Wyo mulls wind rules: Task force calls for state law to create county regulations

LARAMIE -- A task force of the Wyoming County Commissioners Association is recommending a new state law to create county regulations for wind energy development, even in counties without zoning.

Participants in the association's Industrial Siting and Wind Energy Task Force discussed their proposals Friday during the Wyoming Wind Symposium at the University of Wyoming. More than 600 people registered for the two-day event, which was hosted by Gov. Dave Freudenthal.

Local, state and federal regulations for wind energy development were a recurring topic of discussion during the symposium. Developers say they're accustomed to working under regulatory restrictions, but they don't like moving targets.

Ed Werner, chairman of the Converse County commission, chaired the commissioners association task force. The group formed its recommendations for the Wyoming Legislature's Task Force on Wind Energy, which is charged with considering new wind laws.

Only six of Wyoming's 23 counties have wind development regulations in place, and eight counties have no zoning at all. Werner said the group intends to set basic county rules.

"Our proposal is hopefully to develop a concept that allows a minimum, which we all should believe in as a floor, and then allow counties to work up from that if they so choose," he said.

The group's recommendations cover issues such as minimum setbacks -- the distance a turbine should be removed from structures or roads -- requirements for decommissioning old turbines, mandatory public hearing and notification procedures, road maintenance agreements and emergency management plans.

Cindy DeLancey, Carbon County attorney and a member of the group, said the recommended state statute would give county commissions authority to permit wind farms similar to their authority over subdivision permits.

County-specific permitting would be in addition to Public Service Commission regulation, which applies only to utility companies, and permitting by the state Industrial Siting Council, which has permitting authority over industrial projects with construction costs of $173 million or more.

The wind industry recognizes that county governments without zoning need some kind of statutory authority to regulate wind farms, said Karyn Coppinger, senior development manager for Invenergy and chairman of the Wyoming Power Producers Coalition.

"The draft requirements are actually well within what a wind company would expect to deal with in a traditional conditional use permit or a wind energy permit application," she said. "While the devil is in the details on how this statutory authority is written and how it's implemented, we support this effort 100 percent and we're glad to share our experiences."

Werner said the group will present its recommendations in detail to the Legislature's wind energy task force at a meeting later this month in Casper.