MidAmerican Energy has proposed the Silver Creek Wind Project in Mills and Pottawattamie Counties. By signing this petition, you are pledging your support to stop the turbines from ruining our beautiful land, disrupting our lives, reducing land and home values, endangering the health and welfare of our community, as well as protecting critical wildlife. You are asking Mills County to maintain the current restrictions under Mills County Zoning Ordinance Code 27.10.1 and asking Pottawattamie County Commissioners to enact a strong wind ordinance in favor of the people, not the corporations. You are showing our local leadership that we strongly oppose this project and future projects that would negatively impact our community, agricultural practices, and wildlife. 

With our close proximity to the world-renowned Loess Hills, we have an incredibly unique and diverse ecosystem that attracts birdwatchers, conservationists, and photographers each year. According to the Hitchcock Nature Center in Pottawattamie County, the Loess Hills are especially well known for the spectacular raptor migrations. No other place in the state has documented more migrating raptors, where more than 11,000 raptors of 20+ species are recorded each fall. This area is also one of the most important remaining strongholds for nesting Eastern Whip-poor-wills and Chuck-will’s-widow, and wild Trumpeter Swans that have begun to nest throughout the project area. These are just a few examples of the critical wildlife that would be in danger should this project move forward.

As wind energy has grown throughout the state of Iowa, as well as our nation, we have seen long-term economic impacts that do not benefit the local economy, hinder community growth, and a growing number of health concerns for residents and landowners; as well as detrimental effects on livestock, local and migratory wildlife, as well as farming practices. Tax incentives, community grants, and promises of high-dollar supplementary income by Big Wind companies have proven themselves to be over-exaggerated and under-delivered, leaving communities and families divided, infrastructure in need of repair, and nonparticipating residents fleeing their homes. Given that Wind Energy Centers (WEC's) are overwhelmingly supported by citizens not directly impacted by the installation of wind turbines, health and quality of life concerns in the impacted areas are downplayed as a simple annoyance in favor of Big Wind companies by partisan experts and climate activists.
 
By requiring counties to provide and maintain predictable and balanced regulations for the pre-screening of wind energy projects, our leadership would be protecting the health, safety, and general welfare of the people as well as the natural environment from possible adverse effects related to the placement, construction, use, and subsequent disposition of Industrial Wind Towers.

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We, the undersigned, are concerned citizens who urge ALL OF OUR REGIONAL LEADERS to ACT NOW to put in place laws and wind ordinances that protect landowners and residents in your districts from large-scale wind projects. In Mills County, we ask you to VOTE NO TO ANY AND ALL CHANGES that would allow for the installation of wind turbines above 80 feet from the ground to the tip of the blade. We ask for the Board of Supervisors and Zoning commission to maintain the current ordinances under 27.10.1 and prohibit changes to that ordinance in the future.
 
Concurrently, we ask that our Zoning Commission and Board of Supervisors in Pottawattamie County act expeditiously to place a moratorium that will apply to wind turbine projects that are not erected or have not begun construction, pending enactment of a wind turbine-zoning ordinance that would protect the landowners, residents, and critical wildlife of rural Pottawattamie County as no such ordinance currently exists.