County Passes Resolution Against Wind Energy Development

Fayette County Commissioners signed a non-binding resolution opposing wind energy development at their meeting last Thursday, Aug. 8.

Several dozen citizens were on hand for the signing, as well as representatives of the group FayCoSaysNo, which formed in opposition to a proposed wind energy project here under development by Apex Clean Energy.

The resolution states the Commissioners Court “desires to ensure that any commercial projects implemented in Fayette County benefit and cause no harm to the community, economy, and environment of Fayette County.”

The resolution also asks the Texas Legislature to “enact common sense legislation that grants counties in Texas the ability to protect their communities and environments from implementation of harmful development.”

It calls for minimum bonding requirements for wind turbine projects. The resolution expresses the Court’s opposition to subsidies for wind farms or wind turbine decommissioning costs. It also calls for components of wind turbines and wind farms to be fully recycled.

Furthermore, the resolution states that the Commissioners Court supports and requests from any entity seeking to enact a commercial wind farm in Fayette County to “submit, at a minimum, environmental and economic impact studies to the Court prior to taking any development action on such a project.”

The resolution does not carry any force of law. Instead, it formally expresses the opinion and wishes of the Court.

Ken Dernehl of Fay-CoSaysNo spoke at the meeting and asked the commissioners to make some minor changes in the language of the resolution. Most notably, he asked to remove references to “large-scale” commercial projects and instead refer to them as just “commercial projects.”

The Court agreed to that change and passed the resolution unanimously.