Giant wind turbines are the backdrop for the St. Nicholas Coal Breaker Plant in Pennsylvania, a relic of America’s industrial revolution, which was at one time the largest coal breaker in the world. Photo by Bill Dickinson The Battle for Wind Farm Siting in Virginia by Daniel J. Wisniewski Some may remember a short-lived effort in the 2013 General Assembly to eliminate local government siting author-ity over large-scale wind farms. 1 The sponsor pulled the plug on the bill after it generated a concentrated backlash by the Virginia Association of Counties, the Virginia Municipal League, and a number of local governments. But is the battle for renewable energy facility sit-ing authority over? Not likely. Virginia’s renewable energy policy is relatively new and unsettled. Since 2006, the General Assembly has been chip-ping away at local siting authority. Local govern-ments should consider implementing reasonable wind facility siting regulations in order to under-cut further movements by the energy industry to reduce local power to regulate. The Legislative Battle The keystone of the Virginia Energy Plan, adopted in 2006, is the Commonwealth Energy Policy (CEP), 2 which is a list of progressive energy goals 12 VIRGINIA LAWYER | December 2014 | Vol. 63 | GENERAL INTEREST FEATURES to be followed by state agencies and local govern-ments. Some of the CEP’s goals include promot-ing the use of renewable energy sources, energy efficient systems and vehicles, biofuels, clean coal technologies, improved energy infrastructure, and methane and natural gas. 3 The CEP does not directly address energy facility siting, and instead creates an oblique siting obligation for local governments. 4 As proposed by Senator Frank W. Wagner (R-Virginia Beach), however, the original 2006 bill would have recast the energy facility siting regula-tory landscape in Virginia, eliminating local siting authority over large-scale wind farm proposals, liquefied natural gas facilities, and nuclear power plants. 5 A utility provider would only have to satisfy a “one-stop permitting process” at the state level. 6 The 2006 bill made it through the Virginia Senate with its anti-local-government siting pro-visions intact. But it met resistance in the House’s Commerce and Labor Committee. The new bill would still have taken siting control out of the hands of local governments, but it would have required the State Corporation Commission to consider the “local land use plan” when scoring www.vsb.org