Associated Press
Wed, Nov. 01, 2006
KING CITY, Mo. - When one of northwest Missouri's leading employers decided to shutter a nearby manufacturing plant and ship 220 jobs to Mexico, the move was only the latest economic blow to a region accustomed to bad news.
From a steadily dwindling population to the well-documented decline of family farms, hard times have been the norm all too often in the cluster of Missouri counties along the Nebraska and Iowa borders.
Then came promises of economic salvation - or at least a step in the right direction - in the unlikely guise of a sharp-dressed St. Louis lawyer and scion of the one of the state's most prominent political families. His remedy was simple: look up to the sky.
Farmers who once relied upon hogs or soybeans to make ends meet are now harvesting wind energy. By next year, more than 100 towering turbines are expected to rise above the skyline in Atchison, Gentry and Nodaway counties, generating enough electricity to power 45,000 homes across the state as part of Missouri's first set of commercial wind farms.
"There's not a lot of money in rural America. We're not going to get another factory," said Frank Schieber, a fourth-generation Nodaway farmer. "It's a shot in the arm."
After several years of study by state government and university scientists on the technical feasibility of commercial wind operations, attorney Tom Carnahan - son of the late Gov. Mel Carnahan - created the Wind Energy Group in 2004.
With financing from tractor giant John Deere & Co., Carnahan has committed to construction of three wind farms in the state's far reaches, each costing $70 million to $75 million. The first, known as Blue Grass Ridge, will come online later this year in Gentry County north of King City.
The second, called Cow Branch, will be located between Rock Port and Tarkio in Atchison County. And on Oct. 20, a group of state and local dignitaries heard Carnahan and his corporate partners announce plans for a third wind farm near Conception in Nodaway County.
"If there's any doubt that wind power is real and can happen (in Missouri), we're here today to put that to rest," Carnahan told about 100 people gathered under a temporary tent in the shadow of the still-emerging turbines. "We're just getting started."
Property owners who allow the company to build on their land will earn $3,000 to $5,000 per turbine over the next 25 years, depending on the amount of electricity generated. They can continue to farm the surrounding land, or let herds graze, right up to the base of the turbines, which are 15 feet wide and weigh 200 tons each.
Installation of the turbines will represent a temporary construction boon - up to 150 temporary jobs at the project's peak. And the infusion of property tax receipts to local governments and school systems will be substantial, supporters say.
Mike Waltemath, a Gentry County school board member and Wind Energy Group leaseholder, said the local education system will reap roughly $250,000 annually - an increase of as much as 20 percent to its existing budget.
"That's like a gift from heaven," said Waltemath, who is challenging Rep. Jim Guest, R-King City, in the Nov. 7 election.
The announcement comes on the heels of a decision by Johnson Controls Inc. of Milwaukee earlier this year to close the York Engineered Systems plant in the Nodaway County town of Albany by early 2007, with job cuts commencing this fall. The plant makes commercial and industrial air handler units. Johnson has said it will move those operations in part to Monterey, Mexico.
Widespread use of wind power in the Midwest as well as the rest of the country remains a work in progress. In addition to environmental and aesthetic concerns - not to mention the obvious, finding open spaces with adequate wind speeds - the biggest hurdle remains finding utility companies to purchase the power, said Carnahan.
Unlike Iowa and other surrounding states, Missouri doesn't offer sales or property tax credits for wind farm construction. And with the exception of Columbia, where voters in 2004 approved a law requiring the local utility to devote a percentage of its portfolio to renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power, no statewide mandate exists.
Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, in turn, are among the Midwest states were such requirements exist. "The marketplace and the entrepreneurs are the ones who will decide" the prevalence of wind power in Missouri, said Rick Anderson, an energy analyst with the state Department of Natural Resources.
Those market forces, in the form of the past year's skyrocketing gas prices, helped drive the demand for wind-generated electricity in Missouri, he said. "If it hadn't been for (Hurricane) Katrina in 2005 we wouldn't have seen a wind farm in 2006," said Anderson.
All of the power generated by Carnahan's projects will be purchased by Associated Electrical Cooperative Inc., a wholesale power supplier for 39 rural electric cooperatives in Missouri.
Meanwhile, even without purchasing agreements with utilities, other wind prospectors are scouring the northwest Missouri countryside, looking for potential partners among local property owners. In this volatile energy climate, the appeal is simple, said Anderson. "Wind won't change in price. It will be much more stable (than fossil fuels)."
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