April 4, 2019

Hey, Maybe Wind Turbine Noise Really Does Cause Cancer. I Mean, Who Knows, Really?

The reason Donald Trump hates wind power is because of offshore wind turbines like these. He engaged in an epic battle to keep them away from his golf club in Scotland, but lost. Earlier this year, he was even ordered to pay the government's legal costs for defending themselves against his lawsuit. That's why he hates wind turbines.Benoit Doppagne/Belga via ZUMA

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A couple of days ago President Trump said the noise from wind farms might cause cancer. Not the wind turbines themselves, the noise from the turbines. Is Trump right? Iowa is a leader in wind production, so the AP asked Iowa’s governor:

Asked about Trump’s claim, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds refused to say the president was wrong, saying it was not her place to do so. “You know how those things change. One year coffee is good for you and the next year coffee causes cancer,” she said. “That’s what happens. We’ve got a lot of people that are driving the industry and investing in the industry and we should be proud of our position.”

The unwillingness of Republicans to criticize even the most idiotic of Trump’s ramblings is really something to behold.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

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