A Republican-backed bill making its way through the Indiana legislature seeks to spur wind and solar development by setting statewide zoning standards for projects, overriding county ordinances that have obstructed renewable development.

House Bill 1381, now pending in the state Senate, would eliminate the application of Indiana’s “home rule” policy in relation to commercial wind and solar development. That policy provides counties “all the powers that they need for the effective operation of government as to local affairs,” according to Indiana Code.

The bill would instead require counties to adhere to statewide zoning standards for renewable energy farms, including uniform setback requirements, height restrictions, sound level and shadow flicker limitations and decommissioning.

It also stipulates that local authorities cannot impose “standards that are more restrictive than the default standards that are adopted in this bill.” If adopted, the rules would be in place by the beginning of July.

Of Indiana’s 92 counties, 34 have ordinances restricting wind and solar projects. Some, such as Tippecanoe County, have effectively banned commercial wind projects by prohibiting turbines taller than 140 feet.

The legislation comes from an unlikely source, Rep. Ed Soliday (R), a longtime champion of coal generation. Last year, Soliday authored a successful bill that prolongs the process of retiring or selling coal plants within the state by requiring six months’ notice, a public hearing and analysis on the reasonableness of the closure. (See Indiana Senate to Contemplate Slowdown of Coal Closures.)

Soliday said HB 1381 is not a pro-environment declaration, but a necessary response to market forces.

“There is a significant market for renewable energy. The state of Indiana, on some days, is buying almost 80% of our electricity from out of state,” Soliday said at a February hearing of the state’s House Committee on Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications. He said Indiana’s largest manufacturers want renewable generation.

“And they’re going to get it,” he said. “They’re going to get it either by buying it from other folks and paying the transmission costs, or we’re going to generate some of it.”

Other Republican representatives are starting to realize that Indiana cannot subsist on a diet of coal alone. Joining Soliday in co-authoring the bill were another Republican and a Democrat. The legislation attracted two Republican sponsors.

“There is an issue with the number of counties who have either outright banned or have in effect banned large-scale renewable projects,” Rep. Ethan Manning (R) said during a Fulton County Chamber of Commerce meeting in January.

Manning said the bill does “still contain an aspect of local control” because local governments are still able to determine whether a project meets state standards.

Utilities are moving away from coal because of aging plants and economics, he said, adding that it doesn’t make financial sense to keep upgrading antique plants.

“As they move away from that reliable baseload generation, what they’re looking towards is renewables. And we can’t really stop that. I mean, we could I guess, but that would be interfering with the free market,” Manning said. “No matter what happens with coal in the future, they’re going to continue to want to build wind and solar. And I don’t want all of Indiana’s energy to come from other states.”

Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC) Executive Director Jesse Kharbanda said the bill could reverse the renewable development deadlock in some counties.

“Were HB 1381 to pass, we definitely believe that it will cause renewables developers to think anew of counties that previously had bans, as several of those counties have excellent renewable energy resources,” Kharbanda told NetZero Insider.  “Furthermore, attitudes in those communities may have shifted, due to new local leadership, greater awareness of renewable energy’s economic benefits and continuing improvement in renewables technology that address past community concerns.”

Kharbanda said Republican backers of the bill are thinking “first and foremost” of the economic development that it will facilitate.

Indiana has attracted about $7 billion in utility-scale renewables, he said, “even in the absence of a renewable electricity standard.” He added that the state “is poised to attract considerably more dollars” based on utilities’ integrated resource plans, which ramp up renewable adoption throughout this decade.

‘Disjointed Patchwork’

Several counties are labeling the bill government overreach.

Henry County Council President Susan Huhn traveled to Indianapolis in early February to testify against the rule in a committee hearing.

Commissioners in Kosciusko and White counties passed resolutions in February and March, respectively, to oppose the bill.

Kosciusko County commissioners said the bill “disenfranchises” citizens from making their own land-use decisions.

The White County Commissioners’ resolution states that they “believe that decisions regarding wind and solar development are best made by the citizens living in the community, rather than by the wind and solar industry or state officials who live outside the community.”

Kharbanda said when local control turns to overt embargoes on renewable development, it’s time for the state to step in.

“When local control — like outright bans on utility-scale renewables in certain counties — interfere with good, long-term state public policy, such as a stable investment climate to facilitate the timely expansion of the renewable energy industry, then statewide policy is appropriate to take precedence over local policy,” he said.

Kharbanda said many aspects of wind and solar farm design are “unlikely to meaningfully vary due to the geographic particularities of a community” and “lend themselves to statewide standards … provided that those standards are shaped by the very latest and best science.”

RWE Renewables Director of Government Relations Will Eberle called the state “uniquely unfriendly” to the growing renewable industry and said the standalone ordinances have deterred about $5.5 billion in renewable energy investment in the state.

“Indiana has, until now, left its renewable energy future up to a disjointed patchwork of local government regulation,” Eberle said in committee testimony earlier this year.

RWE Renewables last year terminated a $600 million, 400-MW project in Gibson and Posey counties, which enacted stricter zoning rules after the project was proposed. The rules — sound and shadow flicker restrictions, setbacks of 4.4 times the height of a wind turbine and banning turbines closer than two miles from towns, schools, hospitals, clinics and residential care facilities — caused RWE to scrap its plans.

Kharbanda said HEC hopes the bill can clear Indiana’s Republican-led Senate.

“The prospects look challenging given the number of counties that have individually expressed their opposition to the bill,” he said, adding that the renewables industry “for reasons we’re unsure of, opted to not pursue a grand coalition strategy in their efforts to advance HB 1381.”

Kharbanda said while HEC is generally supportive of the bill, he’d like to see a change concerning groundcover standards under solar farms.

“The land footprint of solar farms in Indiana — by the end of this decade — could be on the order of Indiana’s state park system,” he said. “So making sure that the land underneath solar farms benefits the community as much as possible is so crucial, for the sake of pollinators, stormwater control, soil and water conservation and the aesthetics of the area.  We’ve been advocating, since the beginning of the legislative session, that Indiana either establish baseline standards for pollinator-friendly solar that are customized by local governments, or that Indiana allow counties to retain their authority over the groundcover in and around solar farms.”