Within two days of the vote by Wisconsin's Calumet County Board of Supervisors to amend its wind energy ordinance governing safe placement of commercial turbines, Midwest Wind Energy's Tom Swierczewski distributed a memorandum to select landowners in the county in which he laid out his strategy to bypass local authorities and file an application with the State's Public Service Commission (PSC). According to Midwest's website, the company has now decided to nearly double the Stony Brook Wind Farm proposal in order to meet the State's minimum requirement of 100+ megawatts for the PSC to assert jurisdiction.
Swierczewski states it's "in our best interest to combine all of the turbine locations we have secured in the Towns of Brothertown and Stockbridge in this application." Pitting neighbor against neighbor, he encourages landowners to assist him in locating others to sign up more turbine locations. Perhaps Midwest has reason for optimism. Tim LeMonds, the PSC's director of governmental and public affairs, stated recently the "PSC would take the town's concerns into consideration..." but, admitted that "when it comes to large wind farm projects, the PSC refuses little."
In an attempt to ambush local authority, Mr. Swierczewski's memo states: "Midwest Wind Energy is fully committed to this effort as we now see this as "the war to end all wars" regarding wind power in Wisconsin", and that "we have every confidence that Stony Brook will eventually get built."