BY KEITH BENMAN, Times of Northwest Indiana
kbenman@nwitimes.com
FOWLER, Ind. | More than 100 people in rural Benton County signed onto America's energy future on Thursday.
Farmers, local officials and BP employees lined up in a construction yard to sign and write messages on 130-foot turbine blades, which will be the first hoisted onto a tower at the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm.
"You can't really argue with it," said Lana Wallpe, earlier in the morning at her family's farm two miles away. "It's good clean energy with none of the evil byproducts."
BP and Dominion Resources estimate they will invest more than $1 billion in the wind farm once all 462 wind turbines are spinning, perhaps as early as 2011.
The pollution-free nature of the giant electric-generating turbines was also the theme for BP executives and Gov. Mitch Daniels, who spoke briefly before the signing ceremony.
They spoke to almost 300 people under a white tent as big as a football field set in a gravel lot amidst corn and soybean fields.
BP North America President Robert Malone pointed out the United States has 5 percent of the world's population but uses 25 percent of its oil.
"We have to do a better job of generating our own energy, and we have to do a much better job of lowering our carbon footprint," Malone said.
Later, Malone said he believes federal legislation to institute carbon caps and carbon trading in the United States could be passed into law next year.
Last year, BP was one of dozens of companies forming an alliance calling on the U.S. government to institute caps on carbon emissions or so-called greenhouse gases.
Daniels also used the moment to comment on the larger theme of energy independence. And he thanked U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., for not joining those who oppose the expansion of BP's Whiting Refinery.
"The ill-informed, I'll be charitable, who would stop, first of all, the biggest single investment, thousands of construction jobs and countless jobs beyond, but forget that, a refinery that will contribute to the end of $4 per gallon gas," Daniels said in a bold forecast and swipe at critics.
The National Resources Defense Council has said it plans to sue BP in federal court for alleged Clean Air Act violations at the refinery. Environmental groups also have challenged the state air permit for the expanded BP refinery.
The governor said Benton County and Indiana are poised to be leaders in renewable energy. The Fowler Ridge Wind Farm will be the nation's largest when fully built.
Five miles up the road from Thursday's ceremony, wind turbines already are spinning at Orion Energy's Benton County Wind Farm. That is the first operating wind farm in Indiana.
As chairman of the Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee in the U.S. House, Visclosky said he always looks to back renewable energy projects with the smallest carbon footprint.
Those listening took politicians words with a grain of salt. But they said there's no doubt the giant wind turbines BP is placing on their land under long-term leases will forever change Benton County. It has a population of just 8,810 people spread over 406 square miles.
Farmers will receive payments of between $5,000 and $9,000 per year for allowing turbines to be sited on their land.
Jewel Gretencord said three wind turbines are being constructed on her family's corn and soybean farm, offering a steady income as crop prices gyrate up and down.
"It's guaranteed money," Gretencord said.
Benton County government already is reaping benefits from the wind farm, with BP and Dominion paying the county $680,000 for building permits for the first 222 turbines, County Council President Bruce Buchanan said.
In exchange for a granting a sliding 10-year tax abatement on the turbines, the county will receive annual $1 million payments for four years. It estimates those payments and later tax payments will add up to $55 million within 20 years.
"It's just such a huge project, none of us can comprehend it yet," said Buchanan. "But we will."