By
Paul Anderson
Director/Producer Laura Israel’s documentary film Windfall is
based in the town of Meredith in upstate New York, and she does an excellent
job at showing how “solutions” were offered to the hard working, well
intentioned residents who needed money, or had fears of losing a dairy farm
and/or a way of life, all of which were advantageous, to say the least, for shrewd
prospecting wind developers.
Windfall explores how effective the techniques of
contractual control and secrecy through non-disclosure agreements can destroy
a community. In this particular case, AIRTRICITY, an Ireland based company,
approached the town’s people to gain land leases for turbines to be installed in
elevated regions of the town. The agreements between AIRTRICITY and the land owners/neighbors brought about a divide and ensured that
there was no solidarity among the people who needed it most – the land owners.
The results were disastrous. Unlike the poor in urban areas, the people in
Windfall are land owners and moderately successful, so the mechanisms of
manipulation necessitated a different tactic. The fears invoked by a potential
lawsuit prevented residents from banning together to achieve the greater good
for all involved as they soon found that the leases offered were merely years
of inferior solutions to going green.
Windfall is a testament to how an industry can take green technology
that is beneficial for society at large (i.e. alternatively fueled cars) and
subvert it into another cynical shakedown of hope for the future.
I, after watching Windfall, felt the urge to get involved in
some way to help expose this ongoing ruse to distract the public from viable
solutions for tomorrow that are not shrouded in subterfuge. Strong communities
will continue to face challenges from those who wish to benefit from the weakest
parts of a divided society. It’s a great film, and one that is insightful, alarming,
and very capable of moving the masses to demand what we deserve – a path to a truly
green environment. Every American’s clock should go off to this wake up call,
and we should hold the parties in power responsible for a cleaner, safer, more
viable environment.
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