County asks state to remove designation
Commissioners say energy generation area is unneeded
Along the northern border of Umatilla County, at about the center of the county, the state drew a 400,000 acre box and called it an energy generation area. It includes Milton-Freewater, some of Pendleton, Adams, Athena and Weston.
This week the Umatilla County Commissioners decided they want to ask the Oregon?Energy?Facility Siting Council to get rid of it.
When EFSC meets at the end of the month, one of its agenda items is “review of the council’s legal authorities relating to energy generating areas.” At that time the county plans to present a letter asking the council oust the designation.
Oregon Department of Energy Spokesman Louis Torres said his department is working with the Oregon Department of Justice to learn what an energy generation area is as well as its legal implications. Until that review is settled, he and other ODOE officials were hesitant to comment about the energy generation area or what EFSC might do about it.
The state designated the area in the 1990s as a place where there was potential for more than one wind project, said Umatilla County Planning Director Tamra Mabbott. There are now lots of places where there’s potential for more than one wind farm, but only one energy generation area.
The state made this designation, Mabbott noted, without consulting the county.
“Because we were pioneers, the state — not knowing what the future held — imposed something they might need down the road,”?said Commissioner Bill Hansell. “It turns out it’s not needed.”
Usually when a wind farm is being considered, if its max generating capacity is less than 105 megawatts, it goes through the county’s siting process. If it generates more than 105 megawatts, it goes to the state. In the energy generation area, that threshold is lowered to four megawatts.
It effectively removes the county from the process, or in other words makes any wind farm apply for state certificates. Mabbott said county certificates run in the thousands of dollars range, while state certificates can run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range.
Still, all five of the wind projects started in the energy generation area have been larger than 105 megawatts, Mabbott said.
“It’s sort of a regulation for naught,”?Mabbott said.
Commission Chairman Larry?Givens advocated for removing the energy generation area to level the playing field between Umatilla County and other counties affected by the wind gold rush, such as Sherman,?Gilliam and Morrow Counties. Mabbott said other counties don’t want energy generation areas in their borders.
“It creates a disadvantage in the marketplace when the state leads instead of the county,”?Mabbott said.
In addition to frustrations over the area itself, Mabbott said she’s unclear what the purpose is. She supposed it might be to look at the cumulative effects of wind farms, but if that’s the case, she hasn’t seen any work done by EFSC or the Oregon Department of Energy on that front.
Commissioner Dennis Doherty supposed the energy generation area may have been meant to keep companies from breaking their projects into smaller ones less than 105 megawatts, but Mabbott said that issue’s been handled in other places without the aid of designating energy generation areas.
After the county makes its request, Mabbott will also look into the original purpose of the energy generation area and the possibility of the state looking at cumulative impacts of multiple wind farm.
By Samantha Bates
19 July 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
Some possibly related stories:
- County says state siting rules for area wind farms unfair; Officials ask for end to designation
- County asks to discard designation
- Council moves wind projects forward
- Oregon county to review turbine ban
- Northwest communities push back against wind power
- Wind discussion goes into round 2; County will weigh both sides of turbine issue
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