John Baca, a real estate attorney from Hughes county, Oklahoma, talked to Jenni and Michael about the wind turbine companies coming into Hughes county and urging people to sign leases to place the turbines.
Beyond the fact that the electricity generated from these nuisance monstrosities is shipped OUT OF THE STATE, the contracts create easements on the person's property that can be used in perpetuity by whomever the wind company designates.
In addition, it appears that the wind companies are cashing in on something called Syndicated Conservation Easements, explained by ProPublica, below:
The syndicated versions are different. Instead of seeking to protect a bucolic reserve for wildlife or humans, profit-seeking intermediaries have turned the likes of abandoned golf courses or remote scrubland into high-return investment vehicles. These promoters snatch up vacant land that till then was worth little. Then they hire an appraiser willing to declare that it has huge, previously unrecognized development value — perhaps for luxury vacation homes or a solar farm — and thus is really worth many times its purchase price. The promoters sell stakes in the donation to individuals, who claim charitable deductions that are four or five times their investment. The promoters reap millions in fees.
(https://www.propublica.org/article/syndicated-conservation-easement-irs-tax-scam)
Wind turbine development in Oklahoma must stop. The Oklahomans who sign leases to turbine companies for turbine easements on their land may reap a windfall at first, but they soon find that they'll never really own the land on which the turbines are built and, as John says, the lack of transparency surrounding the lease agreements eventually harms the land owner.
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