If you have written a letter to the Governor or letters to the editor and would like a copy posted here, please contact us.  If you'd like a copy of any statement you have made before the review committees in this matter posted to help educate people considering this petition, please contact us.

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Dear Governor Gregoire,

My name is Linda Schantz, my Husband and I reside in Kittitas County.  We will be negatively affected if you uphold the recommendation of EFSEC and approve the Kittitas County Wind Power Project.

My purpose in writing is to let you know why you should NOT approve this wind farm.

Last July, you helped dedicate the Wild Horse Wind Farm in east Kittitas County.  This project was not opposed by many because it was sited in an appropriate location where very few homeowners lived nearby.  The handful of people who lived within a mile or two were in support of the project.

I wanted to remind you of your statements that day and ask you to consider them in making a decision on the KVWPP.

"Community Support was a key factor in approving this project."

" This project has not been supported by hundreds in this community from the beginning.  There have been hundreds of letters opposing the project and hours of public testimony where the majority of the opinions were opposing the location of the Wind Farm.

"I asked Mr. Luce what the public's attitude was and how close people would have to live to the project area and that I wanted to make sure that there was no significant impacts to people."

" The public overwhelmingly oppose this project. There are many people who will be living in the middle of 65 turbines 1310-1640 feet from their residences.  Who would choose to live in the middle of an industrial wind farm complex?  Many people will be significantly impacted in property values, lifestyle changes, view shed, peace and tranquility as turbines make noise and potentially health will be affected.

"If we are going to have a model here, then let's be a model."

" The KVWWP is not a model.  There are approximately 800 lots, many of which are sold to people who have built or plan to build or plan to use for recreation, horseback riding, etc.  This project has multiple land owners and there are hundreds of affected residents. " In order to be a model, wind farms need to be sited properly.

"It is important that preemption did not occur with Wild Horse Project.  It is my inclination to have wind farms gain support from the bottom up not from the top down."

" This project is being shoved down Kittitas County and its residents' throat.  The county said no, so Horizon ran to EFSEC to have them say yes.  They also had the time to create a market for their product by lobbying for renewable energy initiatives that don't count hydro-electric power as renewable! " Governor, this is not bottom up, this is shoving it down our throat!

In closing, I would like to ask you to reconsider your words of July 2006.  I hope you will keep your word because frankly, if you do keep your word, you will NOT approve this Wind Farm Project.

Respectfully,

Linda Schantz

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Gov. Christine Gregoire
Office of the Governor
PO Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-002

Re: EFSEC Council Order No 826 and KVWPP

Dear Governor Gregoire,

Please disregard the recommendation made by EFSEC in their Council Order No 826 and deny the project currently before you commonly referred to as KVWPP.

EFSEC has totally ignored the preponderance of public commentary on this project. They summarize it on page 25 of their Council Order No 826 stating that:

". . some rural residents emphasized the undesirable nature of having one or more wind turbines as neighbors, others stated their preference for a wind farm as opposed to seeing agricultural or rangeland further subdivided . . . "

This is a gross misrepresentation of the ratio of people opposed to the project versus people who were in favor.  Your committee is misleading you on this point, diminishing the scope of the community opposition.  In meetings with audiences of typically 100-120 residents, the majority of the public verbal and written commentary was against the siting of wind power projects northwest of Ellensburg both along Highway 97 and north of Smithson Road.  [might we also add here that we are not talking about "one or more" wind turbines."  These corporations are trying to get approved 65 turbines in one inappropriate site and 90 turbines in another inappropriate site.  These turbines are over 400' tall, so we're not talking quaint windmills, but huge industrial towers with blades as long as 747's spinning on top, creating noise, vibration and visual disturance.]

You were quoted in our local paper as having given credence to the proximity to residents when considering the Wild Horse wind project.  We beg of you to listen to the people, as your committee has not done, and deny the KVWPP application.  This project is greatly opposed by the majority of residents of Kittitas County and would have enormous negative impacts on us.

The Wild Horse project that you approved and that has been built east of town, though it is easily viewed from 20 miles away, at least is downwind of the population, so if it sets fires, there is a chance to put them out before they burn everybody out.  It has nowhere near the close proximity to neighboring non participating residents as the projects northwest of Ellensburg have, which makes its location more suitable for wind project development.

You may have been provided some statistics that say the majority of Kittitas county residents are in favor of wind power.  I'm not sure where they got their figures, but the question here is not whether wind power projects should be built in Kittitas county.  The question is where in Kittitas county is the appropriate place for wind projects.  In the midst of the population and in close proximity to so many residents is not the right place.

We and many others have invested all of our equity, blood, sweat and heart into our home here.  We have done this at great sacrifice with the objective of living where it is quiet and where we may enjoy a rural lifestyle.  It is unconscionable to inflict these projects on us, with the constant noise and vibration, and fire danger which is hard to appreciate if you haven't lived in a dry climate.  The towers with their spinning blades and flashing lights are a massive visual intrusion by day and by night.  Such projects must be restricted to remote areas where their impacts on the population and land values may be reduced.

The reduction in our home value would make it impossible for us to sell and relocate, so we would be forced to remain here and endure the constant intrusion of the industrial spinning towers.  There has not been any indication that the corporations who are building these projects will be compensating us for our losses.  Nor are they making the necessary effort to reduce the impact with appropriate setbacks as were requested by the County Commissioners before the Horizon representatives walked out on the county process.  This indicates bad faith on the part of Horizon, not on the part of the County Commissioners.

Again, we implore you to listen to the people who will be so greatly and negatively impacted by this project, were it to be built.  Please deny the application for the KVWPP.

Sincerely,

Residents of Ellensburg

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An open letter to Governor Gregoire

Dear Governor Gregoire,

I urge you not to accept EFSEC's recommendation regarding the proposed Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project (KVWPP) for the following reasons:

1) Kittitas County has demonstrated that it is very willing to permit windfarms, having already permitted the Wild Horse windfarm.

2) Kittitas County has a workable process for reviewing windfarm applications, as evidenced by the rapid review and approval of the Wild Horse project.

3) However, Kittitas County determined that the location of the KVWPP is inappropriate due to the hundreds of surrounding residences and private properties that would be severely impacted by the project.

4) This is not the only location in the county where a windfarm can be built.  EnXco has a proposed Kittitas County windfarm project already before EFSEC, and Invenergy has begun discussion with the county about another windfarm near the Wild Horse project.  The KVWPP developer may not have other options here, but that is only because its competitors have locked up other county locations.

5) The local decision to deny this project was made by elected officials who represent county residents.  The county's authority must not be pre-empted by the state except in the most exceptional circumstances.  There are no exceptional circumstances here.

6) Approving such a controversial project - which is opposed by the majority of residents and has been fought vigorously for 5 years - will cause great resentment of the state's renewable energy policies.

When you approved the Wild Horse project you made commitments that you would not force projects on unwilling communities or pre-empt elected officials.   You were reported in a local newspaper, the Daily Record, as saying, "Gregoire asked how close people lived to the project area and said she wanted to make sure Wild Horse would have no significant impact on people.  She said her inclination is to have wind farms gain community support from the bottom up, not the top down.  It was important in her approval that pre-emption didn't occur with the Wild Horse project, she said.

We ask that you honor those commitments.  Denying this project will not prevent more windfarms from being built in the county.  But they will be built in more suitable locations, and with the support of residents and local government.

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Beauty of county to be sacrificed for nothing

To the editor:

Ellensburg resident Helen Wise (in yet another Guest Editorial) recently quoted outdated information from the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.  In March of this year and after eight month's of work; this organization completed a report entitled "Northwest Wind Integration Action Plan".  The report documents how to best integrate up to 6,000 MW of expected wind generated energy into the Pacific Northwest's existing electricity system.

The following are some quotes from their report.

"Wind is primarily an energy resource that makes relatively little contribution to meeting system peak loads.  Even with large amounts of wind, the Northwest will still need to build other generating resources to meet growing peak load requirements."

"When wind energy is added to a utility system, its natural variability and uncertainty is combined with the natural variability and uncertainty of loads.  This increases the need for flexible resources such as hydro, gas-fired power plants, or dispatchable loads to maintain utility system balance and reliability across several different timescales."

"Current tariff and rate provisions may not be sufficient to recover the costs of wind integration in all cases.  Cost recovery and allocation is a threshold issue for each control area."

"The cost threshold has been reached at BPA.  By the end of 2007, BPA may have as much as 1,500 MW of wind in its control area.  In 2007, BPA expects to revise its approach to recovering and allocating wind integration costs through formal rate case proceedings."

So Ms. Wise, don't position BPA as some sort of benevolent renewable energy "sugar daddy".  BPA will be more than happy to integrate your beloved wind power, but it will not be with hydro-electric resources and you will soon be paying dearly for their services.  Any theoretical tax benefit county residents may receive will be more than used up paying higher utility bills.

And in the end, the beauty of the Kittitas valley will have been sacrificed for nothing.

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