Common Sense Dispatch a Publication of the Kansas Alliance for Responsible Renewable Energy Check out KARRE's Website
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Common Sense Dispatch A publication of the Kansas Alliance for Responsible Renewable Energy Check Out KARRE's Website Protecting Skylines Preserving Agricultural Land Ensuring Quality of Life for All Kansans Issue #3: May, 2020 Lead image by Diane F. Common Sense Dispatch, May 2020 In this issue: Not all Non-Essential Business Suspended During Pandemic: Daves Oas County Updates Fishing for Facts: Dave Oas From the Trenches: Beverly Kavouras Wind Energy and Insects: Margy Stewart Renewable Energy Certificates Happenings at the State Level From My Front Porch: Diane F. Planet of the Humans: Full Movie, directed by Michael Moore Not all non-essential business suspended during pandemic Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many business operations and government functions have been put on hold to minimize the spread of the COVID-19 disease. By orders from federal, state, and local authorities, businesses and government agencies, except those deemed essential, which normally conduct person-to-person contact have been required to suspend operations until further notice. In addition, all Kansas district and appellate courts, as well as Clerks of the Court and court services offices, closed their doors effective March 19th to all but the most serious and essential matters. At a time when Kansans were sheltering-in-place, Expedition Wind LLC, a subsidiary of National Renewable Solutions of Wayzata, Minnesota, filed a surprising lawsuit against six Marion County residents seeking damages in excess of $35 million. The basis for this action stems from two lawsuits filed by the residents last year: the first against the Marion County Planning Commission and the second against the Marion County Board of County Commissioners. In their suit against the Planning Commission, residents contend the commission improperly approved a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for Expedition Wind’s proposed industrial wind project. The residents also claim they were not notified of the Planning Commission’s meetings as required by state law and county ordinance. In the resident’s lawsuit against the County Commission, they argue that the CUP should not have been granted based on the improper recommendation of the Planning Commission. They also claim the County Commission should not have approved the CUP because Expedition Wind arbitrarily drew its project borders with the express intent of undermining a Kansas statute that is designed to allow landowners adjacent to the project property to 1 sign protest petitions. Had the project borders been drawn in standard fashion, the number of protest petitions that were gathered by the residents would have forced a unanimous vote from the three commissioners in order to approve the project. The result would have been a denial of the CUP because Commissioner Dianne Novak has consistently voted against the project. In response to the residents’ lawsuits, in October of 2019, Expedition Wind legally intervened in the suit between the residents and the Marion County Commission, claiming the action of the residents created a financial hardship to the wind company and to the landowners who had signed leases. On March 30, 2020 - the first day of Governor Laura Kelly’s stay-at-home order - Expedition Wind warned the residents that if they didn’t dismiss their lawsuit against the Marion County Board of County Commissioners by April 1, 2020, they would face legal action from Expedition Wind. On April 17th, Expedition Wind filed a lawsuit against Randy Eitzen, Tom Britain, Susan Mayo, Steven Butts, and Brandon and Michelle Butts, the residents, and plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Marion County Commission. Expedition Wind asserts that the lawsuit brought by the residents against the County Commission is only intended to cause delay to their project, making it “infeasible or impossible for Expedition Wind to construct the Project”. Expedition Wind further claims that the actions of Eitzen have caused them to lose taxpayer-funded production tax credits and other income sources. Marion County residents have not filed any legal action directly against Expedition Wind nor are they preventing Expedition Wind from starting construction of the wind project. Expedition Wind has elected not to begin construction while litigation is pending between the residents and the Board of County Commissioners. In other counties, where residents have filed lawsuits concerning the approvals of industrial projects, the wind companies have begun construction while the suits are pending. On April 23, 2020, the Peabody Gazette-Bulletin reported, “Patrick Pelstring, CEO of Expedition Wind, said the $35 million sought from Eitzen is an actual loss of production tax credits suffered by the company because of delays caused by Eitzen’s lawsuits.” In a Letter to the Editor of the Hillsboro Free Press dated December 5,2019, Pelstring wrote,“Expedition has sent ‘settlement’ offers to all of the plaintiffs in the pending lawsuit against the County and indirectly Expedition Wind. We have made fair offers, based on their relative proximity to the wind farm.” Pelstring went on to say, “We are hopeful that this effort will resolve the current and future legal issues, and show folks of our earnest attempt to make things right for all parties involved, including our supporters – who we believe represent the vast majority of the community. But if not, we will seek all necessary legal resolutions to prevail, as we did in the first two lawsuits.” The recent lawsuit brought by Expedition Wind against the six Marion County residents was filed nearly a month after normal state court functions were severely limited by the COVID-19 outbreak. This has caused several of the defendants to question why Expedition did not file its lawsuit much sooner, or why it didn’t wait to file until the pandemic restrictions are lifted. Dave Oas, Labette County, Kansas 2 MCPHERSON COUNTY UPDATE First and foremost, our county wide moratorium is still in place. The number one concern for our county at the moment is the June 1 deadline for candidates filing for positions within our county government. There are currently 86 open positions in our county!!! After considering these numbers of all the vacant positions, it occurred to me that our biggest enemy in fighting wind turbine projects is truly apathy. Ask yourself, your friends and neighbors, "What are WE doing to help our cause?" If the answer is "nothing", then you need to get in gear before June 1. You must ACT NOW! From the "Hunt the Vote" website, "We have lost more than 2 million hunters in the last 5 years. It’s more important than ever that American sportsmen and women unite and vote our values of God, Family, Country, and our Outdoor Lifestyle." Less than half of licensed hunters in America vote. This is unacceptable! Please go to our website, Citizens for Responsible Agricultural Land Use and view Unit 1, which is all about our elections in McPherson County this year. Ask your neighbors and friends if they are registered to vote and if they plan to vote in our elections being held in August and November. Enlist good, honest, non self-serving people to run for office in your township or ward. Then, vote for them. This is the only way you are going to get the results that you would like to see for our county. MARION COUNTY UPDATE Talks are ongoing between the Marion County Board of Commissioners and Enel Green Power in order to try and come to an agreement on the road situation in the Diamond Vista project. The other big news out of Marion County is the lawsuit filed by Expedition Wind against five Marion County residents. See that story above. Follow Marion County’s fight on their Facebook page. LABETTE COUNTY UPDATE In its Kansas Essential Functions Framework (KEFF), the state has broadly defined certain essential services. Apparently, the industrial wind energy developers operating in Southeast Kansas consider their business to be essential. Local motels are housing construction workers and oversize load escort personnel who also shop in local stores, eat at local restaurants, and enter local convenience stores. License plates and vehicle markings indicate many of these non-local workers come from locations such as Texas, Louisiana, Indiana, and others. During this time in our history, it would be reasonable for industrial wind energy construction to suspend operations and make every effort to minimize the possibility of spreading the COVID-19 virus among themselves and among our communities. Labette county Facebook group 3 NEMAHA COUNTY UPDATE Nemaha County Commissioners continue to discuss the best way to implement a comprehensive zoning plan, which will regulate how and where wind projects can be sited in the county, but it’s been slow going due to the COVID-19 shutdowns. Commissioners have moved from weekly meetings to every-other-week meetings for now. In the meantime, the moratorium is still being discussed. Citizens are actively discussing replacements for the two out of three commissioners who are up for election this year. With all the stress and strife that has surrounding the recent industrial wind situation, it’s difficult to find candidates willing to allow their lives to be disrupted to that extent. As soon as the virus lockdowns are lifted, citizens plan to go full-steam-ahead with the county’s comprehensive plan. Follow Nemaha County on their Facebook page. NEOSHO COUNTY UPDATE The month of April began with another boil water advisory for various residents of Rural Water District #4, the third such advisory since the end of February 2020, all due to “loss of pressure” due to a “line break”. Each line break resulted in a boil water advisory for 2-3 days with one lasting nearly a week. The explanations of the breaks were varied: Water line locations had been pre-marked, but the exact location difficult based on the maps.