Wind farm permitting postponed; rural opponents organize

Where there's a will, there's a way to block construction of a wind farm on land bequeathed to the Colorado State University Research Foundation.

That's the tack being taken by recently organized neighbors determined to inflict a fatal blow to plans for a wind farm on the 9,733-acre Maxwell Ranch.

At the same time, the project developer has indefinitely delayed applying for the permits required for the project to proceed. Wind Holding LLC now is making no firm commitment on the application date originally set for March.

"When pressed, they said sometime this year," said Larimer County Senior Planner Rob Helmick, one of the 19 attending a March meeting of consultants, city, county and university officials and two members of an association recently formed to oppose the project.

Brent Powers of Wind Holding told the group that more time is needed to complete studies, determine the route of power lines, and secure a purchaser for the power generated by the wind turbines.

"They haven't figured out how to get the power where they want and sell it when they get it there," Helmick said. "It's fairly clear all the moving pieces haven't got tied together."

Powers said that Wind Holding was negotiating with the Minnesota-based Xcel Energy to purchase the wind-generated electricity from the Ault substation where it will be delivered. Other large utilities also could purchase the electricity, but inadequate transmission infrastructure could make it more difficult and costly for them to "wheel" it to other locations.

"The ball in some respects is in Xcel's court," Helmick said.

Meanwhile, in an effort to stop its construction, opponents organized as the Greater Red Mountain Preservation Association are summoning the spirit of the rancher who donated the site CSU wants to use for the wind farm. About 100 turbines are proposed for the ranch and some 2,000 adjoining acres 25 miles northwest of Fort Collins.

Founding member Sharon Milligan said nearly 35 people turned out for an organizational meeting at the Red Mountain Road home where she and husband Marc operate their 400-acre ranch.

In an interview including three fellow association members, she firmly rejected any suggestion that the group is driven by not-in-my-backyard motivations, saying the wind farm will have broad affects.

Treasurer Nina Jackson said the fledgling association welcomes any others in the region and beyond to join in its effort. "We want to give everybody the truth," she said.

While supportive of renewable energy, Milligan said members share the belief that the so-called Green Power Project has fundamental flaws that cannot ever be fully mitigated. Regardless of any assurances, they assert that it would irreparably fragment a fragile and unbroken high-plains ecosystem with roads, transmission lines and turbines about the height of the tallest building in Fort Collins and topped by aircraft warning lights.

"You really, truly do not know what the impact is," Milligan insisted. "We want to preserve Maxwell Ranch the way it is."

"Are the trade-offs for this project worth it?" asked association president Lisa Billings.

Despite its high-minded claims of providing research opportunities and powering the entire CSU campus, she contended, the Green Power Project actually is a massive commercial enterprise focused on raking in revenues.

The claim of powering CSU is a sham unto itself, Milligan maintained, because it's impossible to deliver the wind farm power directly to the university. Instead, she noted, it will go to the substation where the power can be transported anywhere in the nation.

As a commercial venture, Milligan asserted, the wind farm clearly violates the intent - if not the terms - of the will executed in 1945 by rancher Fred Maxwell. Upon his death in 1956, his property was placed in a trust and later transferred to the Colorado Agricultural Research Foundation, as CSURF was then known, "upon the condition that said assets shall be used exclusively for experimental purposes in connection with Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts."

At issue is the "blessing" issued by the state attorney general's office, which affirmed the Green Power Project to be consistent with the dictates of Maxwell's will.

He specified that the land be used for research such as ranch management and livestock breeding, disease and nutrition. "He's telling those trustees, 'Manage my ranch as I would,'" Milligan said. "This is a very clear intention."

Immediately after detailing such desires, however, Maxwell left the door open to "such other experimental purposes as said Foundation may deem advisable." While Milligan acknowledges the statement appears to give CSURF wide berth, she said opponents should have the chance to challenge the ruling.

Milligan further insists that the current proposal is clearly commercial, not experimental, as it was plausibly billed at the announcement two years ago when as few as 25 turbines were proposed.

She said members of the Greater Red Mountain Preservation Association currently are researching wind farms in general and the Green Power Project in particular to be informed about the issues and provide facts to others.

Milligan said the group plans to be actively involved should the permitting process proceed and may consider retaining a lawyer to represent its interests.