The French village with too much money to spend - thanks to a wind farm

[The Straight Story]

The French village with too much money to spend

It’s a story that you would not expect to hear about in a time of austerity with the French economy struggling under mounting debt, but one village mayor in the Tarn region has so much money to spend he does not know what to do with it.

...

Alain Couzinié says the village has so much money they don’t know what to do with it.

“It’s like it has rained gold on the village,” Couzinie told France 3 television.

The secret of the commune’s laden pockets however has more to do with wind than showers of gold.

According to the mayor, in the last three years, his budget has shot up from €400,000 to €2,300 000 and its all thanks to 11 wind turbines that were planted in the surrounding area in 2009.

“The village will not have to worry about the immediate future. There will be no budgetary issues in the coming years," Couzinié told TF1.

http://www.thelocal.fr/page/view/windfall-leaves-french-village-with-too-much-money#.UX7n3kr4KSo

[CTyankee]

1. Oh, those FRENCH! What do they know? Buncha socialists, that's what they are...

FREE health care! Whatta outrage!

[BlueJazz]

2. Those Sons-a-bitches. I heard it from a politician the other day that Wind farms can...

..."Mess up the wind currents and cause mass extinction"

[bahrbearian]

3. As long as they don't elect chimpy for Mayor.

“The village will not have to worry about the immediate future. There will be no budgetary issues in the coming years," Couzinié told TF1.

[SoCalDem]

4. THIS is why the corporations who own the "power processing" are shaking

in their boots and are fighting like wounded animals.

Once PEOPLE are able to use the wind & the sun, there is no more humongous business-model that allows these greedy bastards to make the moolah they are used to.

Lots of folks here are too young to remember back when small towns OWNED their water-delivery systems, their power generation facilities...the ones who were very small banded together in co-ops. Why?

They paid salaries to the people who actually operated the systems, but they OWNED the physical plants. They did that so the costs could be kept to a minimum...as a service to the community...not as a way to skin their customers bald, and pocket all the profits for themselves.

[Rex]

5. But what about the companies that depend on a paycheck

from coal and oil!?? I kid...they can just come to America, buy a senator and start riding the corporate welfare gravy train!

[niyad]

6. thank you

[MellowYellow]

7. Way to go Arfons!!!

[DCKit]

8. It'll never work.

Sorry, just didn't feel like a genuine alt-energy post without that sentiment somewhere in the thread.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. It'd be interesting to know what the deal was

Are the turbines on land owned by the village? Or was this something they managed to get as part of a deal for a private landowner to put them up? I can't find any details on the web, yet.