Durbin, Obama against wind farm delays
Saturday, June 3, 2006
Printable FormatPEORIA JOURNAL-STAR
Senators protest decision to shut them down during radar investigation
WASHINGTON - Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, D-Ill., joined four other Senate Democrats on Friday to protest a Bush administration decision to shut down wind farms while their potential harmful effect to the nation's military radar is studied.
The senators asked for a quick and thorough review to the decision that has halted installation of wind-energy facilities near Bloomington, one in LaSalle County and one that straddles the Lee-Bureau county line, Durbin said.
"Windmills have become an important source of clean alternative energy throughout the country," Durbin said. "If there are real problems, we should find ways to mitigate, reduce or eliminate them rather than stand in the way of wind energy expansion."
Congress required the Defense Department to study the effects of wind farms on military readiness, specifically whether windmills interfere with military radar. While the study is under way, the Defense Department and the Federal Aviation Administration have the authority to halt the construction of wind farms within the line of site of military radar systems.
"Since much of the nation is in radar line of site, this interim policy has a sweeping effect," the senators wrote to the FAA and the Defense Department. "Prohibiting, even temporarily, the development of wind energy facilities within those areas would be a considerable setback for efforts to increase our country's energy independence."
In addition to Durbin and Obama, the letters were signed by Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin and Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota.
So far, 12 projects in Illinois, Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota have been stopped. The FAA has told Durbin that notices have been sent to halt work at sites in Bloomington in McLean County, LaSalle County and in Lee-Bureau counties, but his aides couldn't confirm the specific companies.
In McLean County, Horizon Wind Energy plans a $600 million wind farm in Saybrook, but Horizon official Michael Skelly said a project delay was not caused by the FAA but by the need to finalize agreements with landowners. Skelly said the project received its permit this week, and construction should begin at the end of June.
Midwest Wind Energy of Chicago plans construction in 2007 on a second phase of the Crescent Ridge wind farm near Tiskilwa and a new 200- to 250-megawatt Big Sky Wind Farm near Ohio.
Midwest Wind Energy official Tim Polz said his company has been proceeding with both projects but hopes the federal study will be completed soon. Without a resolution, he said, his company cannot begin building the farms.
Other planned projects in the area include the 64-megawatt Eurus Crescent Ridge II wind farm near Tiskilwa, and an 84-megawatt GSG L.L.C. wind farm in LaSalle and Lee counties near Mendota owned by Bruce and Joyce Papeich.