Knox County Slated To Weigh Ban On New Wind, Solar Projects

CENTER, Neb. — A northeast Nebraska county soon may decide whether to prohibit two kinds of commercial renewable energy projects.

The seven-member Knox County Board of Supervisors has scheduled two public hearings — set to start at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 11, during its regular meeting — to receive public comments regarding a proposed ban on all new commercial wind and solar energy projects in the county.

The public hearings are slated to be held one right after the other at The Barn at God’s Country, located at 53174 Hwy. 84 just northwest of Center, Nebraska, likely in anticipation of the attendance of a large audience.

The Knox County supervisors may decide after the public hearings whether to approve a potential ban on future commercial wind and solar energy developments in the county.

The Knox County Planning Commission held a special meeting with two public hearings on May 6 on possible changes to Chapter 9, Community, Utilities and Energy, of Knox County’s comprehensive plan, and on the potential repeal, in their entirety, of Section 8.08, Commercial/Utility Grade Wind Energy Systems, and Section 8.23.05, Commercial Solar Conversion Systems, of Knox County’s zoning regulations.

The planning commission considered comments from several members of the public — both for and against the proposed ban — regarding the health, safety and general welfare of county residents as it relates to this matter; the effects on agriculture and recreational land; and whether future commercial wind and solar developments should be prohibited in Knox County.

Near the end of its nearly four-hour evening meeting, which also was held at The Barn at God’s Country, the nine planning commission members approved recommending that the supervisors prohibit all new commercial wind and solar energy projects in Knox County.

The planning commission’s recommendations after each public hearing said a ban on all new commercial wind and solar energy projects would be “in the best interests of the public health, safety, convenience, order, prosperity and welfare of Knox County and its present and future residents and the demonstrable benefit to agriculture and recreational land in Knox County.”

The public hearings that the Knox County supervisors have scheduled for next week will be held on the same subjects that the planning commission heard public comments on and discussed on May 6.

During their regular meeting on May 14, the supervisors received emailed testimonies on commercial wind and solar energy projects from Nest Development LLC of rural Crofton, Nebraska; Doug Johnson of Wausa, Nebraska; and Craig and Rita Wilken of rural Bloomfield, Nebraska.

In her email to the supervisors, Monda Kohles of Nest Development said the Devils Nest Development, a rural residential development overlooking Lewis and Clark Lake in northeast Knox County, is in favor of the county banning all new commercial wind energy projects.

“I am the managing member (of Nest Development) and also would agree that we do not want windmills in Knox County,” Kohles said.

In his email to the Knox County supervisors, Johnson asked them to “please consider the economic development opportunities associated with” North Fork Wind (NFW) LLC’s North Fork Wind Project.

“It is easy to pick out the inconveniences of various existing activities within our county,” Johnson said. “Some of them might include — for some people — power lines, telephone lines, cell towers, irrigation systems, livestock odors, the neighbor’s diesel irrigation engine running all night, as well as others. Those are things that are generally acceptable and are positive economic impacts to our overall county economy.

“Having over 145 Nebraska landowners of which over 100 of them living in Knox County that are interested in participating in the wind farm project, this should cause the county to also be interested in the benefits to them,” he said. “The landowners are the ones that find the project acceptable and will be living by the towers.”

He said many agricultural producers “are operating on a thin margin or even a negative margin” at this time.

“The payments these farms are potentially able to receive from the wind farm project may make a difference from success or another lost small farm in Knox County,” Johnson said, later adding that, “Banning solar and wind projects in Knox County is potentially the most harmful to some of the small farms we have left in the county.”

In their email to the supervisors, Craig and Rita Wilken said they are in favor of a ban on all commercial wind and solar energy projects in Knox County.

“When will it ever stop if we keep letting more and more commercial companies use our farmland?” the Wilkens said. “Agriculture is the No. 1 industry in Knox County, and cattle and crop production represents the largest segment of our industry.”

During the past year, the Knox County supervisors, by majority vote, have opposed NFW’s North Fork Wind Project and Bluestem Energy Solutions’ VRDG LLC solar energy project.

If it was built, the North Fork Wind Project, a 600-megawatt industrial wind development project valued at about $1.3 billion, would reportedly cover more than 42,700 acres in Knox County and see the construction of more than 150 wind turbines, with each measuring more than 600 feet in height.

Bluestem, based in Omaha, Nebraska, wanted to have its 325-megawatt solar energy project constructed about 10 miles west of Verdigre, Nebraska, along the border of Holt and Knox counties. It would have cost about $450 million to construct and totaled about 1,150 acres of current pasture and row crop land.

NFW is a wholly owned subsidiary of Geronimo Power, formerly National Grid Renewables, based in Bloomington, Minnesota. Geronimo Power, a U.S. onshore renewables business with projects in several states, has been sold by National Grid, a United Kingdom-based energy company, to Canadian investment firm Brookfield Asset Management for nearly $1.74 billion.

The conflict regarding commercial wind energy projects in Knox County blew up last July, when a majority of the supervisors approved five recommended amendments from the planning commission on commercial wind energy conversion systems, including the approval of a recommended 1.25-mile — 6,600-foot — setback from nonparticipating dwellings.

NFW and about a dozen Knox County landowners — with whom NFW arranged lease and easement agreements — filed a federal lawsuit the next month against the county and several of its officials over wind energy zoning regulations.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Knox County, which includes the supervisors and planning commission as defendants, filed their original complaint last August in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska, and an amended complaint was filed in October.

Senior U.S. District Judge John Gerrard, in a 40-page memorandum and order issued in March, granted in part and denied in part Knox County’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed against it by the plaintiffs.

The litigation has since been referred to U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Nelson, who issued an order in April setting the schedule for progression of the civil case.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs have requested a jury trial to be held in Lincoln, Nebraska. However, dates and times for a pretrial conference and trial in the case have not been set yet and likely will not be for a while.

A planning conference for attorneys from both sides to discuss case progression, the parties’ interest in settlement and the trial and pretrial conference settings, among other items, is slated to be held with Nelson on Nov. 19 by phone, according to the lawsuit.

For more information on the Knox County Board of Supervisors, contact County Clerk Joann Fischer at 402-288-5604 or clerk@knoxcountyne.gov, or visit the county’s website at knoxcountyne.gov, where people also may find copies of the county’s comprehensive plan and zoning regulations.