Wagoner County Commissioners have hired a Tulsa law firm to represent them in a fight over NextEra Energy’s plan to build a 5,000-acre solar farm near Porter.
Court filings in Wagoner County indicate the commissioners hired Adam C. Doverspike and Whitney N. Humphrey of GableGotwals, to represent them in the fight with Persica Solar LLC. The commissioners voted last month against the proposal.
The challenge by Persica Solar came after the county commissioners voted 2-1 to deny a permit for the 241-megawatt facility that would have supplied power to the grid through a Public Service Company of Oklahoma substation. Persica Solar maintained it would have generated an estimated $31 million in taxes over a 30-year period.
Persica Solar filed suit ten days after its request for a conditional use permit was rejected. The firm made two main complaints, that the County Commissioners “improperly denied Persica’s Application for Conditional Use” and that the “denial of Persica’s Application for Conditional Use Permit was unfounded under the facts and circumstances and the Conditional Use Permit should be properly issued to Persica.”
One citizen who spoke at the meeting where the denial was approved by County Commissioners recently wrote the judge to defend his comments and deny the claims of Persica Solar. Darren G. Blanchard’s letter was included in the court filings.
“To characterize my contribution – or that of other members of the public – as baseless or unsupported quite is factually inaccurate and unfairly prejudicial, especially when the public record shows the opposite,” he said in the July 7 letter to District Judge Douglas Kirkley.
His concern was the contention of Persica Solar, LLC’s filing that at each of the five public Board of County Commissioners meetings, “the BOCC allowed protesters to make claims and statements without being sworn under oath or providing evidence to support the claims and statements.”
“This statement appears to generalize and discredit the individuals who spoke in opposition to the proposed development. While no individuals were named, it is reasonably inferred that I am among those being referenced due to my documented and active participation in the meetings.”
Blanchard informed the judge he was properly signed up to speak at the dates mentioned by Persica Solar and said his presentation was supported by visual slides and his claims consisted of more than 30 pages and included over 80 “source citations of state and federal agency reports, peer-reviewed scientific studies, recorded anecdotal evidence, legal precedents, planning documents via regional transmission organizations, and direct communications obtained through the Oklahoma Open Records Act.”
Blanchard opposed the solar farm and explained his presentation made a “clear demonstration that the Persica Solar Energy Center was a premature, unplanned and scattered development in the agricultural district.”
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