One man's tale speaks volumes about the difficulties that can be encountered when planning wind developments.

Nelson Paul and his wife, Dianna - owners of a 33-acre corn and soybean farm in Bettie, N.C. - had a dream to build the Golden Wind Farm in Carteret County. Carteret is a 1,341 square-mile coastal county, of which 821 square miles are water, with a population of about 60,000. There is plenty of wind blowing in Carteret that is ideal for electricity generation, but there are no utility-scale wind farms in the county.

Paul began his due diligence for the proposed three-tower 4.5 MW project in August 2006, but as soon as he started, his wife warned him not to begin development until he was absolutely sure that they would comply with all the regulations. This was smart advice, but why was she so cautious?

Paul had been negatively affected by government regulations in the past. He invented and patented a "selective excluding fishing trawl device" that is used in shrimp nets to save turtles. When Paul started that project, he was unaware that the National Marine Fisheries Service would later prohibit the use of his device.

For his wind energy project, however, Paul was better equipped than most to handle bureaucratic permitting processes. He holds a bachelor' degree from the University of North Carolina, and he worked for many years at the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management as a field consultant and met with the public about proposed projects, reviewed permit applications and prepared reports for the agency.

Later, he turned to private consulting and assisted people in permitting processes. He is certified by the Army Corps of Engineers as a wetland delineator and a certified professional wetland scientist by the Society of Wetland Scientists.

Paul is not only highly qualified as a regulatory consultant in wetland permitting, but also in multidisciplinary facility permitting. Besides being farmers, Paul and his wife are licensed real estate agents.

Dialogue

In August 2006, Paul began talks with Carteret County and reviewed the details of his project with county planners to make sure he was in compliance with county regulations before he applied to the North Carolina Utilities Commission for certification.

Communications made available on Paul's Web site track the couple's dialogue with county planners and managers. An August 14 e-mail from County Manager John Langdon said, in part, "[I] am quite confident that you do not have a problem with any current ordinances or the draft conservation overlay ordinance in the form currently being reviewed by the Planning Board. Our director of planning and development has confirmed to me that the draft ordinance uses the word ‘building,' not 'structure.' Towers, such as the ones you envision, would not be affected at all."

In a July 2007 letter to Paul, Katrina Marshall, director of Carteret County's Department of Planning and Development) wrote: "The above referenced properties are located in a portion of Carteret County that is unzoned. In an unzoned area, properties have to follow our Down East Conservation Ordinance (DECO).

"We went over DECO in some detail with the county planners to make sure we were in compliance," Paul says.

Paul felt his project proposal met local permit conditions. He was a DECO regulations expert, and there were no wetlands on his property. The project still needed to be permitted by the Federal Aviation Administration, because the project was in a warning area of restricted military airspace, but Paul did not foresee a problem with this permit.

"We went on to the North Carolina Utility Commission (NCUC) process for certification, feeling fairly comfortable that we would comply with everything," says Paul. "We would not have started the process if the county had objected at that point.'

Fortunately, Paul had the expertise to develop plans for his own use to present to the NCUC and submitted his application in September 2007. During the NCUC hearings in Beaufort, the Pauls would visit with the assistant county manager on the way in and out of the hearings.

"He knew exactly what was going on with our project , " says Paul, "and we felt comfortable that we had kept the county informed and that they had no concerns."

Agreeing that the Golden Wind Farm project was a good idea and a necessary source of electricity in the area, NCUC issued a certificate for the connection in spring 2007 - the only certificate issued to date in North Carolina for a commercial-scale wind project. Because transmission lines already exist on the property, Paul was able to proceed with his plans.

Snags

That's when the situation started to change. Mile Paul was pursuing his dream, not-in-my-backyard sentiments, environmental groups and real estate developers were pressuring politicians in this emerging retirement area.

"Right after our final hearing with NCUC, the county had meetings to consider a moratorium on tall structures - including cell towers - but it was pointed toward the Golden Wind Farm, " Paul laments.

Coincidentally, the nine-month moratorium ends Nov. 18, right after county commissioners vote on a new draft of the Carteret County Tall Structures Ordinance. If approved, this 27 page document likely will be the eulogy for commercial-scale wind farms in Carteret County.

The draft ordinance requires commercial -scale wind turbines to be set back from any property line six times the height of the structure and includes a setback of 2,000 feet from a specific scenic highway that happens to run by Paul's property. The draft ordinance limits the sound at the property lines to 45 decibels, contains standards regarding blade glint and shadow flicker, and prescribe tower colors. Insurance requirements in the ordinance also are onerous.

Also, all projects would need an environmental impact statement and multi-agency review, even though the agencies mentioned in the ordinance have no requirements, mechanism or expertise to conduct such a review The ordinance does not consider that eastern Carteret County - the only area in the county that has commercial-grade wind characteristics - is predominately wetlands, and roughly half is restricted military airspace.

Paul claims his experience with the Golden Wind project follows a pattern in North Carolina, whereby an applicant proposes a project, opposition groups are formed and the project is subsequently squashed by legislation from the local government.

According to Marshall, the county did adopt a moratorium ordinance for tall structures, because the issue surfaced and the public found out that there were no regulations for excessively tall structures. That is when the county decided to review its ordinance for tall structures, she says.

The only other county in coastal North Carolina that has commercial-grade wind characteristics is Hyde and it does not have the transmission infrastructure to carry the power. According to Paul, both counties need electricity for new industry development.

"It seems environmental groups want wind energy. But at the same time, they don't," says Paul. "They can't figure out that ordinances stop [progress]; they don't create [it]. This was all very strange and very damaging to the cause of wind energy."

Given his experience, Paul now recommends that prospective wind energy developers avoid North Carolina.

"It is just not worth it," he concludes.

Next move?

Paul does have legal recourse, however, because he established an invested right. In other words, the county planning board baited him to move forward with his plan and then switched positions. He has five years on his NCUC certificate to begin construction, and he could go to court - and win - if he wanted to spend a lot of time and money.

In late September, wind power advocates in the town of Lyme, N.Y., won a court case over the adoption of a zoning ordinance regulating wind power. In July, a citizens group, Voters for Wind, filed a challenge in the New York Supreme Court claiming that the town board rejected a petition that would have required a three-fourths majority vote to pass the wind regulations.

The court decided the board acted arbitrarily in rejecting the petition, and ruled that the adoption of the law was invalid.

If North Carolina is serious about gaining the benefits of renewable energy sources in the foreseeable future, it could look to Ohio as an example. Ohio has had statewide siting regulations since 1972 - a specific statute stating that local jurisdictions may not regulate zoning. Thus, any facility certified by the Ohio Power Siting Board (PSB) is not subject to municipal, village or township zoning regulations or procedures.