By Kyle Vuille
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
A new clean energy option is in the works for Eastern Montana as a public input meeting in Wibaux took place Wednesday afternoon at the Wibaux County Courthouse.
The proposed Wibaux Wind Farm would be located a couple miles west of Wibaux and would be visible to the north and south sides of Interstate 94.
Last week’s meeting was done in an open house format with lots of graphic displays of information scattered around the small courtroom.
The purpose of the “public scoping meeting” was for representatives from Western Area Power Administration to hear citizen’s environmental concerns about the wind farm project.
Meetings like this one happen in the very early stages of development and are mandatory, according to the National Environmental Policy Act.
After WAPA runs through the 15 different categorized factors such as socioeconomic, water, air quality, and wildlife, the group will then issue an environmental analysis and will give the public 30 days to comment.
The proposed project would include 40 to 45 wind turbines. Developers are looking at the 2.5 megawatt turbines adding up to 100 MW in total.
The funding for the wind farm would come from investors that the developer Shoener Environmental has leased the land from.
Ed Shoener, the project manager, said Shoener Environmental started talking to landowners about two years ago and gradually started leasing the roughly 20 square mile area.
“It’s a big ‘if’, but best case scenario, construction would start next summer,” Shoener said.
The rough estimates for each turbine are $2-3 million for a total of $130-160 million.
Comments from the public can be submitted in numerous ways.
Mail: Western Area Power Administration
Attn: Ms. Christina Gomer
2900 4th Avenue North
Billings, MT 59101
Fax: (406) 255-2900
Email: gomer@wapa.gov
Reach Kyle Vuille at
news@rangerreview.com.