Laramie County rejects Laramie Range Wind site plan after lengthy public hearing

The Laramie County Board of County Commissioners on Sept. 16 declined to approve the Laramie Range Wind Project site plan after an extended public hearing that drew more than a hundred pages of oral and written comment.

The project developer, represented by Charlie Behnke of ConnectGen/Repsol, and a team of technical and legal advisers described a plan for up to 170 potential turbine locations on roughly 56,150 acres about 20 miles northwest of Cheyenne. The applicant said the proposal would be built in two phases, would disturb roughly 400 acres in operations, and would include an integrated mitigation approach — including a road‑use agreement, an aircraft detection lighting system (ADLS) application, use of IdentiFlight or similar eagle‑detection technology and commitments to wildlife monitoring and adaptive management.

The developer’s presentation outlined an anticipated capital investment of about $1.1 billion, estimated property and production tax revenues of approximately $190 million over project life, and peak construction employment of roughly 300 jobs. Company witnesses emphasized prior outreach (they said it began more than seven years ago) and a packet of environmental, visual, acoustic and traffic studies included in the application.

But the hearing that followed focused on a long list of concerns raised by residents, local ranching…