Hotspots
Indiana Energy Secretary: We’ve Got to ‘Do Something’ About the NIMBYs
And more on the week’s most important battles around renewable energy.
1. Indianapolis, Indiana – The Sooner state’s top energy official suggested energy developers should sue towns and county regulators over anti-renewable moratoria and restrictive ordinances, according to audio posted online by local politics blog Indy Politics.
- Per the audio, Indiana Energy Secretary Suzie Jaworowski told a closed-door audience Tuesday that she believes the state has to “do something” about the recent wave of local bans on renewable energy because it is “creating a reputation where industry doesn’t want to come.” Among the luncheon’s sponsors were AES Indiana, Duke Energy, and the industry group Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy, and it was officially chaired by Citizens Energy, Indiana Electric Cooperatives, and EDP Renewables.
- Jaworowski – who was previously an official in the first Trump administration – bemoaned the fact companies spend copious amounts of money on community engagement only to reach no deal. “Personally I think that those companies should start suing the communities and get serious about it,” she said, adding that her office is developing a map of “yes counties” for energy development.
- At least eleven Indiana counties have outright moratoria on renewable energy development and more than twenty others have at least some form of restriction on solar or wind, according to the Heatmap Pro database.
2. Laramie County, Wyoming – It’s getting harder to win a permit for a wind project in Wyoming, despite it being home to some of the largest such projects in the country.
- The county commission voted this week to reject Repsol’s Laramie Range project, which has been under development since 2018 and is supposed to provide up to 650 megawatts of electricity.
- The rejection came after a flood of negative comments from farmers, ranchers, and individuals worried about wildlife impacts. One commissioner went so far as to invoke Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax as he supported denying the facility.
- As of today, Repsol has less than a week to either appeal the project decision or give up on clearing the hurdle of Laramie County.
- Laramie County is a unique example in Wyoming as the most populated county in the least populated state. The county also has the state’s highest opposition risk score in the Pro database because many who live there are relatively affluent and are deeply concerned about the environment.
- Laramie isn’t indicative of Wyoming as a whole, given many farmers’ overwhelming respect for individual property rights and a long history of local energy development. Efforts to restrict wind development at the state level failed as recently as this year, and many counties in the state have closer-to-average risk profiles.
3. Ada County, Idaho – Like Wyoming, Idaho is seeing its most populated county locking up land from being available for renewables development.
- The Ada County Commission oversees zoning for the entire Boise metropolitan area – and it decided in a split 2-1 vote to bar solar projects from being constructed on “prime farmland,” as defined by federal, state, and local regulators.
- This policy, which would be to some a de facto solar ban in much of the county, comes after the county denied Savion’s Powers Butte Energy Center last year over the issue. Due to the split vote, the panel will have to revisit the decision next month before it is formally enshrined into code.
- Idaho has seen its fair share of conflicts over renewable energy. For the most part, those battles have been centered around wind energy – a la Lava Ridge – and battery storage. With the vote in Ada County, it seems solar is now on some locals’ chopping blocks too.
- That being said, it’s not game over for large-scale solar in the state, or even in Ada County. After the commission took the vote, state officials approved the lease for a giant D.E. Shaw Renewables project in the county that is purportedly not situated on prime farmland.
4. Fairfield County, Ohio – Activists are plotting another appeal to overturn the Ohio Power Siting Board’s decision on a solar farm.
- The OPSB approved EDF’s Eastern Cottontail solar project in late August. The organization Citizens for Fair Fields will reportedly be seeking a rehearing, which is a prelude to potential future legal action before the Ohio Supreme Court.
- Speaking with local news, one landowner fighting the solar project because it is across from their home offered this magical quote I had to share with you: “[W]e’ve been called NIMBYs over and over again and I’ll say, ‘Yeah, we are NIMBYs. We absolutely are,’ but I don’t know whose backyard this belongs in because it doesn’t belong in anybody’s backyard.”
5. Franklin County, Virginia – Constitution Solar is struggling to assuage local residents’ complaints about a proposed project in this county despite doing, well, it appears anything to make them happy.
- The company has already reduced the size of its Robin Ridge Solar facility as well as created large tree buffer plans and a sizable decommissioning strategy. But despite that, county officials are still undecided on whether to formally approve the project for construction.
- If this project is ultimately rejected, this county – which has a 99 opposition risk score in Heatmap Pro – may just become a no-go zone for large solar projects. It already has a restrictive ordinance capping acreage for utility solar in general that was adopted two years ago around the same time county officials unanimously rejected a facility.
6. Sumter County, South Carolina – One solar developer is trying for a Hail Mary with South Carolina regulators to circumvent a painful local rejection.
- Sumter County officials rejected Treaty Oak Clean Energy’s request to build its White Palmetto solar farm on land designated for farming. The unanimous decision, made in the spring, came after a large turnout at a public hearing and almost a thousand people signed a petition opposing the project. The most often cited reason for the opposition was overall project footprint, which totaled more than 1,700 acres.
- On Sept. 2, Treaty Oak Clean Energy applied to the South Carolina Public Utilities Commission for a certificate allowing construction as well as a decision to overrule county officials. The commission has now scheduled hearings in December to decide whether to grant pre-emption or let Sumter stand.
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