The plug has been pulled on what would have been Wisconsin’s second largest wind power project. Chicago-based Invenergy announced in 2009 it was planning on building 100 wind turbines in a rural area south of Green Bay.
On Monday the company told state regulators that will not be setting up shop. “The company says in a letter the uncertainty given the wind siting regime in Wisconsin has caused them to have some pause and pull their project from the state,” says Eric Callisto, a member of the state Public Service Commission.
Under the Doyle administration the PSC had developed statewide wind siting rules but a legislative panel this month threw out what would’ve been uniform rules.
Governor Scott Walker also proposed a bill that would sharply curtail wind development, although the full legislature refused to pass the measure.
Callisto says those two things present a “big problem in the state of Wisconsin going forward with wind development.”
Meantime an environmental group is lashing out at the Administration and Republican majority.
“Governor Walker claims that Wisconsin is open for business, yet he’s working with the Legislature to close the door on wind energy in the state,” says Keith Reopelle, senior policy director at Clean Wisconsin in a statement.
Invenergy may still be considering smaller projects but Callisto says as far as they known, it’s “nothing definitive.”
