In building any movement, it’s critical to have a set of talking points to refer to while making your argument. Knowing how to write a letter to the editor or contact your elected representatives is all well and good, but what should you say in your letter? Using talking points can make it easier to know what arguments to focus on. At the same time, the repetition of key words and phrases in the talking points help ideas spread more quickly as they’re repeated throughout your community.

As part of Build Baby Build’s community tools, we’ll be developing a few sets of talking points for renewable energy supporters. This is a work in progress, so please feel free to add your suggestions in the comments.

Why is wind a good energy source?

• Wind is clean; it produces no emissions
• Wind is inexpensive to harness
• Wind is plentiful and renewable.

Why should your community develop a wind-energy project?

• Wind energy saves money by producing cheap, homegrown energy instead of purchasing it from big utility companies.
• In some cases, wind energy can even help local landowners or the community make money from underused land by selling excess energy back to the grid.
• Wind energy reduces local carbon emissions, and helps to make renewable energy sources a viable alternative to coal and natural gas.
• Wind energy creates jobs in your community.

But what about…?

Keep in mind that you need to be careful when engaging opponents’ criticisms of wind energy. Try to steer the conversation back to the positives, as engaging your opponents’ criticisms often does nothing but enforce them. Still, sometimes it’s difficult not to engage some of these arguments:

• Wind energy won’t always be there when we need it / It’s too difficult to store
  • We already have the technology to enjoy stable, clean energy. With new Smart Grid technology which is already being installed across the country, not only is energy storage simplified, it will be easier to sell your excess wind power for a profit!
• Wind turbines kill birds
  • Which is more damaging to wildlife: danger from wind turbines, or large-scale extinction from global warming? In fact, wind turbines kill very few birds. It takes 30+ wind turbines to kill one bird per year; ultimately, cats are more dangerous for birds!
• Transmission lines are ugly
  • We can reduce the need for high-power transmission lines by focusing on distributed generation, which reduces the need for outside energy by using your community’s own homegrown energy.

This is just a first draft of the wind energy talking points. We’ll be expanding and improving them every now and then, as well as adding talking points on some other topics. Please help us perfect the talking points by adding your suggestions in the comments.

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Related posts:

1. Talking points: Distributed generation
2. Wind Farm Radar to Protect Birds