Page County board extends moratorium on commercial wind energy permit applications - KMAland
Page County board extends moratorium on commercial wind energy permit applications | News | kmaland.com
(Clarinda) -- In the wake of fulfilling publication requirements for a new ordinance, Page County officials have extended a moratorium on commercial wind energy permit applications.
During a special meeting Monday, the county board of supervisors unanimously approved extending the moratorium on C-WECS applications an additional 60 days. Supervisors Chair Jacob Holmes says the current moratorium expires Tuesday but added that the ordinance approved in January had yet to be published following final approval.
"Carl (Sonksen), a few weeks ago, I had reached out to him and said 'we need to turn off this moratorium' and asked if everything had been accomplished," said Holmes. "That's when he realized that it had never been printed by the auditor's office. We did talk about it in the meeting, (County Auditor Melissa Wellhausen) wasn't here, but it was talked about publishing it again and I just assumed it was--I didn't check the newspaper."
The entire ordinance was initially published in December after County Attorney Carl Sonksen suggested doing so due to the public interest in the matter, but it was before the three readings. However, County Auditor Melissa Wellhausen says the board did not notify her office to publish it following passage.
"Our office was not aware and there was no communication with our office that it needed to be published again until Carl reached out to me," she said. "So, we were not notified from any board member."
Holmes and Supervisor Todd Maher argued that discussion was had following the third reading of getting the ordinance published. But, Wellhausen said her office never received a finalized ordinance from any board member.
"I just think there was a lack of communication between the board of supervisors, the auditor's office, and the attorney's office," said Wellhausen. "Because Carl was the only one who reached out to me about this issue."
Wellhausen says the ordinance is set to be published in the paper on Wednesday. Once the ordinance has been published, the board plans to waive the moratorium.
Related Knowledge Center: Air emissions
More than 30 years after the last major update of the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Supreme Court has upended the ability of Congress to give the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies broad scope to combat air pollution, including the emission of greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, further Biden administration efforts to limit emissions face opposition in the courts.