February 17, 2018
Letters, South Dakota

No economic boon for Tripp

LETTER: No economic boon for Tripp | The Daily Republic | Feb 16, 2018 | www.mitchellrepublic.com

I read the front-page article in The Daily Republic Saturday entitled “Economic troubles in Tripp.” When the Beethoven Wind Farm was built in the Tripp area in 2013, the Tripp community was promised this “economic boon.”

What has happened since then? The Tripp School District is on life support with an opt out, the grocery store has closed, re-opened and now closed for good, and the Good Samaritan Home is closing in March.

Tripp had a lot more jobs before the wind farm than after. But it gets worse: All of the NorthWestern Energy customers (which includes the city of Tripp) got a 15.5 percent hike in their electric bills right after the wind farm was built, and according to the SDPUC website, after the production tax credit runs out in Year 10, the annual cost of service increases by about another $6 million. Your bills will go even higher.

Now Prevailing Winds comes along and wants to build 13 PURPA “Qualified Facilities,” which will again force utility companies to buy the (not needed) electricity and pass the increased costs to consumers. I can hardly believe people in the same area would fall for this scam twice in a row.

Gregg Hubner

Avon


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2018/02/17/no-economic-boon-for-tripp/