A proposed wind project that would span more than 41,000 acres of combined private and state land in southeast Wyoming is not a done deal, even after the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council approved the developer’s permit Tuesday with 26 conditions.
While the permit will be signed by the ISC within 45 days of the approval, a lot still has to happen before construction moves forward.
“They cannot build under this permit until they have met all those conditions,” said Keith Guille, a spokesperson with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.
The Industrial Siting Division, the administrative arm that processes permit applications, sits under the DEQ. The Industrial Siting Council is an independent, seven-member citizen panel that makes decisions on whether to issue permits.
Guille said the conditions are not publicly available yet because members of the ISC are still finalizing the details.
One standard condition, he said, is that the permittee must meet all local, state and federal requirements. That will require returning to the Laramie County Commissioners and could necessitate meetings with other agencies, such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the State Land Commission.
Laramie County Commissioners rejected a larger proposal last year by Repsol/Connect Gen Laramie County LLC for the same project.
All These Pendulums
Brad Enzi, the Laramie Business Alliance president who closely follows Wyoming energy issues, said the immense scope of the Laramie Range Wind project makes the approval process long and complex.
Multiple aspects must be organized and lined out, from the land-lease terms to the permits and the company’s finances, he said.
“The visual I’ve always used is there are all these different pendulums and they’re swinging at different rates,” he said. “All of them have to come into alignment.”
Laramie County Commissioner Gunnar Malm confirmed Wednesday that commissioners will see the project again.
“They’ll resubmit for their county project with the reduced layout,” Malm told Cowboy State Daily.
The project was reduced from 56,000 acres to 42,000 acres and 170 turbines to 139.
Rather than being three times the size of Cheyenne, the revised project would be about twice the size of Cheyenne.
No timeline is set on when commissioners will consider the new proposal, Malm said.
No one with Repsol or ConnectGen Laramie County LLC returned Cowboy State Daily’s repeated requests for comment Thursday.
Cindy DeLancey, a lawyer with Holland and Hart who represents the developer, did not immediately return Cowboy State Daily messages.
An email to former project manager Charlie Banke was returned with the message that he is no longer with Repsol.
Frequent turnover is a criticism Ann Brande shared with Cowboy State Daily about the company.
“They rifle through people all the time,” Brande said. “They tend to have one thing in common: They’re not from the West.”
State Land Lease?
Melissa Defratis, a spokesperson with the Wyoming State Land Commission, told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday their role in the state-owned portion of the land lease wasn’t entirely clear.
The State Board of Land Commissioners has not considered a lease for this project, she said in an email to Cowboy State Daily.
The Board of Land Commissioners manages state trust lands, per the Wyoming Constitution.
This includes the board determining whether to lease lands for uses that generate revenue for the trust beneficiaries, she said.
“Generally, the trust beneficiaries are K-12 Education,” she added.
Connect Gen/Repsol wants to lease 5,870 acres of state land, according to its proposal.
DeFratis said the board will not consider the matter until the Office of State Lands and Investment completes an analysis, negotiation and recommends a course of action.
“OSLI cannot determine when that will occur,” she said.
The matter will be announced publicly per state statute when it comes before the board.
For now, the fate of the Laramie Range Wind project is a waiting game.
“The order will be signed with those (26) conditions,” Guille said. “I think then we’ll have a better idea of where this (project) is.”
Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.
