MADISON — On June 7, Southwest Wisconsin’s state legislators asked Gov. Tony Evers to hold a public hearing about the Uplands Wind farm proposed for Lafayette and Iowa counties.

Evers’ office did not respond to the letter written by Sen. Howard Marklein (R–Spring Green) and Reps. Travis Tranel (R–Cuba City) and Todd Novak (R–Dodgeville). Nor did the governor’s office reply to an email from The Journal asking for a response.

The state Public Service Commission, which regulates state utilities and energy projects, did respond to the legislators’ letter, saying first that the PSC and neither the governor nor the Legislature has “statutory authority to approve or reject the permitting of large power plants.”

The PSC letter, written at Evers’ request according to its writer, public and external affairs director Matt Sweeney, also says that the PSC “has not received an application for the Uplands Wind project, nor has the developer been in contact with Commission staff in anticipation of filing an application.”

Pattern Energy of San Francisco has, however, been contacting landowners in the area of the proposed project seeking land use agreements, according to opponents of the project. 

The proposed project would place 172 656-foot-tall 3.5-megawatt wind turbines on 250 square miles of land in northwestern Lafayette County and southwestern Iowa County to generate 600 megawatts of electric power.

A map on the No-Upands.com website places the proposed project in Belmont and the Lafayette County towns of Belmont, Elk Grove, Kendall, Willow Springs and Fayette, and the Iowa County towns of Mifflin, Linden, Highland, Eden, Dodgeville, Mineral Point, Waldwick and Moscow.

At 656 feet from the ground to the top of the blades, the Uplands Wind turbines would be higher than the tallest building in Wisconsin, the 601-foot US Bank Center in Milwaukee. Those turbines would also be taller than the turbines of two existing wind farms, the Montfort Wind Energy Center, whose 330-foot turbines are on the south side of U.S. 18 between Montfort and Cobb, and the Quilt Block Wind Farm, whose 459-foot turbines are on either side of Wisconsin 81 in the Town of Kendall.

The PSC letter says that PSC approval is required for any energy project of more than 100 megawatts, and that a PSC Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity would “likely” be required before the project, slated for construction in 2023, could begin.

An application by a project developer would be followed by a PSC environmental assessment to determine if an Environmental Impact Statement would be required. That would be followed by a public comment period and one or more public hearings before a PSC vote.

Two of the PSC’s three members were appointed by Evers. The rules the PSC uses to approve wind projects were enacted by the PSC in March 2012. The wind project siting law was approved by the Legislature in 2009.

The legislators’ letter was sent 10 days after a listening session at the Belmont Convention Center that featured unanimous opposition to the project by those who spoke.

“Our listening session was well attended, with more than 100 residents who came to express concerns related to the project,” said the legislators’ letter. “You have long advocated for our state to be 100 percent carbon free by 2050. The renewable energy proposals planned to achieve this goal largely impact our rural communities who are often forced to live with the local effects of wind turbines. Unfortunately, policy decisions made in Madison are frequently implemented without communication with those whom the policy directly impacts.”

“The point of the letter to the governor was to ask him to hold a listening session, like we did, with the public who have concerns on the Uplands Wind project,” said Novak. “He simply punted to the PSC, which sent us a boilerplate letter on what the procedure is for these projects.  

“The governor has committed to more renewable energy projects, and he needs to explain that to the people in our districts who are upset. We as legislators cannot make any changes to the current laws without the governor on board. His lack of response to us shows he fully supports these types of projects. I can guarantee if you put one of these windmills right near Madison the world would end.”

The Uplands Wind project is dependent on the construction of the proposed 345,000-volt Cardinal–Hickory Creek power transmission line between Clayton County, Iowa, and the Town of Middleton (see page 1). The power line project, with power lines and towers more than 15 stories tall, would enter Grant County near Cassville, go northwest past Lancaster to Montfort, follow U.S. 18 and U.S. 18/151 to Mount Horeb, then go north to the Town of Middleton.

The PSC in April approved the proposed 200-megawatt Grant County Solar Farm on 1,600 acres on U.S. 61 between Airport Road and Grant County B in the towns of Potosi and Harrison. Alliant Energy will operate the solar farm.

The PSC also approved Alliant’s application to operate the solar farm, which is expected to be built by NextEra Energy in 2022 and operational in 2023.

The PSC also approved three 50-megawatt solar projects, the Cassville Solar Project on 325 acres of the site of the former Alliant Nelson Dewey power station, the Bear Creek Solar Project in Lone Rock and the Richland County Town of Buena Vista, and the Albany Solar Project on 400 acres of land in the Green County Town of Decatur. All three projects are expected to be built in 2022 and operational in 2023.

— Kayla Barnes of the Darlington Republican Journal and David Timmerman of the Grant County Herald Independent in Lancaster contributed to this story.