To the Editor:

The statement from those opposing the wind farm at Fenner doesn’t surprise me (“Madison County wind farm neighbors feel betrayed by NY state,” Dec. 17 2025). I’ve attended numerous public comment hearings for wind and solar farms. If you go to enough hearings, you start to see a pattern.

First, you state you understand the dangers presented by climate change and support renewable energy; maybe you even have solar on your home. Then you say that, while you support renewable energy, you are opposed to this particular project because the site is wrong. Build it somewhere else, anywhere, just not in my community.

You emphasize how this big corporation or, even better, a foreign-owned corporation is coming to your town, running roughshod over local residents who have been betrayed by state officials. If you are a rural community, you emphasize how the quality of life will be affected by this massive industrial project.

You emphasize environmental costs such as impact on bird life if it is a wind farm, number of trees cut down, tons of concrete poured.

You frame it as a David & Goliath battle with the life of your community on the line. This is all a matter of perspective.

Lets take a look through a different lens.

For example, put yourself in the shoes of a farmer. I’ve spoken with farmers who wanted to lease a portion of their land for a renewable energy farm. They told me farming is hard work, especially as they get older. The income generated from leasing a portion of the land would make their life easier and enable them to pass their farm to the next generation. It gives them options.

This is also about change — people’s willingness to accept change and think beyond our own immediate interests. Change is hard for all of us. We all have a tendency to want to keep things as they are. If you live in a rural community you want to see farm fields forever — not solar or wind farms.

However, we have changed the atmosphere we depend upon for life. The CO2 concentration stood at 270 parts per million at the beginning of the industrial revolution and today it is 420 PPM and climbing. Increase the CO2 concentration, the planet warms and weather and ecological systems become destabilized — simple science.

I’ve lived in Central New York since 1971. I’ve seen our winters change radically. This type of change should happen in geologic time — thousands of years, not in decades! If you understand this, you can appreciate how serious the situation is.

We live energy-intensive lifestyles and aren’t willing to give that up. In the U.S., total energy use grew dramatically and has more than tripled since 1950. Something has to give.

The old model was large industrial power plants (gas, coal, oil) spewing tons of greenhouse gases, often placed in neighborhoods and areas of the state where people had little political power. Most of us either aren’t aware of where our energy comes from or were OK with a system where large-scale power plants were in someone else’s backyard. Anywhere, as long as it wasn’t in our backyard.

The new model is smaller renewable energy systems all across New York state. For the first time, we are being challenged to have energy plants — not dirty fossil fuels, but clean, renewable energy — in our communities.

We need to channel the spirit of the Greatest Generation (World War II) who sacrificed for the common good. Accepting change and embracing the common good are the challenges we face. Everything else is a distraction.

Pete Wirth

Fayetteville