Union County residents will vote on wind farm
By Christina Williams
Sustainable Business Oregon
Union County commissioners decided this week to put the issue of a $600 million wind farm proposed by Horizon Wind Energy up for a vote, allowing residents to weigh in on whether or not they want to see it go forward.
According to the La Grande Observer, the question for the non-binding advisory vote will read: “Do the citizens of Union County support the Antelope Ridge Wind Farm application currently before the Department of Energy?”
The vote gets at the increasingly vocal opposition to wind farms, which include claims that they harm the environment and clutter views.
Horizon Wind Energy, which has its western regional office in Portland and is based in Houston, flipped on the 100-megawatt Elkhorn Valley Wind Farm in Union County in 2007. The company filed an initial application to build Antelope Ridge, which at about 300-megawatts would produce enough energy to power about 80,000 homes, last year and has already offered to scale down the project in response to community concerns.
Antelope Ridge is markedly smaller than the planned 845-megawatt Shepherds Flat Wind Farm near Arlington, which received approval after initial objections from the Pentagon worried that the farm would interfere with a nearby radar system.
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