September 18, 2020
Ohio

Utility regulator lifts controversial restriction from Lake Erie wind farm

Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020 | wosu.org

The Ohio Power Siting Board has repealed a provision requiring that a wind farm in Lake Erie shut down its turbines overnight from March 1 to Nov. 1.

Board members unanimously approved a motion by Mary Mertz, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, to remove the requirement at the board’s meeting Thursday.

Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) applied to build the 6-turbine project named Icebreaker off Cleveland’s shoreline in 2017. It would be the first offshore, freshwater wind farm in the United States.

Questions about whether the project would threaten bats and migratory birds prompted stiff opposition from several groups.

When the permit was issued in May, LEEDCo President Dave Karpinski said the overnight shutoff stipulation, which his company referred to as a ‘poison pill,’ made the Icebreaker project economically unrealistic.

“Imagine you’re going to the bank to get a mortgage and you say, ‘Here’s my salary. Oh, by the way, I may or may not get a third of that. I don’t really know what the rules are going to be.’ It’s really challenging. So that’s the situation that we’re in,” said Karpinski.

Sam Randazzo, Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, which includes the Power Siting Board, defended the restriction, saying it was meant to allow construction to begin while giving time to the developer and the state to figure out the best way to protect birds and bats flying near the turbines.

Between the May approval, which included the shutoff provision, and Thursday’s decision, a massive scandal at the Ohio Legislature involving the state’s largest utility, First Energy, the former Speaker of the House, Larry Householder, and $60 million in allegedly corrupt payments has thrown new scrutiny on how state energy policy is made.

Randazzo, who worked as an energy lobbyist before chairing the state’s utility regulator, defended the commission’s actions in this case.

“The reality is, as acknowledged by the bird and bat expert Icebreaker presented, this project is unique,” Randazzo said. “And that’s why so much time and effort was being spent in trying to figure out how to collect information that would be reliable for purposes of determining what the appropriate bird and bat risk mitigation protocols should be.”

The seven members of the board all voted in favor of removing the provision.

After the vote, Randazzo said the project will now have to wait until bird and bat protection protocols are agreed to before it can move forward.

Several lawmakers participate in board meetings as nonvoting members, including Cleveland-area Democrats Sen. Sandra Williams and Rep. Jeff Crossman. Both were proponents of the wind farm and critical of the decision to add the overnight shutoff requirement.

Sen. Steve Wilson called in to the meeting to say Senate Republicans don’t think the board should take any action to block any type of energy production, wind power included.

LEEDCo’s Dave Karpinski welcomed the board’s decision but said the delay was a major setback for the project.

“This was more than a bump in a road. We were fighting for our life here,” Karpinski said. “If this wasn’t reversed there was no path forward. So we’ve got to reevaluate. How do we get the project back on track?”

He said their goal is still to build a wind farm in Lake Erie.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/09/18/utility-regulator-lifts-controversial-restriction-from-lake-erie-wind-farm/