Proposed County Ordinances Could Kneecap Planned Wind Farm

SIGOURNEY – During the Sept. 3 meeting of the Keokuk County Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Daryl Wood explained that the board and County Auditor Amber Thompson were working on ordinances regulating wind turbines. He stated that the planned ordinances will prevent wind turbines from being built within 2,640 feet or within triple the height of the turbine (whichever is higher) of an occupied structure. Jared Hershberger of Apex Clean Energy, the company planning to build a wind farm in the southern part of the county, explained that a similar half-mile setback ordinance in Jefferson County had made it difficult to continue the project, forcing the company to shift focus to Wapello County. He claimed that the company had a good working relationship with the county up until a public hearing on wind turbines, after which the county stopped speaking with Apex Clean Energy. He claimed that people opposing wind turbines are more vocal. Wood stated that, although there were people in the county who had signed leases for wind turbines, not a single person supporting wind turbines had spoken with him.

Hershberger stated that his company believed a quarter mile setback for wind turbines was safe. He offered to show diagrams to the board of supervisors or have a moderated public panel to discuss the project. Wood stated that nothing will sway the people opposing wind turbines. He brought up a farmer he knows in Poweshiek County, who gave an easement to a wind farm company and considered it the biggest mistake of his life, due to damages to his field.

During the Sept. 9 meeting, the board spoke with Thomas Bean of the Land & Liberty Coalition, a right-wing renewable energy advocacy group. Bean provided the board with a copy of the ordinances from Linn County, where the setback is 1.1 times the height of a wind turbine, and recommended the board approve them instead. These ordinances also require wind farm companies to provide a bond to pay for a turbine being taken down after being destroyed by a tornado.

Wood claimed that taxpayers in counties who had allowed wind farms in the past do not want them anymore, and asked Bean why this is. Bean claimed that wind turbines used to be thought of as a bipartisan way for rural communities to raise their tax base, but that since 2016, things have become more partisan and Republicans began opposing wind turbines for purely partisan reasons. He claimed that people also oppose it out of NIMBYism (not in my backyard) or due to misinformation leading them to wrongly believe wind turbines cause health problems.

He pointed that installing wind turbines is completely voluntary and that the county government doesn’t usually tell farmers what they can or cannot do with their land. He claimed that wind turbines help family farms diversify and that Mitchell County brought in more than $3,000,000 in new tax revenue after allowing wind turbines to be built. County Auditor Christy Bates stated that someone claimed to her that wind turbines block cell towers; Bean stated he had never heard of this happening before.

The supervisors approved sending a letter of support to Kiwanis to build a pavilion next to the courthouse; Wood and Supervisor Mike Hadley voted yes, while Supervisor Fred Snakenberg voted no.