by jboullion | Feb 23, 2011 | Uncategorized
From the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA):
The Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) has now scheduled a special meeting on March 1st to consider suspending the PSC128 Wind Siting rule that our industry worked on in 2009-2010 that are scheduled to take effect on March 1st. If the JCRAR suspends the PSC128 rule, before it otherwise would take effect that same day, we will be back where we started two years ago on wind siting reform in Wisconsin.
by jboullion | Feb 21, 2011 | Uncategorized
To enlarge, click this ad which appeared in Sunday’s Milwuakee Journal Sentinel:
by jboullion | Feb 16, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Thomas Content in the Milwaukeee Journal Sentinel:
Stricter EPA pollution rules leading to changes
We Energies managers expect to decide this year how the utility will clean up the Menomonee Valley power plant to comply with new environmental rules.
The Milwaukee power company is studying whether to add pollution controls at the downtown plant or to convert the plant to burn natural gas.
A coalition of health and environmental groups plans a petition drive calling on the company to make changes more rapidly.
The Valley plant has come under fire because it is the only large utility plant the company operates in Wisconsin that hasn’t been outfitted with state-of-the-art pollution scrubbers or shut down.
As part of a federal court settlement resolving alleged violations of the Clean Air Act, the state’s largest utility has added pollution controls to power plants in Oak Creek and Pleasant Prairie, and converted its oldest coal plant in Port Washington to burn natural gas.
The Cleaner Valley Coalition has expanded its coalition with the addition of the Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope and the Wisconsin Interfaith Power & Light coalition, among others. Other members include the Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Latino Health Coalition, Midwest Environmental Advocates, Sierra Club and Clean Wisconsin.
“We are demanding We Energies to clean up its mess and the Environmental Protection Agency to hold We Energies accountable to meet modern and protective health standards,” said Virginia Zerpa, leader of the Cleaner Valley Coalition.
by jboullion | Feb 15, 2011 | Uncategorized
From a letter to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules from Fond du Lac County in support of PSC proposed wind siting rules, not the rules proposed by Gov. Scot Walker:
Utility scale wind farms in Wisconsin have meant a lot to local
businesses. Farmers that want to continue working their farmland have additional income to support their operations. Land rental payments for turbine sites bring farmers $5,000 each year for each turbine site. Farmers invest these dollars, $829,900 in 2010, into growing crops or their dairy herds. One of our local contractors, Michels Corporation of Brownsville, Wisconsin, has been the prime contractor in several utility scale wind farms. Michels was the prime contractor and paid living wages to just over 200 employees in the Fond du Lac/Dodge County area during the construction of the Forward Energy Center and the Blue Sky/Green Filed wind farm. Michels was also part of the construction team for both Butler Ridge and Glacial Ridge projects elsewhere in Wisconsin. Michels has been in discussions with 4 other wind developers each with 100 MV projects around Wisconsin.
by jboullion | Feb 14, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Dave Alexander in the Muskegon (MI) Chronicle:
MUSKEGON – When the head of the Grand Valley State University alternative energy center asked for the city of Muskegon’s help in establishing an offshore wind research buoy in Lake Michigan, there was no controversy.
Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center Director Arn Boezaart asked the Muskegon City Commission for the city to be a co-applicant on state and federal environmental permit applications.
Commissioners quickly voted the city’s support and heaped praise on Boezaart for the activities of the energy center in downtown Muskegon.
Anyone who sat through last year’s hearings on offshore Lake Michigan wind farms proposed by Scandia would be hard-pressed to see the Ludington City Council or the Pentwater Village Council taking such quick action.
The offshore wind turbine issue simply is not as controversial in Muskegon County as it has been in Oceana and Mason counties. County boards in both Oceana and Mason voted against the Scandia proposal, while Muskegon officials remained relatively supportive.
So when Boezaart approached the city of Muskegon this week for a hand on a $3.7 million offshore wind research buoy project, no one asked if the wind testing effort would eventually lead to huge wind turbines being placed on Lake Michigan off the coast of Muskegon.
There was no debate about turbine blades killing birds or about low-frequency turbine noise — topics that would have likely been part of the conversation with Muskegon’s northern neighbors.
“Muskegon has had a willingness to look at offshore wind,” Boezaart told The Chronicle after receiving the city’s support on the research buoy project. “It goes right back to what we saw with the Scandia issue. In Muskegon, offshore wind is viewed as a potential source of jobs and represents new business for the region.”
