The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld a wind farm moratorium and ordinance imposed by a county whose residents didn’t want any more turbines around their homes and farms.
Just as wind farm fights are held in Oklahoma over the state’s growth in wind turbines, the same fight occurred in Iowa, a state ranked number two in the nation for renewable power.
The Court’s ruling was in favor of Worth County, located in the far northwest corner of the state. The justices ruled in a lawsuit brought by wind farm developer worthwhile Wind. The company went to court after it launched plans in 2018 to install and construct 55 wind turbines at a cost of about $300 million.
But residents complained about the existing wind turbines in the county and two new supervisors elected to the three-member board voted in 2021 to adopt a temporary moratorium on any more wind farms in the county. The moratorium was followed a year later by the county’s first ordinance regulating wind farms.
Worthwhile went to court with a complaint that its work on the proposed wind farm occurred before the adoption of the moratorium. But the Supreme Court determined Worthwhile never turned a shovel and never filed a permit application. The Court said the company spent less than one percent of the total cost of the project.
Radio Iowa reported one Justice wrote a dissenting opinion. “The majority today blesses the county’s about-face and effectively kills the project despite its advanced stage. In my view, the facts here easily establish that the developer has a vested right
under our precedents to finish the project.”