Livingston County board could be talking about a “temporary” change to a county ordinance regarding regulations for solar power plants. The board met last night, Thursday Feb. 17, but prior to the meeting there was a 5 p.m. meeting involving the States Attorney where they talked about the county ordinance being compliant with a state statute concerning solar power plant regulations.
“House Bill 4412, this is a Rape The County Rights Bill and it is a state law that usurps county control of wind and solar regulation,” said William Whitney, a resident in Livingston county, in public comment. “We will stand against tyranny today or our children will bow tomorrow. How strange to use the word ‘tyranny’ in reference to siting regulations for wind and solar. How equally strange, the state has overstepped into county special use zoning. Tyranny does not have intentions of being temporary. These are sick tyrants who play to win and there is an agenda and ceding any ground to them is fatal error that will only result in a power grab for more of your jurisdiction as a county government. I know you fear lawsuits…”
There was suit filed by a solar company against Woodford county after the board voted ‘no’ on an approval from the zoning board of appeals.
“They won and got their special use permit, however by voting ‘no’ and tying this up in a court case, we prolonged their ability to get a special use permit long enough that they did not receive the subsidy funds and it was never built. Long story short, according to our states attorney office, the county board cannot cast a ‘no’ vote on a ZBA approval, our only options are to vote ‘yes’ or send back to the ZBA for further review, based on Illinois compiled statute,” said a Woodford county board member.
Whitney started his fight against the state and the solar companies after receiving a letter in the mail from Livingston county about a 33-acre solar plant popping up next to his 10-acre homestead, where he home schools his 12 children with his wife who left public education.
“Ultimately the fundamental issue here is: If we are going to rezone agriculture to industrial, then the voice of the people needs to be heard regardless of what the state has said. If we are going to transform the county then the people need to authorize that,” said Whitney. “The reason why I am getting involved is because it’s on my back door.”
Whitney said there was a solar company representative that approached him in December 2022 and was feeling out if he was going to be a “problem.”
“This fellow shows up and I said, ‘I am busy right now, but I do have concerns…do you have a card? Do you have a brochure? Do you have a website?’ He stood a good 15 feet away from me and I could tell he was uncomfortable with what he was doing,” said Whitney.
According to Whitney the solar company representative had no business card or brochure but there was a website, to which the representative said…’There’s not much on there.’
Whitney went to the website and it was all written in Mandarin Chinese. The company is called Cultivate Power and according to the Illinois Secretary of State Corporation/LLC Search, it’s LLC is based in San Francisco, Ca. However, the ‘type’ of LLC is listed as “foreign.”
Whitney said the solar panels are made by JA Solar, which is a Fortune 500 CCP organization company.
Whitney has submitted candidacy to fill the vacancy left on the Livingston county board. Jason Bunting of Livingston County has been elected to the Illinois State House of Representatives by Republican Party Chairmen from the 106th District which he will represent. The seat was vacated in January when Tom Bennett was elected to replace Jason Barickman in the Illinois State Senate representing the 53rd District.
Whitney made a suggestion to put this solar power plant where the Dwight Correctional Center used to be. Whitney said the rats are living there and that’s a place where the solar plant won’t be taking up space of food to grow in rich soil. Whitney said it is strange that these companies want the solar power plants on properties zoned for agriculture.
The senator who sponsored HB4412 was quoted, in a recent article headlined ‘New law removes local control in siting solar, wind farms’, “There is an energy shortage in Illinois right now, and it is causing uncertainty, which causes prices to spike,” said Sen. Bill Cunningham, a Chicago democrat. “This legislation will help solve that problem by expanding renewable energy opportunities.”
Whitney is asking the question: “If there is an energy shortage….why? Because they shut down coal and nuclear. They created the crisis and now they are solving it by pushing their agenda.”
The Livingston county board received language from the States Attorney at 5 p.m. yesterday about a revision to the county ordinance. Whitney said the presiding chair Steve Lovell came up to him and said the board would not be voting on any temporary changes to the county ordinance.
“Their states attorney provided some comments on the proposed amendment and advised the board to take home the language and to reach out to him with questions,” said Whitney. “Some members did express their displeasure with this whole process but none of them were willing to say, ‘We will not comply.'”
