Plans to put 30 wind turbines in Madison County, Iowa, have been canceled. Mary Jobst, a county resident, said that the decision was awesome.
The power of the people has prevailed over the influence of Big Wind.
The company that was pushing the wind project in the county that leased the land received letters on Saturday telling them that they were abandoning the project. A multi-year battle between the company and angry county residents appears to have ended with the cancellation.
The company sued the county in order to force it to accept more windmills. It is possible that MidAmerican could have been entitled to tax credits worth about $82 million.
Since Sen. Joe Manchin pulled his support for a bill that contained $300 billion in energy-related subsidies, the first large wind project has been canceled.
Big Wind has relied on the production tax credit to expand. The second-most expensive energy-related provision in the federal tax code expired at the start of this year. The wind sector has been put into a tailspin due to the expiration and Manchin's refusal to extend it. The investment tax credit for solar energy is one of the most expensive energy related provisions in the federal tax code. MidAmerican has a subsidy-mining strategy. The company spent about $12.3 billion on wind projects in the state and will receive about $10 billion in federal production tax credits for the investment, according to the Des Moines Register.
Rural backlash against large-scale renewable projects is what led to MidAmerican withdrawing from Madison County. It shows how difficult it is for developers to get approval for wind and solar projects in areas where residents are against them. The province of Madison County has beautiful wooden bridges.
Roy and Mary Jobst pose for a picture with their children. Many residents of Madison County opposed MidAmerican Energy Company's plan to put 30 more wind turbine in the county.
Mary Jobst was ecstatic about the cancellation of MidAmerican. "I am happy." She told me how great it was on Saturday. July 23, 2022, will be remembered for a long time. This is a very important day. There was a lot of work going into this. The difference in Madison County was due to the fact that we were a community that supported each other and we wouldn't stand for this.
Jobst is one of many residents of Madison County who have been fighting the project. I interviewed Jobst for the first time. She and her husband signed a lease with the company that allowed them to put turbine on their property. Roy's family has owned the land where the couple farm for over 100 years. The company was asked to release the Jobsts from the deal after learning more about the project.
They got what they wanted on Saturday.
The cancellation letter states that the company has been evaluating this site since last year but has been unable to proceed with construction due to a number of challenges.
After the Madison County Board of Public Health approved a resolution that said there is potential for negative health effects associated with commercial wind turbine noise, the battle began. In order to protect the public health, the board recommended that all future wind turbine be located 1.5 miles from homes. Numerous studies by health professionals from all over the world have recognized the harmful health effects, including sleep disruption, that can happen when nearby residents are exposed to noise pollution from wind turbine.
The Madison County Board of Supervisors voted in late 2020 to prohibit the installation of wind projects within 1.5 miles of non-participating owners, impose strict noise limits, and eliminate property taxes. Diane and Heather Stancil were elected on anti-wind platforms. There are two people who have appeared on the Power HungryPodcast. The second Iowa county to ban wind projects was Madison County. The first one was Adair County.
MidAmerican filed a lawsuit against the county in order to force it to accept wind turbines it didn't want. After she changed her position, the county settled the lawsuit. The company is throwing in the towel because it intimidated the county into agreeing to a deal that allowed more turbines.
MidAmerican is promoting a huge expansion of its wind and solar operations in Iowa. The wind sector is shutting down manufacturing plants in Iowa and other states at the same time as the cancellation of arbor hill. Two months ago, it was announced that the manufacturing plants in Hutchinson, Kansas, and Fort Madison, Iowa, would be closing. The Iowa plant had a lot of people working there. The Kansas plant has 92 employees. TPI closed its turbine blade plant in Iowa last year.
Tina Hoffman, MidAmerican's vice president of corporate communications, told me in an email statement on Saturday night that they were unable to complete the project.
MidAmerican can say that the cancellation was due to changing parameters, but the reality is that the legal campaign against Madison County was a disaster for the company and the wind industry as a whole. Land use conflicts are a constraint on the expansion of the wind industry. MidAmerican proved that wind energy is not popular in rural America. Why would the company want to file a lawsuit if wind energy is green?
Jobst told me that she is thrilled that Mid American is leaving Madison County. Every turbine they wanted to build was next to a land owner who didn't want it. It's not right. You have to get permission to build a 500-foot high turbine. She said that her property rights were not going to be violated and that she wouldn't stand for it.
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