Dear editor:
I am the Special Knox County (Nebraska) Attorney. I represent the county in a federal court case captioned, “North Fork Wind, LLC et al. v. Knox County et al, 4:24-cv-3150.”
On my motion to dismiss, Judge John Gerrard wrote, ““[T]here’s no mechanism under Nebraska or federal law that prevents Knox County from banning commercial wind farms, so long as there is a conceivably or hypothetically rational reason to do so.”
Knox County acted on this language and banned all commercial wind and solar developments with its Resolution 2025-19. It is posted on the Knox County website.
The Board of Supervisors found there were 18 good reasons to ban commercial wind and solar.
Artificial Intelligence informs me that the primary commercial activities in Laramie County are education, ranching, military, state government, tourism, and transportation. Excluded from that list is the industrial production of electricity.
Land use regulation has been the law of this country since the 1920s.
Generally speaking, a land owner doesn’t have unfettered use of his property; even if it is a lawful use. Zoning limits property rights.
Laramie County – exercising its police powers for the good of the county as a whole – could certainly follow Knox County and ban industrial wind turbines.
The central question is do voters in Laramie County want to change the fundamental nature of the county and get into the industrial production of electricity.
Do voters want to see the existing scarce real estate converted from the efficient production of food to the inefficient production of electricity?
An important consideration here is that for every dollar spent on an industrial wind project, the developer is entitled to at least a thirty percent tax credit from the federal government.
That money is added to our $37 trillion debt. Banning commercial wind turbines is the rare case where a local government can limit the spending of the federal government.
Sincerely,
David D. Begley
Omaha, Nebraska
