Issue #2:  April, 2020

Welcome to KARRE's April 2020 Newsletter!

In this issue:

• Our New Newsletter Name
• County Updates
• A Windswept Journey: Dave Oas
• Happenings at the State Level: HR 6031 and a State Energy Plan
• From the Trenches: Bev Kavouras
• Trespass Zoning
• Federal Issues
• Intimidation Tactics
• Why Do They Have to Kill Them? : Margy Stewart
• Will Bats Survive Wind Energy?: Margy Stewart
• When Wind Companies Renege
• Reflections: Concerned Citizens of Neosho County

Don't Forget: Earth Day is April 22 -- Plant Trees, Not Turbines

A Windswept Journey

There are watershed moments, events that change our perspectives or actions, or both. Obviously, the COVID-19 Pandemic is a world-wide crisis that will change everything for everyone, and I’m not equating or comparing the spread of a deadly virus with the spread of commercial wind energy.

My wife and I live in northern Labette county, just south of Neosho county. It’s an incredibly beautiful place on this earth, dotted with lakes, nature trails, and wildlife preserves.  More than six years ago, when Tammie was going through chemotherapy, we spent a lot of time at Lake McKinley in Neosho county.  Watching blue heron, geese, ducks, and teal land and take off from that lake repaired our damaged spirits.

About a year ago, Tammie heard about a large number of Neosho county residents upset about a proposed wind farm.  Because of population density, land use, and wildlife habitat unique to Southeast Kansas, I didn’t believe an industrial wind farm was in the realm of possibility, let alone likely. (Our Bald Eagle populations have recently rebounded from near obscurity).  On May 23, 2019, I attended my first Neosho county commission meeting.

I realize that any representative form of government is vulnerable to self-serving corruption at all levels, but to actually witness a conspiracy against the will and the well-being of the people, left me … disillusioned.  I saw neighbors being swallowed whole by a corrupted system, fueled by what I viewed to be an insatiable global clean/green energy movement.   This is my most recent personal journey:

May 23, 2019 to July, 2019 - SHOCK

I attended every Neosho county commission meeting possible, hoping to spot a seed of reason sprouting from a pile of dung.  I did my dead-level best to rationalize the injustice unfolding in front of me.  On June 6, the two newly governor-appointed commissioners voted to allow Apex to begin construction of the 139 turbine Neosho Ridge Wind project.  The dissenting vote came from the commission's only elected member, Paul Westhoff.   FUN FACTS:  1 - Paul's been an elected Neosho county commissioner for over five years.    2 - Almost the entire footprint of the Neosho Ridge Wind development is in Paul's district.

July, 2019 to September, 2019 - ANGER

As this slow-motion train wreck was happening to a once close-knit community, I shifted from being disappointed to feeling angry.  I couldn’t understand why any county commission wouldn’t consider a reasonable moratorium period to address the legitimate concerns of their constituency.

September, 2019 - NEGOTIATING

I attended Labette county commissions meetings, asking commissioners to consider passing a moratorium on industrial wind farms in Labette county.  They said that no lease agreements had been filed in Labette county, nor were they aware of any leases being signed yet.  I talked with two Labette county landowners who told me they'd been approached to sign lease agreements, oddly enough, each by a different developer.  One said he decided not to sign a lease and the other wouldn't say whether he had or hadn't.  Neither would give me permission to share their identities.

October, 2019 - WITHDRAWAL

I avoided seeing, hearing, or thinking about anything related to wind energy.  It seemed hopeless for Southeast Kansas.  Our Neosho county friends were proceeding with their lawsuit against Apex Clean Energy to delay construction of the Neosho Ridge Wind project.  They were eager to help other counties from finding themselves in the same situation, and their collective strength and support reignited my hope.

November, 2019 to the present - ADVOCACY

In a 2-1 vote, Labette county commissioners passed a one-year moratorium on all industrial wind energy construction.  E.On (a German utility company) disclosed that they had entered into lease agreements with several local landowners.  (In a recent asset-swap, these lease agreements were transferred to RWE Renewables).  I focused on informing local residents of what was being proposed and occurring in Labette county without telling anyone what to think or believe.

It’s no coincidence my journey parallels the five stages of grief, although I modified the last stage, Acceptance.  I don’t accept wind energy developers who . . . . 1) use tax subsidies as their working capital,  2) use that same subsidy revenue to buy or coerce support from local commissions and landowners, and  3) deconstruct once healthy, happy, and thriving communities to further their own goals.

Neosho county residents were unable to forestall the Neosho Ridge Wind project.  Apex successfully changed the venue from Neosho County District Court to Federal Court.  (It must not have occurred to them that this would create a financial hardship for the plaintiffs).  It's almost certain that the Concerned Citizens of Neosho County will run out of funding before their suit ever comes before a judge.

I don’t wish to give the impression that I’m anti-wind - I’m not, I'm anti-corruption.

I’m just having a hard time making the distinction.

Dave Oas, Labette County

Happenings at the State Level

The Kansas legislature is adjourned until Monday, April 27, but before they adjourned, the House voted 74-44 on HR 6031 to disapprove of Governor Kelly’s executive reorganization order (ERO 46).  The ERO would have established a Kansas energy office separate from the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) in preparation for the development of a state energy plan.

It is the belief of some that had ERO 46 been successful, it would have reduced the power of the counties at a local level to restrict or ban industrial wind projects, in other words, it could undermine Home Rule. Pro-wind proponents of ERO 46 make the claim Kansas is one of only six states that do not have formal energy plans, and they cite a study conducted by London Economics (LE) (download here), that suggests a state energy plan might be productive in reducing Kansas’ high electricity rates. What LE really proposed, however, was a “legislatively mandated” state energy plan (5.3.2 page 124), and LE admits that only four states actually have that type of plan (5.3.2 page 123).

Perhaps some type of a state energy plan could play a role in reducing rates, but some believe ERO 46 would have actually led to increased electric rates, since the plan was designed with a “green agenda” as you can see here, and in order for a green agenda to work, more transmission lines are needed.

Right now, Kansas is producing a glut of electricity produced by wind energy, but there are not enough transmission lines to carry the electricity. Problem is, if we build those lines, Kansas ratepayers will absorb the cost, just as they’ve absorbed the cost of numerous other transmission lines in Kansas. In Item 6.7.2 of London Economics’ study (p. 229), you can find the cost allocation for transmission lines. Kansan’s can’t afford to pay for any more transmission lines. Rates are too high as it is. Below the chart, please note:

“This allocation framework has resulted in a large proportion of costs of transmission lines constructed within Kansas allocated to Kansas ratepayers, where a number of stakeholders believe the benefits are accruing outside the state. In their respective rate studies filed between 2018 and 2019, both KCC and Evergy identified additional transmission costs as a driver for increased retail rates…”

If desired, establishment of a state energy plan should be done by the greater legislature, not the governor. It should be a bipartisan effort that protects the citizens of Kansas from aggressive wind companies. If (when) we establish a state energy plan, it must include minimum setbacks of turbines from non-participating property lines of at least one mile. No matter how you look at it – protecting and ensuring Kansan’s quality of life must come before lining the pockets of the wind industry.

Note: Click on in-text links to download the LE study and to view sources.

From the Trenches

Welcome from the KARRE site and now also from our newsletter called Common Sense Dispatch.  Welcome to the site, and welcome to the fight!  It’s a fight I like to call “The Wild, Wild West” with no law and order anywhere in sight for the residents of Kansas.

Every once in a while in life, something hits on your doorstep that you didn’t ask for, couldn’t imagine or prepare for and it hits like an atomic bomb went off in your very own living room.  The bomb in our house went off in the winter of 2017.  It was when the first leasing agent knocked on our door in February of that year.  The fight’s been on at our house ever since.  (Our county had also fought this about 10 years earlier and won.)

When the KARRE group asked me to write a column, I didn’t know how I could pick just one area with only a few words to describe a process that is incredibly complex.  But, after thinking about it for a couple of days, then sleeping on it, it came to me.  Three things I’m pretty good at are history, process and being positive in a negative world.  As we go forward, I will share a little from our county’s perspective, along these lines.

It’s easy to get all fired up when these wind companies do something to punch our buttons.  It makes it hard to sleep.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten up in the middle of the night and written notes to myself about things I need to fight tomorrow.  As a hobby writer, I learned way back in my 20’s to have a pen and pad beside my bed.  Whenever an idea comes to mind, and it usually happens in the middle of the night, it’s important to write it down.  It not only helps you to go back to sleep, but some of my most brilliant ideas have come to me in my sleep.  Please don’t curse not being able to sleep.  Be thankful that brilliant ideas really do form when your brain is at rest.

Quick Advice for April:

1. Take care of yourselves.  Don’t fight this every day, all day long.  Take time to eat healthy, relax, go for a walk, cook or do something calming.
2. Most of us have time.  Keep telling yourself that.  For those who don’t have much time, remember that no-one has died.  This is not the end of the world.  You still have choices. 
3. We all need another little dose of reality when we think things are so terrible and they will never get better.  This Bev original goes like this:  “If money can fix it, it ain’t that bad.”  The “remember no-one has died” line to go along with that.  Go put it on your refrigerator today.

Our time is very valuable and we are very valuable.  Our families, friends, co-workers and even our county need us to be well rested and positive.  This will be the focus of my column going forward.  Being positive in a negative world is really not all that hard to do if you try. 

Don’t waste a great deal of time trying to change people’s minds. Do “spend” time on things that work.

(Additional note:  I wrote the above column early last month, long before the COVID-19 bomb went off on our doorsteps.  It is amazing how much our priorities can change in one month's time.  The words I wrote then, may seem trite and unimportant now, but things will return to normal at some point.  Please stay safe everyone.  We need one another.  The bottom line is, I really believe that our collective Common Sense IS making a difference.  Keep up the Common Sense fight!!!  Others are noticing and paying attention.  Do not let your guard down in these trying times.  Until next month in the Wild, Wild, West......please take care of one another.)

Beverly Kavouras, McPherson County, Kansas

INTIMIDATION TACTICS

Wind companies present themselves to local leaders as “good neighbors” who are offering a financial opportunity for the community. At question is whether good neighbors intimidate others by insinuating they’ll file lawsuits if their projects aren’t approved or by bullying local citizens who oppose the projects. 

According to Marion County Commissioner, Dianne Novak, during negotiations with National Renewable Solutions over the proposed Expedition Wind project, the talk turned to what might happen if the commissioners didn't approve the project. Patricia Volt, attorney for the wind company, responded with, "Well, you wouldn't want to be sued."

Because much of the conversation between county officials and wind company reps takes place in executive sessions, the public is often in the dark as to veiled threats that may have occurred. Occasionally, comments made by commissioners to the public indicate the commission was coerced or pressured. After one such executive session, Bourbon County Commissioner, Lynne O'harrah, told the public, “The commission has been informed by Apex that the wind generation project will progress with or without the involvement of the commission.” You can see his comments in this video starting around the 30 second mark.

A similar scenario recently played out at the Corning City Council as the council explored its statutory right to restrict turbines within three miles outside Corning’s city limits. NextEra attorney, lan Anderson, told the commission, “At this point, the project is going to be built, regardless. It’s too far along for any of this process to block it.” Check out his comments on this video, starting at the 23:30 minute mark. Anderson also insinuated that money offered by NextEra to the City of Corning could be withdrawn if the council didn’t comply with NextEra’s wishes. Anderson goes on to say at the 24:20 minute mark that “Today is an important day, and there will be a question of should we pull this offer?” In essence, council members were led to think they had to make a quickie decision to drop their plans for protective zoning and cooperate with NextEra or they’d lose the “gift” NextEra was offering.

In 2019, the Reno County Commission rejected NextEra’s wind project and NextEra promptly filed suit against the county. A group of concerned citizens joined the lawsuit, and as a result were deposed by NextEra’s attorney. During the lengthy depositions, multiple citizens reported being asked very personal questions, including:

•         “Do you have any children?”
•         “What are their ages?”
•         “Where does your group meet?”
•         “How much did you pay for your property?”

The citizens were subjected to dozens of other personal questions they felt were inappropriate and bullying. According to Angela Mans, one of the citizens who was deposed, after it was over, “I felt as though I needed to install security cameras at my house.” Citizens from Neosho County reported they too were asked similar types of intimidating questions that made them fear for their family’s personal safety.

So the question remains, can a wind company be a good neighbor when it resorts to these types of coercive and intimidating tactics?

Why Do They Have to Kill Them?

~When I was a little girl, my big sister Sally brought home two orphaned baby bats.  A pest-control officer had killed the adult bats at the tourist-mansion where she worked as a summer guide.  Always a fierce protector of wildlife, Sally had tried to stop the extermination.  In the resultant melee, she managed to rescue two tiny babies—each no bigger than a nickel--and spirit them away to our house. I was always Sally’s willing lieutenant in wildlife adventures, and I was thrilled to be recruited into a feeding regime.    Every two hours, day and night, we held the babies on our hands, and using a doll’s bottle, squeezed a drop of milk out in front of them.  How thrilled we were when they leaned forward and lapped up the milk!   How astonished we were when, minuscule as they were, they insisted on hanging upside down from the slightly elevated flap at the bottom of their box.  How was it that barely visible balls of fluff could express such batness?  Of course, we sisters were expressing pure naivete.  We had no idea how to rehab orphaned animals.   We were keeping the babies alive but we didn’t know how to help them grow or thrive.  Within a month—when in the wild they would have been reaching full size--they were still tiny and they both expired.    I cried and cried but my sister flew into a rage.   Why did they have to kill the mother and the others?  she asked.  Why did they have to kill them?~

Now some sixty years later, as wind developers target more and more natural areas, we ask versions of those same questions:   Why do they have to kill them?    

--Margy Stewart, Trustee and Past Chair, Audubon of Kansas

Will Bats Survive Wind Energy?

This is going to be about bats, so let’s get one thing out of the way right from the beginning:  Don’t blame bats for coronavirus. Exterminating bats won’t make humans safer.  In fact it’s been the steady destruction of wild places and wild creatures and the deeper penetration of human development into natural areas that have exposed humans to novel pathogens. Bats, like humans, are part of the whole, and our survival, as well as theirs, depends on the health of the whole. 

But when it comes to bats, extermination has too often been humans’ go-to reaction. 

Indeed, until the year 2000, intentional killing of bats by humans was the leading cause of Mass Mortality Events (MMEs), surpassing even the lethality of a fungal disease called White Nose Syndrome.  

But today the leading cause of premature bat mortality is not intentional at all.   Rather, what’s pushing bat species toward extinction is an overlooked side-effect of industrial scale wind turbines—the mass killing of bats. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls this “an unforeseen byproduct of wind energy development” while sounding the alarm about “large-scale fatalities of bats at wind energy facilities.”   The phenomenon is world-wide and no one doubts the seriousness of it.  “Bats are dropping like flies” says Ball State University biologist, Tim Carter.  Fort Hays State researcher, Amanda Adams adds,  “Bats are being killed in the millions by wind turbines.”  

The spinning blades that kill birds are not the culprit. What’s killing bats is something called “barotrauma”—a sudden drop in air pressure near the blades that causes bats’ lungs and blood vessels to explode. The taller the turbine, the bigger the drop in pressure—and the greater the number of deaths.  “People call this green energy,” says Carter.  “I call it red energy.”

These MMEs are particularly devastating because of bats’ slow rate of reproduction.  Adult bats produce only one or two babies a year, a low replacement rate normally compensated for by natural longevity.  Bats can live as long as 30-40 years, so killing adult bats in their prime can quickly have a species-level effect. 

Ever obsessed with ourselves, we humans are now realizing that bats provide us with “ecological services,” especially by keeping insect populations under control.   Agriculture depends on bats to reduce the numbers of crop pests; indeed, bats save farmers an estimated $23 billion each year by preventing crop damage.  An article this month in the Times of Israel  talks about bats as the last hope for Israeli cotton farmers who are now facing pink boll worms that have developed resistance to pesticides and genetically modified cotton. But bats like pink boll worms. Bats are coming to the rescue!     

But will humans come to the rescue of bats?  

At first, researchers wondered why bats couldn’t stay away from turbines. Could the heat make the turbines seem like attractive roosting sites? But after several experiments, it’s clear that bats are foraging near the turbines -- following insects to their deaths. Could the lights on the turbines be drawing the insects which in turn draw the bats?       

Through research partially financed by the American Wind Energy Association, methods have been devised to reduce lethality. When wind turbines are shut down on low-wind evenings and during periods of bat migration,  bat mortality is reduced.    A few wind facilities have implemented these measures, and some have also tried to compensate for killing bats by financing habitat preservation elsewhere.  But those cases are the exception, not the rule.

In general, the issue of bats’ lives has been ignored, by both wind companies and by elected officials.  However, the reason is not lack of knowledge, if Marion County’s experience is any indication. Seven species of bats were documented in Expedition Wind’s project area in a study commissioned by Expedition Wind and submitted to the County Commission. Among the seven were three migratory species, especially at risk from wind turbines, and one federally-listed endangered species. The study summarized the risks to bats from wind turbines as well as measures to reduce mortality.    

But that study does not appear to have influenced either the developer’s plans or the County’s regulations.  “Studies” do not have the force of law.

The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism also asks developers to provide bat protection plans. What has been the response of wind companies and elected officials?   Agency “requests” do not have the force of law, either.

Does anyone know of any specific bat protection plans that are in operation at wind facilities  anywhere in Kansas? Does anyone know of any regulations for bat protection governing wind-energy proposals in any county in Kansas?  If so, please let us know!

We are starting a systematic search--including Freedom of Information requests--for answers to those questions.  

We will let you know what we find out in next month’s newsletter! 

--Margy Stewart, Trustee and Past Chair, Audubon of Kansas

From My Front Porch: Reflections

The serenity and scenic surroundings are why most of us live and raise our families and retire in a rural community. Unbeknownst to most, and now known by all, the scenic vista of Neosho County was changed last summer from rural to industrial by two governor-appointed County Commissioners. The new view for many of our neighbors, now and for years to come, is an industrial wind energy power plant with one hundred thirty nine 600 foot wind turbines and flickering lights that will be seen 24/7 for miles and miles and miles.

We wanted to capture the beauty of our rural community before the industrial takeover so we gathered #frommyfrontporch breathtaking photos taken by our fellow citizens that reflect the memories of the peaceful living we enjoyed for so many years and published a calendar, Reflections Neosho County, Kansas. The proceeds from the sale of our calendar were donated to our legal fund still fighting for the preservation of our property rights.

We encourage our neighbors to capture their community history and the peaceful way of living they knew before the industrial assault on Rural America.  #neighbors4neighbors

Column by: Concerned Citizens of Neosho County, KS

Image: James Burke