Wind Power News: Kansas
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These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted.
Wind power blows county controversy; County mulling proposed regulations for generators
Baby, the wind must blow. But whether rules about generating electricity from the the wind will go is the question for the Franklin County Planning Commission.
The planners will resume their work on a set of proposed rules for small wind generators when they meet at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Franklin County Annex, 1418 S. Main St.
The proposed lot sizes and setbacks — how far away the generator and tower have to be from property …
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County tables wind talk
The requested waiver on wind energy development in Ellis County will resurface for further discussion June 2 after county commissioners opted to table action Monday.
Commissioners agreed to postpone making a decision until the Joint Planning Commission, which is in the process of reviewing and amending wind farm zoning regulations, has a chance to discuss the request and make a recommendation.
“I think we need to allow them to finish that process. Pushing it through is just …
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Wind farm waiver tabled
The Ellis County Commission this morning tabled a request to waive a yearlong waiting period for a second attempt at a wind farm southwest of Hays.
Commissioners opted instead to send the waiver — required after the developer’s initial proposal was rejected last year — to the county’s zoning commission for review and recommendation.
The commission is expected to again discuss the waiver request at its June 2 meeting.
The Hays Daily News
5 May 2008
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Wind farm back in the forefront
About eight months after a 2-1 Ellis County Commission vote denied an application for a wind energy project south and southwest of Hays, the issue is set to return to the table.
At Monday’s meeting, the commission will be asked to waive a year-long moratorium required by county zoning regulations and enforced last September when the conditional-use permit was rejected.
Project boundaries for the most recent application have been scaled back 1,000 feet from surrounding landowners, virtually …
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Leawood company involved in energy project declares bankruptcy
A Leawood company that hoped to develop a wind-powered energy project in Pennsylvania has declared bankruptcy.
Generation Resources Holding Company LLC, with offices at 118th Street and Roe Avenue, listed $75,052 in assets and $5.86 million in liabilities.
The company owned a 50 percent interest in Stony Creek Windpower LLC, according to the bankruptcy petition. It valued that interest at $75,000. Its remaining assets consisted of $52.44 in accounts at Capitol Federal Savings.
Generation Resources’ biggest unsecured claimant …
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Wind progress at standstill
While there’s a flurry of activity going on around the coal-fired power plant and its companion ethanol plant, there’s virtually nothing happening on the wind farm proposed near Goodland.
And there’s little information being passed between the wind developer and the city of Goodland, which is all but on the hook to purchase power from Renewable Energy Resources.
The wind company has no connection to the Goodland Energy Center, which owns the land where the coal and …
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City commission puts brakes on potential towers in Hays
In a unanimous vote Thursday night, the Hays City Commission enacted a moratorium against wind development in the city.
The intent is to give the Hays Area Planning Commission a chance to examine issues relating to wind towers and develop regulations to govern those towers.
“Regardless of this issue or any other development issue, eight months is a long time for a developer to know an answer,” Commissioner Troy Hickman said of the moratorium, which ends Dec. …
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New wind application is an end-run around zoning law
The new wind energy application by Iberdrola uses a ‘cookie cutter’ approach to delineate carefully selected sub-parcels of land within legal parcels for a Conditional Use Permit. The intent is to deny neighbors their rights to a protest petition, a right they have already successfully exercised under zoning law.
The stated intent of zoning is the protection of the property rights and quality of life of all residents. There is a statutory requirement in Kansas for …
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Booming birds face bust times
FLINT HILLS - They gather on prairie ridges while most of us are still asleep, humming a haunting three-note song that carries for miles in the pre-dawn stillness. Orange air sacs rise and fall in their necks as male greater prairie chickens begin their ancient dance. They stomp, cackle and woo. The female prairie chickens seem unimpressed. But eventually, they acquiesce. Then it’s over, and the hens are off to lay the eggs that hold …
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Still circling like wolves
These days wind developers circle Kansas like packs of rapacious wolves with a never-ending thirst for tax credits. Allaying themselves with short-sighted landowners, themselves blinded by dollar signs, they tirelessly harass rural communities, threatening peaceful country residents with forced industrialization, visual and noise pollution, safety hazards, and an end to the peace and quality of life they had come to assume was their right to enjoy.
In her continuing quest to flog her environmentally disastrous wind …
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