News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The State House has passed a bill that sets statewide minimum standards for wind energy facilities wanting to locate in Tennessee.
Crossville Representative Cameron Sexton sponsored the bill.
“When we started looking at this, it was a lot for the health and safety of all the property owners around the project,” Sexton said. “As well as just making sure that if you are an adjacent property owner, that you have a voice and will be heard. Before this, you basically had no rights to have a say about it.”
Last year Apex Clean Energy had planned a $100 million wind farm project in Crab Orchard. That plan put on hold after state lawmakers placed a one year moratorium on new wind turbines being installed in the state.
Several Cumberland County residents had also expressed opposition to the Apex project, along with Senator Lamar Alexander.
If signed by the governor, local governments would have until January 2019 to come up with their own regulations, which would supersede the state minimum standards.
“The bill is kind of a hybrid bill between state and local. There is a lot of local authority left in it,” Sexton said.
There would be a vote by the industrial development board, city council, or county commission, depending on which jurisdiction a facility would want to locate in.
The bill scheduled for a vote in the Senate on Wednesday.
