Currently, most of Humboldt County's energy comes from natural gas, which is piped in from the Great Plains and Canada. As is said, "think global, act local," and this is Humboldt's chance to take action in support of its own energy generation needs. California has an ambitious renewable energy goal of 100% renewable by 2045.
Terra-Gen's Humboldt Wind Project would provide up to 155 MW of clean, locally-sourced renewable energy, enough to power over 70,000 households, and could provide up to 36% of Humboldt's energy needs. The project, consisting of up to 60 turbines, would be located on private property along Monument and Bear River Ridges west of the Scotia.
Locating the project in Humboldt County would directly benefit our community from property tax dollars of $25M in the first ten years of the project and $76M over the life of the project. Additionally, local sales tax dollars are estimated at $5.3M during construction, and $7.7M over the life of the project, injecting much-needed revenues. The project would create up to 300 construction jobs, and up to 15 permanent jobs that would provide a direct and immediate benefit to local workers with additional benefits to our local economy.
I support projects that build our community and economy, and that takes environmental protection seriously. I understand that the Humboldt Wind Project and Terra-Gen, working in conjunction with input from state and federal agencies, has conducted extremely rigorous avian, bat, wildlife and natural resource analyses to determine the environmental impact of the project and is developing appropriate mitigation strategies to reduce the project's potential effects to satisfy California's landmark environmental protection regulation, CEQA.
For the above reasons, I support the development of the Humboldt Wind Project because it is a project that is part of the solution to climate change, and would directly benefit the businesses and people of Humboldt County, now and into the future.
