guest Editor
Faced with growing evidence that industrial wind turbines (IWT’s) cause serious adverse health impacts, comparisons between the wind industry and the tobacco industry are getting more obvious all the time. The Big Wind tactics of stalling, dismissing legitimate concerns, and outright denial of the link between turbines and health problems seem straight out of the Big Tobacco playbook.

Perhaps this pattern is standard behavior for dirty industries, especially when there is no easy way to acknowledge the harm they cause without damaging profits as well. Despite these similarities, there are also fundamental differences between these two industries, the problems they create, and how they create them. Anyone looking to hold Big Wind accountable for the havoc it creates should pay careful attention to these differences as well. Forewarned is forearmed. Read more…