Cherokee County, Alabama will be the site for some wind turbines by the end of 2014.  Pioneer Green Energy plans to erect electricity producing wind turbines in Cherokee and Etowah Counties in Alabama, making them the only wind turbine locations of their kind in the state.  Alabama officials and news media travelled to New York State to see some of the wind turbines operated by Pioneer Energy.  The officials were told that the turbines have about a $7 million impact on the community each year.

While Alabama officials seem open to the wind turbines and discount any of the possible negative effects, officials in both Chattooga and Walker Counties in Georgia responded to the possibility of wind turbines on Lookout Mountain with county ordinances that effectively banned any of the structures when the issue was put forward a couple of years ago.  Both Chattooga County Commissioner Jason Winters and Walker County Commissioner Bebe Heiskel heard from concerned residents and tourist businesses on Lookout Mountain when wind turbines were suggested.   The residents feared that the wind turbines would take away from the aesthetics of the mountain and didn’t want the turbines located in their neighborhoods.