Lakewood Council Urges State To Lift Restriction On Wind Farms

LAKEWOOD, OH — The Lakewood City Council unanimously expressed support for a wind farm project in Lake Erie and lambasted the Ohio Power Siting Board for "effectively killing" the project.

Project Icebreaker would be the first freshwater wind farm in the U.S., operating in Lake Erie. If completed, the project would install six wind turbines eight miles off shore. The facility would generate 20.7 megawatts, according to state documents. Some politicians have suggested the project could deliver $250 million to the local economy, though other estimates suggest less activity will be generated.

After a years-long development process, the Icebreaker plan was approved by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Ohio Power Siting Board—with one crippling caveat. The wind farm would not be able to operate for eight months a year.

The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo), which is spearheading Project Icebreaker, said the Siting Board's decision makes Icebreaker financially unfeasible.

“I hope that the Board does the right thing and removes that onerous shutdown condition from its ruling, thus giving a green light to a project that will benefit the entire state,’’ Dave Karpinski, president of LEEDCo, said.

The decision comes after birding groups, including the National Audobon Society, spoke in opposition to the project because of its dangers to migratory birds. However, the area is not home to any federally or state listed species, according to state documents. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources agreed on a pre-construction and post-construction monitoring program for bird and bat species.

Boating clubs said the turbines could present a navigational hazard for boaters, though a staff report from the Siting Board suggested recreational impacts to Lake Erie would be limited.

Several Northeast Ohio politicians have questioned the Siting Board's decision to limit the operation time of the wind farm, including state Senator Sandra Williams, from Cleveland, and state Rep. Jeffrey Crossman, from Parma. Both have called on the board to either explain why it added the shutdown order, or remove the order completely.

Williams described the board's decision as a "tragic mistake." In a letter to the board, in which she describes their decision as "arbitrary," she further adds that the shutdown order “had less to do with killing birds and more to do with killing this project.…Cleveland doesn’t get opportunities like this every day and we can’t afford to walk away from this one. For the good of the constituents we share, I again ask my voting colleagues on the OPSB to reconsider this misguided decision.’"

This week, the Lakewood City Council joined the fray, unanimously passing a resolution in support of Project Icebreaker and asking the Siting Board to remove its shutdown mandate. The Council argued the shutdown order violates state law because it fails to provide coherent reasoning for the shutdown.

"The OPSB exceeded its authority by requiring zero impact every night for 8 months: the state law standard is for minimum impact considering economics and technology," the resolution said.

For more information on the Icebreaker project, visit the Siting Board's website.