billboardI’ll be five years next month that I’ve been working on the Goodhue Wind Project, or as Goodhue County notes, New Era Wind Farm, LLC f/k/a AWA Goodhue Wind, LLC, f/k/a Goodhue Wind, LLC.

This photo was taken by Marie McNamara in the Goodhue Wind Project footprint, can you spell E-A-G-L-E-S?

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It was the project from hell, with SO many problems, built of cards and arrogant misrepresentations, bought and dropped like a hot potato by T. Boone Pickens, and finally, operating out of a P.O. Box:

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We learned Monday that the County was going to take up the project.  Goodhue Wind Truth had requested the County Resolution supporting the project from 2008 be rescinded way back in October, after the PUC had terminated the project permits, and had requested time to speak to the County board.  Turns out there was a lot more that had to be done, and that included the County Development Agreement, and multiple conditional use permits.  So that makes sense to take the time to do it right and get it ALL done.  BUT, we got no notice, no information about what agreement had been reached.  It was the last agenda item.  They agreed to make the County Attorney/Board legal memo public, and when I asked if there were copies for the public, “NO!” and Commissioner Ron Allen laughed.  Yeah, to you and yours too… anyway, then they approved it.

Five years Goodhue Wind Truth struggled with this, and were proven ahead of the curve at every juncture.

Look at what the county had agreed to, this is why another agreement was necessary to get out of it:

And the county is probably taking quite a hit:

There needs to be a “lessons learned” session after this mess… the lesson I take from it is the necessity of intervention in county permitting, costly but the only way to keep on top of it.

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