Williams windmill bill passes senate committee

More than 100 people packed a committee room in the Alabama Statehouse Wednesday for a state Senate committee hearing on a bill introduced by senator Phil Williams of Gadsden to regulate wind farms.  Williams, proposed the bill after Texas-based company, Pioneer Green, announced plans to build a series of electricity-producing wind turbines on private property  along Shinbone Ridge in Etowah and Cherokee counties as early as this year.  Advocates for the project said it would generate jobs and tax revenue for Cherokee County, without the smokestacks and pollutants normally associated with power plants.  The proposed Shinbone windmills would stand 250 to 350 feet tall with blades anywhere from 120 to 160 feet wide  big enough, Williams said, for a Boeing 747 to fit within the sweep of the blades.  Under Williams' bill, wind farm projects would need approval by the state's Public Service Commission and the local government. Turbine-building companies would have to create a plan to have the windmills dismantled if the project went belly-up. Windmills would also have to be set 2,500 feet back from the property line and would be allowed to generate no more than 40 decibels of noise at the property line. Opponents say the Shinbone Ridge project would ruin the beauty of the area, which is dependent on tourism at Weiss Lake.

The Senate committee voted 5-1 in favor of Williams' bill, which sends it on to the Senate for further consideration. Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, voted for the bill, but he said before the vote that there may be "room for change" when the bill hits the full Senate.