Monday night meeting set for contentious wind energy issue

A coalition of Osage County citizens has scheduled a public meeting on industrial wind factories for Monday evening.

Protect Osage Coalition will be offering information on the wind-energy industry during the session, which begins at 6 p.m. at Pawhuska’s Constantine Theater, 110 W. Main St.

Meanwhile, construction work is progressing rapidly on a wind farm development approximately 15 miles from the site of the meeting. Towers began going up last week for Osage Wind, a wind-energy development located along U.S. Highway 60 around the Oklahoma 18 junction near Burbank.

Guest speakers at the meeting are to include: Bob Hamilton of The Nature Conservancy, Rick Mosier from OK Property Rights Association, Scott Bighorse of the Osage Nation, Victor Roubidoux from the Iowa Nation, Linda Byford of Chaparral Energy, Don Wolfe from G.M. Sutton Avian Research Center and the University of Oklahoma, and a Canadian County resident, Tammy Huffstutlar.

Any interested member of the public is invited to attend the informational session, organizers said. A website associated with the coalition can be found online at protectosage.com

Osage Wind was initially granted permission in 2011 to build a 94-turbine 150-megawatt wind farm at the site. Opposition to the facility has increased as the ownership of the project changed from one company to another. It is currently owned by TradeWind Energy, a Lenexa, Kan., firm backed by Enel Green Power of Italy.

The Pawhuska-based Osage Nation has spearheaded a drive to halt construction of Osage Wind and another project proposed by TradeWind, Mustang Run, which would be located near Osage Wind. Last spring, the Osage County Board of Adjustment denied a permit for Mustang Run but that decision is currently being appealed in district court.