Last call for public comments on Goldfinch Solar Project

AINSWORTH — The Iowa Utilities Board has set a deadline of Sept. 3 for members of the public to file “Intervention and objections or comments” on the Goldfinch Solar Project’s application for a generating certification, as well as its application for a waiver from the standard public hearing process.

The date falls 30 days after the order was issued Aug. 4. The company will have until Sept. 10 to respond to any complaints filed on the IUB docket, after which state officials will determine how to proceed with the approval process.

An attorney for the company had requested that the typical public hearing requirement be waived, given the nearly yearlong window for written comments since the project’s announcement, and the further expenses and delays that holding a public hearing would entail.

“Delaying a decision in this matter would likely hinder the procurement and construction of the Project, jeopardize Goldfinch Solar’s ability to maximize tax benefits made available to the Project, and delay the benefits of the project to landowners, the county, and the state,” Attorney Samantha Norris said on Goldfinch’s behalf in the waiver application.

In Friday’s announcement, the IUB said it would determine whether or not to hold a public hearing after the comment period and subsequent response deadline had passed.

“Several previous dockets … have involved applications for generating certificates with requests for the Board to waive procedural schedules and hearing requirements,” the board order said. “In each of those dockets, after accepting the respective applications as complete, the Board set a limited procedural schedule to establish deadlines … The Board finds this approach to be reasonable and will similarly defer consideration of Goldfinch Solar’s waiver requests here.”

While written comments on the project’s IUB docket are mostly positive, it received heavy criticism at an in-person informational meeting in Ainsworth on Sept. 26, 2022.

Additionally, a Union report in early June found that at least 21 of those support letters submitted between January and March, each attributed to different people, were identical copies from one of seven pre-written templates. Those comments were likely drafted by someone on a door-knocking campaign in the area, according to two of the people cited as sources for the letters who said they agreed with the project but had submitted nothing themselves.

To file a comment supporting or opposing the project, or its request for a public hearing waiver, interested members of the public should take the following steps before the Sept. 3 deadline:

To view the docket without filing a comment, visit EFS.Iowa.Gov, click the “find” link near the top of the page, and enter the docket number GCU-2022-0002 in the appropriate box. Or click the link in the online version of this article.

A fact sheet from Goldfinch Solar LLC says the project is expected to cost around $250 million, with a generating capacity of 200 megawatt-hours. If approved by state regulators, the company expects its facility to start commercial generation in roughly 2025. Items on the project’s IUB docket say it would take up roughly span around 3,200 acres of leased farmland in the area around Haskins, an unincorporated community along Washington County’s eastern border.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com