What those lawmakers didn’t plan for was that 50 years later, an Oregon citizen activist would use that same bureaucracy to hinder some of the very energy projects that today’s liberals want: wind farms and the new high-voltage lines needed to support them.
They didn’t plan for Irene Gilbert.
The 76-year-old retired state employee, former gun store owner and avid elk hunter from La Grande, Oregon, is on a mission to keep turbines and transmission towers from blighting the rural landscape. She has filed more challenges to energy projects — 15 in all, including lawsuits — than anyone in the state, according to Oregon’s Department of Energy.
“I kind of have a reputation,” Gilbert said.
That’s why I think home wind and solar are the answer, combos if necessary. Solar is getting way better and everyone maintaining their own system would be great. They already make lots of products that could do this. People just have to have battery set ups, and batteries are getting much better too.
Unfortunately wind doesn’t have nearly the same room for growth or cost benefits at small scale. Noise, maintenance requirements, and size/intrusiveness mean it’s not really an option at residential scale.