Local Attorney Represents Citizens Concerned About Wind Project

By Gordon HopkinsAttorney Gregory Kratz cited the need for more transparency multiple times during a meeting with Jefferson County Commissioners on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, regarding a planned ‘repowering’ of a local wind farm. Kratz said he did not have a client but was just one of a group of “concerned citizens,” whom he would not identify.Kratz told the commissioners, “I’ve been working with just some local individuals and myself on this.”When asked who some of those other citizens were, Kratz declined to answer.County Commissioner Gale Pohlmann asked, “So you’re not going tell us who they are?”Kratz responded, “I don’t think I need to.” Repowering ProjectNextEra Energy, the company that owns and operates the Steele Flats Wind Farm in Jefferson and Gage counties, is looking to upgrade existing wind turbines, a project called ‘repowering,’ which means retrofitting existing wind turbines with new or refurbished technology, such as turbines or blades or even making the tower taller, which can in turn increase the energy output.The result will be an increase in generation capacity and, therefore, an increase in tax revenue to the host counties without increasing the number of wind turbines.Steele Flats consists of 44 wind turbines, 32 in Jefferson County and 12 in Gage County.Jefferson County Commissioners have emphasized that any and all changes to the towers must still abide by the special use permits issued in 2013 when the wind farm was first approved. New PermitsA number of counties in Nebraska, including both Jefferson and Gage, have enacted regulations making it more difficult for the construction of new wind farms. In 2023, Jefferson County Commissioners voted unanimously for a one-mile setback for wind turbines despite the argument by wind energy supporters that such a setback would make wind farms effectively unfeasible in the county. No new wind turbine permits have been approved since the new regulations went into effect.Repowering is a way for wind farms to increase generation capacity without increasing the number of wind turbines. Steele Flats was constructed in 2013 and, as such, is not subject to the 2023 regulations. In a memorandum to the commissioners, David Levy, an attorney for Baird Holm LLP, which represents NextEra, wrote, “Gage County Zoning Regulations and Jefferson County Zoning Regulations expressly ‘grandfather’ the project such that it is only subject to the regulations; e.g., setbacks, in effect at the time of its approval. Turbines will remain in compliance with those regulations.”It is the contention of Kratz and the people he represents that NextEra should be required to obtain new Special Use Permits before going forward with the project.“I think that you have, you know, these large scale industrial power plants that can be very dangerous if they’re not engineered, right,” said Kratz. “And people that I’ve talked to that are down in that area, they want transparency. They want to know that what’s being done is safe. They want to know that it’s being done right. And they want discussion on it.”“The problem here comes is that with the way the regulations are now, the only way to get that type of engineering reports, that type of oversight, the county would have to require a new special use permit,” said Kratz. “The alternative, I believe, would be to instruct the zoning administrator to perhaps not approve, at this point, any bids or permits to do the repowering, and adopt the procedure that would require them to submit the proper engineering reports.”Representatives of NextEra have already indicated to commissioners that they intend to do an engineering study.Pohlmann asked, “Is your goal to try and kill this project?”Kratz responded, “No, my goal is not to kill this project. My goal is to get some regulations that, when we did this last year, we didn’t really contemplate.”Pohlmann said, “I think we have to realize that these people are dependent on this income for 10 years during the school, then dependent upon that income, the whole community, Diller-Odell School District has benefited from it and to try and take that away from them say, ‘No, we don’t want you to have it anymore,’ it’s going to be a tough sell.”Kratz said, “We want safe structures, too. That’s where we’re coming from.”If NextEra is required to obtain a new Special Use Permit, it would then have to be approved by the board of commissioners. It is unknown if there will be enough votes to pass a new permit if a vote is heldIncoming commissioner Danielle Schwab had previously campaigned aggressively against wind turbines in Jefferson County. She was previously involved in two different organizations opposing further wind energy expansion, Wind Watchers of Jefferson County and REIN (Renewable Energy Information Network) Nebraska.When asked her position on the project, Schwab told FJN, “As I am not yet in office and unaware of all aspects of the repowering project, I do not have a position. I would like to know what it all entails before formulating an opinion.”

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