During a televised speech to the National Republican Congressional Committee, President Donald Trump made the bizarre and unfounded claim that sounds made by wind turbines cause cancer. Multiple news organizations asked the White House what evidence on which the president was relying, but the Trump administration has so far not responded.
TRUMP during NRCC speech: “If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer. You tell me that one, okay? Rerrrr rerrrr!” pic.twitter.com/lYmx84Yxk1
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 3, 2019
It’s possible that Trump was referencing a decades-old fringe belief that low-frequency sounds can cause cancer and other fatal diseases. But there’s been no evidence to support those claims since they were first made in the 1960s.
“If wind turbines were harmful to nearby residents, entire cities and small nations would be stricken across much of Europe, where we see the highest density. Copenhagen is surrounded by turbines but my Danish colleagues are not seeing queues of sick people,” Simon Chapman, emeritus professor in the School Public Health at the University of Sydney, told The Atlantic in 2017.
While speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Gov. Kim Reynolds was asked about Trump’s comments. As Radio Iowa reported, Reynolds began by saying she was proud of Iowa’s leadership on wind energy, before refusing to criticize, or even disagree with, Trump.
“You know how those things change. One year coffee’s good for you. The next year coffee causes cancer, I mean, that’s what happens,” Reynolds said.
A reporter then asked: “Can you just say he’s wrong?”
Reynolds replied: “That’s not my place.”
Also on Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley addressed Trump’s comment during a conference call with reporters. He called Trump’s claim “idiotic.”
Stand up for the truth! It is our responsibility to speak truth to power, especially when the powerful one speaks complete and utter nonsense.
Speak truth to power, Governor.
You were elected to be a thinker, not an echo chamber.
“That’s not my place.”
If it is not the “place” of our governor to defend the our cultural, commercial, and environmental interests, whose place is it?
If it’s not the “place” of this governor to stand up to bullies spreading idiotic lies, we need one who is less timid.
“Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain.” That’s our state motto. It’s on the Iowa flag.
Please Governor Reynolds, do your job or get out of the way so someone else can.
Land owners receive payments for having turbines on there property. Have you ever seen a home underneath a large wind turbine????
Governor, it IS your place to stand up for honesty. For the love of God why are Republicans so afraid of pointing out even Trump’s most obvious misstatements? Being a coward and an enabler is not what we need from our elected officials.