Some residents in northern Madison County fought for years against the proposed Lone Oak Solar Farm. Plans for the project were eventually abandoned. File photo | The Herald Bulletin
PERU — In 2017, an international energy developer began signing land-lease agreements in Miami County to build 75 wind turbines as part of a multi-county development.
Project leaders said the wind farm would produce up to 600 megawatts of electricity — enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes.
A year later, the venture was dead.
Fierce pushback from local residents led county officials to approve a new wind ordinance with 2,000-foot setback requirements for the turbines that made the project nearly impossible to develop.
Larry West, then a Miami County commissioner who supported the wind farm, said losing the project cost the county and local school districts over $7 million in new tax revenue and robbed landowners who signed lease agreements of a lucrative new income source.
Eight years later, as electricity rates skyrocket and energy demand soars, losing the project has also cost Indiana what would have been a major new energy source, he argued.
“Our electricity is going to come from somewhere … and I think it’s going to have to be a combination of probably some green projects and nuclear modules,” he said.
BANNING CLEAN ENERGY
The situation in Miami County has played out time and again across Indiana, where county officials have total authority on zoning and permitting solar and wind projects.
But in the past two year, more counties than ever have started restricting clean-energy developments.
Of Indiana’s 92 counties, 64 have bans or impediments on new wind and solar projects as of September, according to an analysis by USA TODAY and the Indianapolis Star. That’s nearly double from just four years ago, when 34 counties had bans or restrictions.
Other counties, including Boone, Tippecanoe and Putnam, have also recently approved temporary moratoriums while officials consider their options.
The pushback comes as Hoosiers’ electricity bills are soaring and massive, energyguzzling data centers develop around the state, creating an unprecedented demand for more power.
Data centers being built for artificial intelligence in northern Indiana are projected to use more electricity by 2030 than every home in the entire state combined, according to Indiana Michigan Power.
Without county restrictions, wind and solar projects could have likely produced thousands of megawatts of new energy to help meet the state’s surging electricity demands, according to Hunter Jones, executive director of the Indiana Conservative Alliance for Energy.
“When it comes to solar, it’s in an especially worse position than it was a year or two ago. I think a lot of that has to do with changes going on at the federal level,” he said.
President Donald Trump blocked about $136 million for solar development in Indiana that federal lawmakers had approved under the Biden administration. A $6.7-million grant to expand the large solar array at the Indianapolis International Airport was also cut.
Trump’s open skepticism about clean energy has only further entrenched windand- solar opposition in conservative politics.
That sentiment is fueling resistance to clean-energy projects in Indiana, argued Topher Anderson, director of programs and operations for the conservative energy alliance.
He said that political rhetoric must be extracted from the state’s energy debate, which should focus on the science and economics of building out more wind and solar infrastructure.
“Go out to a transmission line, take that wire down and cut it open,” Anderson said, speaking hypothetically. “You’re not going to see red or blue electrons in there. You’re going to see the electrons that power your home.”
“We have to get back to focusing on these things without it being perceived as a red or a blue issue.”
NEW SECRETARY, NEW TONE
That sentiment is shared by Suzanne Jaworowski, Indiana’s new secretary of energy and natural resources who served in the first Trump administration as a senior advisor on nuclear energy.
Since being appointed by Indiana Gov. Mike Bruan, Jaworowski has bullishly championed an all-of-theabove energy approach in the state, including building more wind, solar and natural gas generation infrastructure.
Counties that have impeded new energy development or placed moratoriums on solar and wind projects have drawn her ire. During an Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute luncheon in September, she said those restrictions are making the state unattractive to industries and new developments.
Jaworowski specifically slammed counties that engage with energy developers and “string them along” before ultimately killing a project.
“That’s disgraceful,” she said. “Personally, I think that those companies should start suing the communities and get serious about it.”
That’s exactly what one company is doing in Fountain County.
Dolphin Solar received a permit in December to build a 700-megawatt installation representing a $800 million investment. In September, a newly appointed zoning administrator, within minutes of starting the job, nullified the permit without explanation.
The company had spent years and invested more than $75 million to develop the project and is now suing, saying the decision is illegal and causing “irreparable harm.”
Jaworowski said those kinds of actions have spurred a new state effort to create a map of counties and communities that are open to new energy and industrial development so officials can tout those areas to companies interested in investing.
It’s the state’s way of “putting out a carrot” to incentivize counties to participate and attract new development in their communit ies, she explained during the luncheon.
Jaworowski urged county officials not to view developing more energy sources as a political undertaking, but as a patriotic duty to ensure the state can continue to provide reliable electricity.
“We are looking at a Hoover Dam moment,” she said during a video interview with the Indiana Business Journal’s Off the Record. “We are going to have to build nuclear plants, more gas plants and renewables, and Indiana really wants to be a leader on this front.”
‘BUY SOME CANDLES’
While Jaworowski proposes using proverbial carrots, other Indiana lawmakers want a more forceful way to stop county officials from impeding large-scale energy developments, including solar and wind.
Rep. Craig Snow, R-Warsaw, introduced legislation this year that would give the state total authority on zoning and siting multi-county projects that generate at least 50-megawatts of electricity.
Developers would no longer be required to get permits or approval from local governments, which would be barred from taking “specified actions concerning the siting, construction or deployment” of clean-energy projects.
The bill failed to pass out of committee but had the support of Republican Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso. The chair of the House utilities, energy and telecommunications committee said if counties continue to have the final say on energy projects, the state faces a dark future.
“Buy some candles, because we’re not going to be able to meet the (electricity) demand,” Soliday said during a committee hearing in January.
Larry West, the former Miami County commissioner, said he would support more state regulation of solar and wind projects to create some uniformity on new developments.
“We generally like to see less big government, but I think sometimes it’s necessary to add some state controls or rules on something like this,” he said.
As it stands, allowing counties total authority to approve clean-energy projects has created unpredictability and inconsistencies that are major barriers to creating more electricity in the state, explained Jones, director of the conservative energy alliance.
Until that changes, Indiana can expect to lose out on billions of dollars of new investment and fall behind other states with modern zoning laws, he said.
“If Indiana cannot meet those needs, companies will go elsewhere,” Jones said. “That will cost us jobs, tax revenues for communities and jeopardize our long-term economic growth.”
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