Good evening, everyone.  In just a few weeks we've secured over 3000 signatures on our petition to stop Xcel Energy's massive 5000-acre industrial solar farm in St. Croix County! We packed the house and delivered our petition to the Hammond Township Planning Committee last week and the petition got their attention!  The Township Planning Committee folks are members of our community, and they are good people.  They listened to our concerns, and they indicated that they were largely unaware of this project before the meeting.  Please continue to SHARE the petition to keep the momentum going.    

Let's show up and pack another meeting on Monday, December 16, 2024, at 6:00p.m. at Northwood Technical College Main Conference Room in New Richmond where the Community Service Manager for Xcel Energy will be presenting information about the massive 5000-acre King Transmission and Tenmile Creek Solar Project.  

Please plan to attend this meeting so we can respectfully let Xcel Energy know our concerns. Some of our goals are to have the project stopped and if it can't be stopped entirely, we want it to be massively downsized and moved far and away (minimum of 1 mile buffer) from residential developments (most of which are in Hammond Township).  We also want a large buffer around Nagel Wildlife Area and Casey Lake State Wildlife Area and the Kinnickinnic River watershed area.

We've also heard back from Congressman Tom Tiffany, and he is supportive of our mission! Mr. Tiffany previously introduced the Future Agriculture Retention and Management (FARM) Act. This legislation would eliminate the market-distorting energy tax handouts that help underwrite the siting of solar panels and wind arrays on agricultural lands, often taking the farmland out of production which is exactly what is happening in this case.  Congressman Tiffany plans to hold a listening session in the near future so we'll be sure to put out another update when the listening session is scheduled.

See you on Monday 12/16!