Amicus Brief

My name is Daniel Kjergaard.  I am a part of the amicus brief that was filed in Jackson County to stop the development of solar projects without the developers going through the proper channels, research and analysis that is required by federal law for them to do before they start a project.

I own property in Osage County, Kansas, and I’ve paid attention to all of the alternative energy projects and and the whole development of those projects and the impact on the environment, financial issues, the communities at large. And based on the research, I have done on both wind and solar. I am strongly opposed to what these developers are trying to do in Atchison County and other counties across Kansas.

My concerns are several, from several angles. As it relates to the environment. My concerns are related to wildlife in that I believe that when you put in any kind of disrupt native materials, equipment, things like that, in the middle of an environment that is very natural, it has an impact on all of the wildlife.

I believe that has been evident over the decades where we’ve seen the destruction of, pheasant and other game birds across the state of Kansas as the habitat has changed. It’s fairly obvious to me. I have, like I said, farm ground. And if I cultivate farm ground, if I take it out of pasture or native grass and farm it, when I start farming it, we apply chemicals and fertilizer and other things that definitely have an impact on the natural wildlife that was there prior to taking that land out of its natural use. So it just seems logical that when we do the same and we do it even more dramatically, when either wind turbines or solar panels are put in as large industrial size projects, that has to have a negative impact on the environment. I will say I haven’t done a scientific study to that effect, but I don’t believe the developers have either.

A project that is being contemplated in Osage County right now is so voluminous, I don’t believe this size project has ever been done before. It is a 5000 acre solar project that is currently under development. Or at least it’s being proposed to be developed.  I have to believe that if this were to go into play, that the surrounding area would be devastated.  Just in terms of the impact on the wildlife, it seems like it seems logical. Certainly if you lose the production of 5000 acres, whether it was made of grass or soybeans or whatever, it definitely impacts the food supply, wildlife, and also I have to believe that it impacts the ground cover that is so important to keep us from losing our valuable topsoil.

When you lose topsoil, you have a lot of erosion, which I know there’s a lot of federal laws that prohibit, farmers or landowners from doing that without getting approval. And it’s my understanding that even the Inflation Reduction Act required that to be done prior to any solar or wind projects being approved.

I would be curious to know what studies have been done and to what extent those studies have been done. In reaction to the amicus brief that was filed in Jackson County, KS and by extension, any other development projects that are being considered right now for either solar or wind, it just seems like exhaustive studies need to be performed on what the impacts are to ground cover, vegetation, climate, etc.  Especially since these, these, programs are supposedly being put in place to save the environment.

Another big concern I have from an environmental perspective is the impact on the economic environment surrounding the areas.  Who wants to live next to a wind turbine or a big solar plant.  Ultimately, property values are driven by the economics, one on one, the balance between supply and demand.  When there’s a destruction to the demand for land or ground, then it reduces the the value of that property. It seems logical that when the physical environment gets destroyed or impacted by, again, either solar or wind, there’s there is an impact to the agriculture use of that property as well as surrounding properties. There’s less vegetation, more runoff of, streams and ruts in the ground, the topsoil gets eroded.

The agriculture value of the property is less so farmers, ag producers are less likely to want to buy that kind of property.

Livestock producers, when there’s less grass or less productive grass, they’re less likely to want to buy the property.

Recreational people, people that are involved in hunting native native wildlife also have less desire to own that property because now there’s less wildlife .

Residential folks, the people who want to live on a pony farm that is outside of the metro areas, they have less desire to buy property adjacent to industrial developments.

Collectively, when you have such an exodus of, potential buyers of property, logically that equates to a destruction of property values. There was a study done, I can’t remember if it was 5 or 10 years ago. I believe it was a professor from Wichita State. It’s the only study I’ve seen done, and it was funded by proponents of the wind industry.  It was in western Kansas. It was a very weak study. To begin with, it was done by proponents of wind. So it was tainted, in my opinion. And there were a number of flaws with this particular study, it did not apply to any of the counties in eastern Kansas. It was kind of a one size fits all study and, too broad a brush in my opinion to be very effective.

To my knowledge, there’s no scientific studies out there to document or support the potential impact to the economic environment. With the implementation of wind and solar projects in a community. It seems like the only winners that I’ve seen in these projects are people that are not involved in the local community.  It’s out of state developers, out of state energy companies, consultants that are not living in the area that are the ones that benefit.

The big losers are the local communities that are left holding the bag once these projects are done.