Rural counties want more say on renewable power projects

By COLLIN GALLANT on January 11, 2023.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

A group of rural municipalities is looking to exert more local authority over how renewable power projects are approved by provincial regulators.

On Tuesday, Cypress County council discussed joining an advocacy campaign being launched by the County of Rockyview, near Calgary, which would lobby the province and propose how to give local council’s more leverage to set rules on power projects

“We believe that municipalities should have more influence over the process for determining where these projects are located,” reads a letter from Rockyview County Reeve Crystal Kissel.

“The request is not to oppose the development of renewable energy projects … It is our responsibility to ensure orderly and beneficial development of lands and to maintain the quality of the physical environment (of our) residents.”

Alberta has seen a major increase in wind and solar projects over the past three years, as well as heated hearings at times when the projects often comprise sections of land opposed by neighbouring landowners.

That has also come against a backdrop of major concerns about the oil and gas sector’s ability to deal with growing well abandonment liabilities, and mounting concern about tax and environmental concerns among members of the Rural Municipalities Association.

According to Cypress County administrators, the new effort would engage lobbying firm Alberta Counsel, operated by former MLA Shane Saskiw.

“We have taken resolution after resolution to RMA and it’s never gone further,” said Cypress County CAO Tarolyn Aaserud.

Cypress council members endorsed its support and dedicated $10,000 toward the effort.

“This is a step that we need to get something going,” said Reeve Dan Hamilton.

Local governments are the development authority and issue municipal permits and handle zoning, but utility projects are approved by the AUC and local decision making must consider some provincial planning guidance.

In much of southern Alberta that is the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan, which gives weight to water conservation but also asks that agricultural land be maintained continuous as much as possible while also considering industrial or other development.

Other municipalities have considered or passed bylaws that limit the total acreage available for wind projects or solar farms, or limiting them to least productive areas or soil types.

But, such distinctions are difficult to determine, often contentious and can conflict with other regulatory approvals.

An Alberta Utilities Commission decision in December ruled against the Municipal District of Taber, which had asked that a $10-million decommissioning bond be required from the proposed Vauxhall Solar Plant.

Developer Solar Krafte successfully argued that environmental liabilities were low, and the county was inserting itself in a contractual arrangement between itself and private landowners.

The AUC noted that although polluter-pay principal has been upheld by the Supreme Court, the province doesn’t apply similar deposits for oilfield infrastructure that comes under similar leasing agreements with landowners.

Such guidance would have to come from the province, it decided.

Though the size of wind projects is often stated in sections, the footprint of each turbine is rarely more than a few acres.

Solar fields however, can cover hundreds of acres of land, essentially making the land useless to intensive agriculture or grazing.

Those projects however, are seen as an important source of steady lease income for land owners, as well as sources of tax revenue as oil and gas taxes wanes.

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