March 3, 2018
Iowa, Letters

Make wind projects follow regulations

Janna Swanson, Iowa Farmer Today, March 3, 2018, agupdate.com/iowafarmertoday

MidAmerican and Invenergy are being sued by some of the residents of Palo Alto County. The suit is backed by the Office of the Consumer Advocate because it is based on a point of law.

Utility projects over 25 megawatts are supposed to go through the Iowa Utilities Board process. All power plants and transmission lines do.

Twenty years ago the Iowa Utilities Board allowed an Industrial Wind installation to avoid regulations because it was just over 25 MW. Then they allowed a bigger one and a bigger one to skirt regulations.

Twenty years later we now have 340 MW projects that do not have to have proper public notification or informational meetings. They do not have to offer a formal objection process or allow the objectors to defend themselves with a formal hearing. They do not have to do environmental impact studies. They do not have to prove even that they are needed.

The Office of the Consumer Advocate shows where the Turtle Creek industrial wind installation actually spent more money to avoid regulations and passed those costs on to rate payers.

What is so special about industrial wind that they get to charge us more to skirt regulations that everyone else has to follow? Their defense is that they have been doing it for so long that they should be allowed to continue doing it.

Rural residents across Iowa are seeking ways to protect their homes, their families, their property values and their businesses from this regulatory capture. Most of the people who will live near or farm within these installations do not want them.

If it weren’t for absentee landowners signing contracts and the lack of regulation, none of these projects would stand a chance.

Janna Swanson
Ayrshire, Iowa
Coalition for Rural Property Rights board member
National Wind Watch board member
Preservation of Rural Iowa Alliance member

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2018/03/03/make-wind-projects-follow-regulations/