(Updated 11:45-a.m.) (Radio Iowa/KJAN) – MidAmerican Energy is proposing a wind farm of around 90-140 wind turbines altogether in Mills and Pottawattamie Counties, as part of their effort to achieve a 100 percent renewable energy supply. But some residents in the path of the wind farm are concerned about how it will alter their community. Treynor farmer Corey Vorthmann says he believes the sound and light that wind turbines produce would be disruptive to residents. “It’s something that is really unthinkable for us to see that we would wake up every morning and not really be able to take in the beauty of mother nature, but have it polluted with 300-foot wind turbines,” according to Vorthmann.

Charity Duey lives in Silver City and says the uncertainty of how the wind turbines may impact everything from the quality of life to migratory birds concerns her. “Just looking at it as a whole and going is this a fit for our community? That’s where people are going ‘I don’t think this is going to work for us,’” Duey says.Almost 800 people have joined a FaceBook group dedicated to stopping the project.

MidAmerican Energy spokesperson Geoff Greenwood tells KJAN News the project is simply a proposal at this point. He points out “The estimated property tax benefits to the two counties would be around $187-million over the life of the project for both counties. And that’s property tax revenue that goes toward hospitals and schools and roads in those counties, and that’s a big benefit.” For now, they are in the process of gauging landowners’ interest. He they know from experience that there are land owners who request to have turbines on their property, especially with fluctuating commodity and grain prices. “This is a steady paycheck for them for the next several decades, over the duration of the project.”

Greenwood said there are approximately 3,300 wind turbines in the State. MidAmerican has 37 wind projects in 32 counties. Their proposed “Wind Prime” project – an almost $4-billion  dollar project – includes more wind and some Solar Energy. When complete, the project will add approximately 2,000 megawatts of power to the system. It’s not yet known how many additional turbines or projects will be included, but Greenwood says it may very well be up to nine such projects. The company hopes to complete the proposed project in 2024.

(Reporting by Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio; Updated by KJAN News Director Ric Hanson)

(Radio Iowa) – A bill scheduled for debate in a Senate committee today (Wednesday) would take away the Iowa Utilities Board’s power to grant eminent domain to private companies, so land may be seized for carbon pipelines and similar projects. Senator Jeff Taylor, a Republican from Sioux Center, is the bill’s sponsor. “There is neither constitutional nor ethical justification for government to use its coercive power to seize private land or force an easement primarily for the benefit of wealthy, well-connected business owners,” Taylor says.

Jeff Boeyink is a lobbyist for Summit Carbon Solutions, the company that’s hired former Governor Terry Branstad to promote its carbon pipeline. Boeyink says changing the rules for eminent domain would send the message that Iowa’s regulatory climate is unstable.  “With this bill, this project stops dead in its tracks,” Boeyink says. “That means all the tens of millions of dollars that have already been invested are lost, this project goes nowhere, farmers get no benefit, the ethanol plants we sign up are done.”

Iowans who’ve been notified their property is along the proposed routes for carbon pipelines spoke at an hour-long Senate subcommittee hearing on the bill yesterday (Tuesday). Dan Tronchetti owns a farm near Paton, in Greene County. “I thought I had property rights, but Summit Carbon is telling me I don’t…that they can ask for eminent domain and that I might as well go ahead and sign a voluntary easement,” Tronchetti said. “…I can’t believe that 40 years of hard work doesn’t mean anything.”

Kathy Stockdale of Iowa Falls held up a map showing the route for a proposed pipeline would pass through the middle of her farm. “We have 30 acres of wetlands right over here by where Summit it coming in,” Stockdale said. “…You can see that they’re going through a waterway up here. This is where the highly erodible is, so we are concerned because this is very sandy soil and when there’s a rain, what’s going to happen to the pipeline underneath?”

Republican Senator Craig Williams of Manning voted to advance the bill out of subcommittee, but he told pipeline critics it’s difficult to retroactively change regulations. “There are three or four other issues with this bill and I get that everybody wants us to pass this bill, I just don’t think that it does what you want it to do,” Williams says.

Republican Senator Mike Klimesh, of Spillville says the bill as currently written is too broad. “I think that it would make it virtually impossible for pipelines that serve a public good or a public purpose to be able to exist or grow or even cross the state,” Klimesh says. “What I’m talking about is oil pipelines, natural gas pipelines…pipelines that move essential services.”

But Klimesh says the issue merits more discussion and that’s why he also voted to make the bill eligible for consideration in the Senate Commerce Committee today (Wednesday).