Without asking a soul, Gov. Sam Brownback made a deal with some wind energy companies to put 11,000 square miles of central Kansas off-limits to wind farms.
Now it seems that Cowley County Commissioners had been working for years to get a wind farm established there. They woke up a few days ago to discover that the governor had done them out of a deal. The county is now part of the Tallgrass Heartland. And Big Daddy says there ain’t gonna be no wind farms there, never ever.
But Daddy didn’t talk to the Cowley County Commissioners first. Nor did he bother to consult the legislators who represent the county in the Legislature. Sen. Steve Abrams, an Arkansas City Republican; Rep; Kasha Kelly, R-Arkansas City and Rep. Ed Trimmer, D-Winfield wrote a joint letter to Brownback asking him what the heck. Why didn’t he clue them in? The gov’s answer hasn’t been made public.
Come to find out, nobody in Morris, Marion, Elk, Chautauqua or Butler counties, all of which are now in no-wind-turbine country, had been told that the governor was playing fast and loose with their property rights or their rights to determine their own economic development do’s and don’ts.
Someone in the governor’s office allowed as how he is highly in favor of economic development in those counties, but of a different kind. Rather than cashing in on the very substantial payments that wind farm operators make to land owners, they will get rich on tourists, instead.
Tourists will come in droves, it was explained, because there are no wind turbines allowed. And maybe landowners can set up roadside stands to cash in.
Hmmm — let’s think this through. No turbines means tourists. But there are no turbines twirling away today on those Flint Hills, are there? So where’s the meat?
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
