North Dakota coal counties look at dropping wind restrictions, but snags remain

BISMARCK — A pair of North Dakota coal counties that handed guidelines limiting the development of recent wind farms two years in the past are hashing out new ordinances that would reopen the coveted areas for wind growth.

The restrictions by McLean and Mercer counties, each within the coronary heart of North Dakota coal nation, got here as considerations mounted in 2020 that Coal Creek Station, North Dakota’s largest coal-fired energy plant, could be shuttered and see a lot of its electrical era changed by wind generators. McLean County first adopted zoning restrictions making it more durable to connect with a useful transmission line tied to the coal plant, whereas neighboring Mercer County adopted up with a two 12 months moratorium on new wind initiatives.

Whereas North Dakota leaders

rallied to discover a new proprietor for Coal Creek Station

and rescue the plant from shutting down, coal advocates and renewable power corporations have been onerous at work negotiating new insurance policies for wind growth in coal nation.

McLean County, which is dwelling to Coal Creek Station, is slated to carry a listening to Monday, April 18, on amendments to its zoning guidelines that would roll again restrictions added two years in the past. A draft proposal has been workshopped by county officers and a Virginia-based clear power firm seeking to construct the state’s largest wind farm close to Coal Creek Station.

Simply over the Missouri River, Mercer County has already adopted a brand new ordinance, laying the groundwork for native wind coverage forward of an expiration date on the county’s wind moratorium early subsequent month.

However the resolution by Mercer County officers got here as a shock to a gaggle of wind and coal business stakeholders who had been collaborating to develop a brand new ordinance for the fee. A Fb submit by the grassroots group Faces of North Dakota Coal, which is a part of the working group collaborating with the wind business in Mercer County,

known as the choice

“the worst doable” final result and stated it “ensures that this ‘political soccer’ will not go away anytime quickly.”

Each McLean and Mercer counties are positioned on high of huge shops of lignite coal, have advantageous circumstances for wind farms and are hubs for useful transmission traces, whose area for brand new power era is tight.

In McLean, State’s Legal professional Ladd Erickson, the architect of the county’s wind restrictions, has been fielding enter from native teams and renewable power corporations to craft new guidelines for renewable power growth.

Earlier this 12 months, the phrases of the Coal Creek switch between its present proprietor, the Minnesota-based Nice River Power, and incoming proprietor, the Bismarck-based Rainbow Power Advertising, have been amended to incorporate

plans for a 400 megawatt wind farm close to the ability plant

in McLean County. A venture of the Virginia-based Apex Clear Power, the event could be the biggest stand-alone wind farm in North Dakota.

McLean County fee chair Steve Lee stated the Apex venture is estimated to require tens of 1000’s of acres. Whereas native officers aren’t seeking to impede the big venture, Lee stated they wish to cross an ordinance that accounts for the feelings of each landowners who need generators on their property and people who don’t.

“There’s a balancing act,” he stated. “We wish to shield our property homeowners and their rights, however we definitely don’t wish to jeopardize Coal Creek Station.”

In keeping with a working draft of the proposed new amendments provided by Erickson, McLean County and Apex are in settlement on a lot of the contents, although a number of unresolved objects stay. These embrace one provision that will permit county officers to reject a allow utility if the venture may have a “materials hostile influence” for property values, agriculture or wildlife, one other provision requiring a wind developer to have consumers for his or her energy previous to allowing, and a 3rd provision permitting the fee large latitude to disclaim venture places by creating “avoidance” areas.

In feedback submitted forward of Monday’s listening to, Apex stated it has “vital considerations” in regards to the provision permitting the county to designate these “avoidance” areas. Wind farms require years of planning, evaluation, environmental research and regulatory hoops, and the corporate stated “it’s important” for native necessities to be clear “up entrance and equally utilized to all initiatives.”

One of many main restrictions utilized by McLean County two years in the past was a one mile buffer from the Missouri River and its reservoirs for generators and energy traces, a provision that blocks wind farms needing a means to connect with the transmission line over the water. The proposed amendments retain that rule, however present an exception for transmission traces “that should cross” the water.

Erickson declined to remark for this story forward of Monday’s listening to. After the announcement of the Apex venture, the McLean County state’s lawyer

stated native reception for the wind farm remained to be seen.

“Some areas is perhaps receptive and a few areas not. I feel it’s all gonna be in regards to the location,” he stated on the time.

The trail ahead for wind is much less clear-cut in Mercer County, the place the moratorium is about to lapse subsequent month however current actions by the fee have left wind and coal business stakeholders confused and not sure of subsequent steps.

County commissioners there voted 3-2 final week to undertake a brand new ordinance, laying the groundwork for a neighborhood wind coverage if the moratorium is allowed to run out. Commissioner Gene Wolf, who backed passing the ordinance, stated the county wanted to cease “kicking this could down the street” and get guidelines into place earlier than the moratorium’s expiration date. Modifications could possibly be made later to finalize the ordinance, he stated.

The county’s resolution got here as a shock to a gaggle of coal and wind business representatives who had been collaborating to develop an ordinance agreeable to each side. The working group,

which Mercer County commissioners designated final July

to sort out a number of areas of competition within the zoning guidelines, included representatives from Faces of North Dakota Coal and NextEra Power, which is pursuing the proposed Garrison Butte wind farm in Mercer.

Faces of North Dakota Coal member Mark Pierce stated the county’s resolution to maneuver ahead with out their activity drive’s enter felt just like the “carpet was pulled out from beneath” them. He stated that whereas the coal advocacy group and the wind business do not see eye to eye on every thing, they have been making headway and had ironed out most of their disagreements.

The ordinance that Mercer County handed has quite a few gaps and errors, Pierce stated, and is “successfully a ban” on new wind farms within the space. He added that if the county makes use of the newly handed ordinance to develop its long-term wind coverage, as a number of commissioners have stated they intend to do, it’ll lead to a “procedural quagmire.”

The day earlier than the Mercer County fee handed its new guidelines, representatives from Faces of North Dakota Coal and NextEra despatched a joint-letter to the fee asking them for a 60 day extension and urging them to not cross a distinct ordinance. The Could expiration date on the moratorium wasn’t a urgent deadline, they added, since they weren’t conscious of any wind initiatives that will be imminently submitting for permits in Mercer County, together with NextEra’s.

Mercer County Fee Chair Travis Frey stated he helps the county reopening for wind growth however burdened the significance of preserving landowner, coal sector and tourism pursuits on the identical time.

“Is it going to be the simplest county so that you can have a wind farm? No,” stated Frey. “We’re simply saying that for those who’re going to be a part of this group, we’re not going to commerce coal for you.” 

Frey voted in opposition to passage of the brand new ordinance final week, however he stated he thinks it is a good doc to work from because the county continues to craft a longer-term wind coverage. He added that the fee tasked the NextEra and Faces of North Dakota Coal representatives with a slim activity of discovering decision on two sticking factors, however the two sides got here again with separate edits on your complete ordinance.

Remaining factors of disagreement within the new ordinance embrace two provisions that will require a wind developer to point out that they’ve a purchaser for his or her energy inside six months of approval, and that they embrace an settlement with grid operators to connect with the grid of their allow utility. In a red-line doc provided by Frey, NextEra requested that each of these provisions be struck from the ordinance totally.

Pierce stated that whereas he supported the moratorium in Mercer County two years in the past, he considered it as a short-term answer. The truth is that many individuals place a premium on the inexperienced power produced by wind generators, and his county has the chance to create a “blueprint” for the way coal and renewable power can work collectively.

“A wind ordinance that no one likes in its entirety,” however which offers a street map for the 2 industries going ahead, “most likely will find yourself being ordinance,” he stated.

Readers can attain Discussion board reporter Adam Willis, a Report for America corps member, at awillis@forumcomm.com.