A pro-wind group out of Lenexa this weekend purchased a full-page color ad in The Hutchinson News claiming NextEra Energy’s proposed Reno County wind farm would add more than $130 million to the county economy, including $50 million in land payments for local farmers. NextEra made a similar claim in a half-page ad in The News on March 31.
The claims in both ads are based on an economic impact study by a fellow at the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University.
Opponents of the 80-plus turbine wind farm, however, challenged the numbers during public hearings earlier this month on NextEra’s application for a conditional use permit.
A separate cost-benefits study by the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University came to a different, much smaller conclusion, though that analysis did not include all the same data.
There are also questions The News has asked NextEra about the employment levels it has promised — a key element of each study — but that NextEra officials declined to respond to until after the hearing process is over.
(Read more: News – The Hutchinson News)