Lamar Alexander on Thursday said Governor Haslam’s signature on legislation approved by the Tennessee General Assembly will give Tennesseans “an opportunity to decide whether we want our landscape littered with unreliable wind turbines over two times as tall as the skyboxes at the University of Tennessee football stadium.”
“I am glad Governor Haslam and the General Assembly approved legislation to prohibit the construction of some Tennessee wind farms for one year and instead give the state a chance to study the issue.
If there is one thing Tennesseans agree on, it is pride in the natural beauty of our state. We should not allow anyone to destroy the environment in the name of saving it.”
The legislation Gov. Haslam signed - which passed the Tennessee House of Representatives on April 20, by a vote of 85 to 3 and Senate on May 4 by a vote of 30 to 0 -- would prohibit the construction of any wind farm until July 1, 2018, in counties that don’t have any regulations related to wind farms in place by July 1, 2017. The new state law also creates a special joint legislative study committee to evaluate and make recommendations on the siting of wind farms in the future.
In May of last year, Senator Alexander spoke on the United States Senate floor urging all Tennesseans to oppose Apex Clean Energy’s wind farm proposal in Cumberland County, saying it “would spoil Tennessee’s mountain beauty.” Video of the senator’s speech is available here.