Icebreaker Project Update: Wind Turbines in Lake Erie
Published: Saturday, October 15, 2022 12:00 pm
By: Lake Erie Foundation
There has been recent news about the Icebreaker Project. On August 10, 2022, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the Ohio Power Siting Board lawfully approved the proposed six wind turbines pilot project in Lake Erie. The only dissenting voice was Justice Sharon Kennedy who is running for chief justice on November 8th. This gives LEEDCO the green light to find more customers for the electricity and be ready to start construction for the first freshwater, offshore wind project in North America.
This is not the end of this complicated story.
Lake Erie Foundation supports a federal lawsuit filed by the Black Swamp Bird Observatory against Icebreaker. Lake Erie Foundation filed an Amicus Brief to back their challenge in Federal District Court. The intent is to have the court reexamine the siting process approval for wind turbines in Lake Erie. The lawsuit is still pending.
What will be funding the project’s $175 Million construction costs is still unknown. Congress opposed the project’s need for subsidized funding from ratepayers. The final project funding has not been confirmed and the funding gap has been anywhere from $40 to $50 Million. And the power output needs to be sold. Currently, the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County has committed to purchase one third of the output.
In response to this recent development, Jim Stouffer, President of Lake Erie Foundation, wrote an essay published in the Saturday Toledo Blade on September 24th. The essay poses questions to LEEDCO about the environmental impacts and asks them to substantiate and confirm claims made on jobs, costs for construction and power. We believe that they have not addressed these concerns. You can read the article here.
As quoted in this article from March 2022, “Our organization is not opposed to renewable energy,” says Jim Stouffer, Lake Erie Foundation President, “but we are absolutely against turning Lake Erie, which is Ohio’s most precious natural resource, into a turbine farm. Ohioans have invested 50 years and much treasure to turn our once maligned lake into the wonderful, clean boating, fishing and tourist draw it is today. We’re fighting to protect it now and for future generations.
tags: Environmental Impact, Lake Erie
