Perceptions of Wind Power, Community, and Renewable Energy Landscapes

Renewable energy enjoys broad popularity as an abstract concept, yet specific cases of industrial renewable energy development consistently encounter local opposition commonly characterized by the phrase `not in my backyard,' or NIMBY. Scholars have recently attempted a broader, more thorough understanding of wind opposition focusing on discursive forms of investigation, but even these efforts are limited by unspoken assumptions of motivation and aim. These attempts have led to a sophisticated understanding of local scale arguments mobilized by wind opponents, but have ignored arguments on other scales. In a case study of Keyser, West Virginia, I discovered a broad range of arguments not included in the scholarly literature. This thesis will investigate arguments on scales including the global, national, regional, local, and individual. I will connect the local scale objections to broader scales through the lenses of landscape and placemaking theory, and I will investigate the emergent discourse of health impacts and Wind Turbine Syndrome through embodiment theory and parallel phenomena