Members of the northern Macoupin County community will have a chance to voice their concerns about a proposed wind farm at a public hearing coming up in less than two weeks.
The Macoupin County Enquirer-Democrat reports that a public hearing on the Lotus Wind project has been set for 6PM Tuesday, May 23rd at Bothwell Auditorium on the Blackburn College Campus in Carlinville. The project is expected to directly affect the northwestern portion of the county, mainly the township of Modesto. The project is expected to be adjacent to Morgan County’s Lincoln Land Wind Project, constructed by Apex Clean Energy, that went into operation two years ago.
Representatives from Apex Energy, who is also the lead on the Lotus Wind Project, will give a presentation of their plan, after which their will be a session for constituents to ask questions or address concerns. County Board members will be present to discuss the permit application. The hearing is only in regards to the 52 wind turbines Apex has already applied for.
There will be a moderator for the discussion. Anyone who wishes to speak at the meeting will be asked to sign up, the Board asks that if multiple people have the same concern that one person be designated as the spokesperson to reduce the amount of repeat questions and answers.
According to the Enquirer-Democrat report, the Macoupin County Board recently voted to adopt the changes to the Wind Permit Ordinance required by the State of Illinois set forth in recently passed legislation. Macoupin County State’s Attorney Jordan Garrison also presented a change to the ordinance adding a balancing test, which he explained allowed the board to weigh the work done by Apex to decide if they had met requirements rather than using a checklist method. The balance test is part of the recommended language from the Illinois Farm Bureau in testing clean energy agreements.