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County Commissioners Celebrate Failure Of Controversial Wind And Solar Bill

Wind turbine photo courtesy of vaxomatic

Tippecanoe County commissioners are celebrating the failure of a controversial wind and solar bill.

  

The bill was withdrawn from the Senate Tuesday because lawmakers said they didn’t have the votes to pass it.
 

The original House bill would have created a statewide standard for siting wind and solar projects that supporters say would have made it easier to bring such projects to the state.

Lawmakers complained that even after making changes to the bill, including allowing counties to keep existing wind and solar ordinances in place, county leaders still wouldn’t come to the table to work with them. 

Sen. Mark Messmer (R-Jasper)likened the negotiations to a hostage situationwhere the captor shoots the hostage even after getting everything they want. 

Tippecanoe County Commissioner Tom Murtaugh, who opposed the bill, said those characterizations are unfair. 

“I mean the fact is there are still huge issues with this because it does involve land use and land use needs to be done at the local level and not statewide,” he said. “It was still a bad bill in our eyes.”

According to the Association of Indiana Counties, 62 of the state’s 92 counties had voiced opposition to the House version of the bill.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Association said that they do not oppose renewable energy. Instead, the Association is opposed to removing local control. 

“If a bill is introduced to ban renewables in Indiana, we would oppose that bill too,” the spokesperson said.

Murtaugh said commissioners will continue to keep their eyes peeled for similar language getting added to another bill as an amendment. 

“It’s not over over,” he said. “It’s not going to be over until the session ends.”