Meeker County commissioners emphatically told a packed board room last week they are not against solar or wind energy. But they still voted 4-1 to “pump the brakes” on future alternative energy development in the county, approving a one-year moratorium on solar and wind energy systems following a public hearing Feb. 6. The goal, Commissioner Steve Schmitt said, is to give the county’s planning department time to review potential conflicts and questions such developments might create and to consider updates to the county’s zoning ordinance as it relates to solar and wind energy systems.
The Madison County Plan Commission would like to place a moratorium on any future wind farm developments. The Plan Commission Tuesday amended the county’s wind farm ordinance that was adopted in 2002. Larry Strange, executive director of the Planning Department, wanted to make the application process for future wind farm developments similar to the procedures adopted in the county’s new solar energy ordinance.
As the number of wind and solar farms increases, so does opposition in the rural areas where they’re being built. While more counties and townships passed restrictions in the last year, some states are responding by passing laws making it harder for local governments to say no to wind and solar.
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Michigan legislators OK’d bills targeting energy policies late last year with a procedural change that state Democrats said aimed to streamline permitting for utility-scale wind and solar projects. They also require electric providers to achieve a 100% clean energy portfolio by 2040. Backed by the Citizens for Local Choice ballot committee, the state board of canvassers OK’d language for the proposed ballot measure on Jan. 19 to reverse last year’s requirements empowering the MPSC. More specifically, it would repeal part 8 of the amended Clean and Renewable Energy and Energy Waste Reduction Act, added by legislators via Public Act 233 of 2023.
"What New York State is doing is really trying to take away the rights of people to their own future and development and sights and farmland," she said. "This is all the stuff they hold dear to them, and they think New York state is impinging on their rights directly on their future."
The number of huge wind turbines proposed for the hills south of the Tri-Cities could be cut by half or more under a proposal being considered by a Washington state siting council. Many of the turbines that may be eliminated from the project are those most visible from the Tri-Cities.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) has been forced to delay development of the Aroostook Renewable Energy Gateway because the developers cannot work for the agreed upon price. “LS Power made clear in its submission that it can no longer hold to its price, though nowhere in its brief or proposed transmission agreement did LS power indicate what the new price would need to be,” said Chairman Philip Bartlett of the MPUC at a meeting on Thursday.
A developer has withdrawn plans to build the first utility-scale wind project in Vermont since 2017. Norwich Solar announced last week that its plan for a single 500-foot-high wind turbine in Stamford will not move forward. The renewable energy company was preparing to ask the Public Utility Commission for permission to build the 2.2-megawatt turbine on a hillside along Route 8. The turbine would have generated enough power for about 925 homes and would have been the tallest structure of any kind in Vermont.
As Massachusetts tries to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 — necessitating seven to 10 times its current solar capacity — contentious cases like Shutesbury illuminate a complex interplay of federal and state policy, grid infrastructure, and economics. Such factors can lead to seemingly counterintuitive proposals that threaten to pit activist against activist, like cutting down forestland to reduce the state’s carbon emissions.