I'm starting a  new thread here to help with the clutter.

one thing that  became  increasingly 'clear'  in  the advancement of  my local project,  was  the  'land grab'  by various  developers.

Ours  was originally  conceived  by a  outfit out of  Chicago..     which was  eventually  sold to grande prairie llc,  a Minnesota venture.  They went and did all the leg work, engineering,  impact studies... etc.     Which then  was  sold to  BHE.     

One can't help think of the  cash burned up  just to  'study' the area,  all possible  via  grants  from  'guess who'..  One can only  speculate  the  price of that  'business plan'  brought  when handed to  BHE!!!  

Anyway,    it's  just like the gold rush:  Gobble up huge  land blocks  before your competition   does,   and   hopefully  there will be enough  rubes  to agree to  letting them  develop wind towers on their land.. as they (developers)  are modern day  'rain makers'. 

  I fear the flood gates  are open now,  I have received  at least 2 different inquiries  for  SOLAR developers,  wanting to acquire larger   blocks of land..    I've heard that  the  tax incentive   goes away in 2020,  so  time is running out.. and  panic  may  drive developers to    'throw up'  any ol project.    All it takes  is  a  shovel full of  dirt to  say  'project is  started'. 

I will tell you right now,  that the 'promise'  to  hire  'X' amount of workers  in the project area  is  not entirely true..      Yes,  I'll agree  there were probably 300 workers  marching around  here  for the past  12 months,  but they sure didn't come from HERE!   These  guys  pulled in  with their  travel trailers,   and  pitched  camp  anywhere they could find.      N Dak,  Minnesota,  Texas,  Carolinas,  and  Virginia  were  very very common. It was hard to  see  all those fancy  chromed out, lifted 4X4's   headed out to work every morning... amongst  the local beat-to-crap local ranch trucks.

  The  expected  'swell'  economically wise  by the  townsfolk  never happened.  Ok,  the bars made out great!       Them  guys  sent  most of their paycheck back home to 'momma'.  In fact,  our local sheriff's budget  has  gone  up due to  extra patrols, extra shifts,    and  prisoner detention costs.  imagine  those workers  sitting in town on a rainy week... with nothing to do.. We found out that  Iron workers, heavy equipment operators, and  COWBOYS  do not 'mix'...

   One  highlight  I found  interesting;  the workers soon found out how Nebraska  taxes!  They  suddenly found  a  'road user fee'  attached to their paychecks,  and  it was an extreme deep  deduction!    Lots of  bitching there!

Our county will be held liable for keeping the roads  clear for them.  The 4  townships  that this  project is built on  have  board members that needed to get liability insurance on themselves... in case  BHE  sues  for  not maintaining the roads.     We  run about  5 maintainers to  cover just the county roads,  plus the  private contractor  maintainers for the  township roads.   This county is   basically  50X60 miles..   we have learned to  'wait'  after storms  to  travel.  BHE  may not be as  'flexible'.       So, to protect  their a$$es,   our  township board members  paid out of their own pocket   for liability  insurance.   

When would  they need to get out and  service  the towers??   AFTER A MAJOR STORM..   

Then  besides  the previous mentioned  issues,  both here and  below,     we  now  have to worry about   the  'value'  that these  white weeds  have in the eyes of  the  State!  We have a fearless governor that drools over any project that promises  revenue for the state..  damn the  consequences!  We hardly hear of  budget reform,   or  cutting spending.. it's always    'more revenue!'

  There is  speculation that   after the  tax forgiveness,  *Nebraska is  also famous for NOT  taxing  the  big boys,  in order to bring em here..    that  SOMEBODY, is eventually going to cough up  property tax on those  things!!    Promises  made 4,5,6 yrs ago seem to dissolve in  bad budget or election years.   Worry about  attaching the  value of the  tower  to  the  land it sits on  is  a  very glum  scenario,  especially if  BHE  'elects'  to  stop  paying after 7 years.

'green initiative'  is  the perfect  'legal' way to print money..  extort it if you will.

My local project makes no  physical sense.    We have  a  large  WAPA  transmission line  that is  nearly maxed out  with hydro electric power off the Missouri river.   This project  has a  'switch yard'... to    direct the   wind power  down the line,   and  shuts off the flow from the  water turbines..   either  source makes  basically   zero emissions.   So  why spend  tax payers money to  subsidize a    $500+ million wind facility???  Some  'genius'  somewhere  mandated  that hydro power is NOT  'renewable'.     That is  why.    insane reasoning to  keep the  tree huggers happy...  no new dams, and paves the way to tear out old dams too.  

  When   the  end-user of this  juice is  at least  200 miles away,  possibly  closer to 1000 miles.  The line loss has to be  astronomical. 

There is  so much more at stake here than  the  tiny amount land owners  are promised..    it's  more  on what it's going to COST.