Trana Rogne: Wind Farm Ownership

Wind Farm Ownership

To the Editor:

While signing the guest book at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, the receptionist saw we were from North Dakota. She asked us why our state, with 40% of the nation’s wind resources, has done so little with it.
We had to explain that our Republican governor and the Republican legislature must have other priorities. The Governor has not joined the Midwestern Governors’ Association which is currently addressing energy issues.
They (the Governor and the Republican legislature) have not joined MISO, a Midwestern power transmission authority, to work on transmission of power to the nation. They have set the goal for total wind power generation too low.
Most of the wind farms are owned by out-of-state investors who take the North Dakota wind and export the power and line their pockets with the profits.
But there is hope. The Democratic NPL candidate for governor, working with Senator
Dorgan, Senator Conrad and Representative Pomeroy, can provide a way for North Dakota to develop North Dakota wind and, with community ownership of wind farms, bring the profits home to North Dakota citizens.

-Trana Rogne
Kindred, N.D.