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LG&E recently completed a very in-depth study "casting a shadow over the solar power dream". In summary the solar study says, it would take more land and money than the customers would bear, utility cost would be 2.5 to 3.5 times as much in 2030 as sticking to the current system and it would result in land being used for solar panels and battery storage on a scale that would likely not be acceptable to the local community. Follow the link to the solar case study.
Why would any company, especially LG&E who prides itself on its good corporate citizenship and a commitment to being "green" cut down hundreds of trees and destroy thirty-five acres of Green Space for a "voluntary and optional" project when there are so many degraded SOLAR sites available?
SOLAR SHARE SITE
No laymen reading the one and only public notice would suspect that a solar facility or anything was going to be built on Conner Station Road. PLEASE read the notice.
We ARE NOT opposed to Solar. We are very much opposed to LG&E's total disregard for the recommendations of the United States Enviromental Protection Agency who encourage the use of brownfields, contaminated sites, landfills, rooftops, and previously developed or degraded land for Solar. Solar can be produced anywhere the sun shines. Installing 12,000 solar panels on 35 acres of lush green Shelby County farm land for nothing more than a advertising campaign to show the world they are going green is outrageous.
We believe every statement and fact mentioned on this website can be verified by following the adjacent blue link to the Public Service Commission website - Case Filings for: 2016-00274
PROPERTY VALUES on industrial lands or on current or formerly developed industrial property, or on contaminated land, landfills and brownfield sites may not be adversely affected by a Solar Array. It will clearly affect the natural rural beauty and the value of the property along Conner Station Road. If you were investing in a property for your home and had two choices, one beside a pasture and one beside a solar farm, which would you choose? The answer seems obvious and as this project goes forward it will have long term effects on the value of nearby properties.
Accountability & Corporate Responsibility. In the last few years it’s become obvious BULLIES can no longer hide behind their wealth or be protected by giant their corporations. BULLYING is no longer being tolerated! What LG&E’s is doing on Conner Station Road clearly shows its managers are responsible for the ongoing corporate culture of BULLYING by using their massive corporate resources to lobby against the citizens of Kentucky. We also believe senior management of all corporate BULLIES, especially those who abuse the rights of eminent domain should be held personally responsible for misrepresentations made to the local and state agency’s which provide oversite for their undertakings. Please help us make them accountable!
The next time you see a member of LG&E’s senior management at a sporting event, or at the grocery store, or in the park, ask them to explain why they aren’t following the recommendations of the US Environmental Protection Agency and putting their solar array on already developed or degraded land. Ask them why they've chosen to destroy 35 acres of lush green space for nothing more than an advertising campaign. Ask them why they are shifting the burden of killing hundreds of trees and destroying 35 acres of Green Space to those of us who might want to subscribe to Solar Share.
All of us, whether we participate in this experimental project or not, are paying for Solar Share as part of the recent LG&E rate increase.
On August 2nd of 2016, Louisville Gas & Electric Company & Kentucky Utilities Company applied to the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) for permission to build a Solar Array for a “New, Optional and Voluntary, Solar Share Program” which when complete will have 12,000 solar panels standing almost ten feet high where Conner Station Road and I-64 intersect in Shelby County KY. While a solar facility can be constructed anywhere there is sunlight, LG&E has repeatedly stated and was quoted in the newspaper, the site was chosen because it can be seen from the interstate. Ironically, they are building a 35-acre billboard in this rural area to sell Solar Share.
How did all of this occur? LG&E BULLIED their way onto Conner Station Road by not following the rules of procedure required by state statutes, and by using a loophole in KRS 278.216 (a statute used for backup generators) which allowed them to avoid providing a Site Compatibility Certificate and a Site Assessment Report. Because they didn't follow the rules of procedure, they've also avoided complying with zoning and land use requirements, and even worse, they are building without construction oversight from the PSC or from any state or local governing entity. Not following the rules of procedure put the citizens of KY at a great disadvantage because they skirted the laws pertaining to PUBLIC NOTICE.
Public notice is critical. It's the only way for the public to know what is being proposed and triggers the only opportunity for the public to protect themselves by intervening in the process. Obviously, LG&E didn’t want the public to be notified. In the application to the PSC, LG&E overestimated the cost of Public Notice by almost 40% and then convinced the PSC to require only one public notice, alleging it was too expensive to provide the three consecutive weekly public notices required by law. The notice was not published when the application was filed, again a requirement of the statutes, and when finally published, was so deceptively written it didn't mention construction of any kind. The link to the public notice is below.
Even more outrageous. LG&E requested and received permission from the PSC to allow the deadline for intervention to be only 17 days after the date of the Application, before the public notice was published. How is that possible? After the deadline for intervention passed, LG&E hosted a neighborhood meeting to discuss the project but invited only 20 of the 100 plus families who live in the immediate area. When questioned about not inviting more of the neighbors, LG&E’s manager of real estate wrote in an email ” we anticipated others learning about the project through word of mouth discussions with family and friends, as well as the media outlets.” If the grapevine didn't work, so much the better for LG&E. It was left to neighbors to purchase a mailing list, send a letter to everyone, and requested a REAL neighborhood meeting. LG&E refused to meet.
After the residents learned what was really planned, the PSC received a multitude of letters protesting the proposal. However, because the deadline for intervening had passed before anyone knew what was going on, few of the letter writers knew to hire an attorney to request permission to intervene. After a formal request to intervene was filed, the PSC promptly denied it on November 4, 2016 and immediately approved the project, despite having originally suspended LG&E's request for approval until January 31, 2017, the suspension date stated in the public notice . LG&E persuaded the PSC to do everything possible to keep the public out of the process.
If KENTUCKY'S Public Service Commission continues to allow utility companies not to follow the rules of procedure, allow them to continue not authenticating cost and deadlines they provide to the agencies who oversee them, are allowed to continue to use loop-holes in non-applicable outdated laws that were never intended for 35 acres sites, and are allow to build projects without oversite from any governmental body, consider the consequences to the citizens of KY. It’s beyond comprehension! There won't be any green space.