by Phil Foley
The County Press

NORTH BRANCH TWP. — More than 150 filled a meeting room at North Branch Wesleyan Church Tuesday (Feb. 19) night to hear the other side of the wind energy debate.

Last month the North Branch Township Hall meeting room was standing room only for a presentation by three wind energy experts invited in by township supervisor Gary Swoish.

However, Michelle Peel, whose son suffers from several seizure disorders, was unconvinced and suspicious of the experts whose travel expenses were paid for by DTE Energy.

Peel invited Kevon Martis of Blissfield, who is a senior policy fellow at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute in Washington, D.C., and several township officials from communities north of Lapeer to present their views of wind energy.

It was a decidedly different view of the hotly contested topic than the January presentation.

Martis told the audience that wind costs too much, takes up too much space and makes too much noise.

Martis maintains that electricity generated by natural gas is more reliable, costs less and has less of an environmental impact.

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