Howard & Howard Attorneys Assist Landowner Group with Wind Leases
by energy-attorney
Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC recently assisted a group of Benzie County, Michigan landowners with their wind lease negotiations involving Duke Energy.
Duke had previously negotiated for land rights in adjacent Manistee County. When Duke began to cross the county border into Benzie, the landowners there decided it was in their interest to negotiate as a group and to seek experienced counsel to review the documents that had been proposed by the developer.
Discussions with Duke reached a constructive conclusion just a couple of months later, and almost all of the group’s landowner members soon began to close the deal with Duke. One of the landowners summed up his experience this way: “I have no doubt that with your help we have negotiated a better contract and I thank you for all of your help and patience.”
The process benefitted all involved. Best wishes to the Benzie County landowners and to Duke.
Tags: Benzie County, Benzie Duke, Benzie landowners, Benzie wind leases, wind counsel, wind lease lawyers, wind lease negotiations
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Muskegon County to Pursue Wind Farm
by energy-attorney
Muskegon County, Michigan hopes that favorable winds will be blowing across the County’s property — all 11,000 contiguous acres of it.
mlive.com reports that Muskegon County will solicit developers by the end of this calendar year to place a project of up to 150 MW in size on property currently managed by the County’s Wastewater Management System. Fourteen developers have already shown interest in the opportunity.
Muskegon County is pursuing a strategy much like the one that’s regularly advocated by Energy-Farmer.org: Go out and find a developer — don’t be satisfied with the first developer that finds you.
More on Muskegon County’s proposed project can be found here: Muskegon County Ready to Move Forward with Wind Farm.
Tags: competitive bidding Muskegon, Muskegon COunty, wind developer Muskegon, wind development negotiation, wind lease
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5 Tips for “Cooperative Bargaining” with Wind Developers
by energy-attorney
We’ve received a lot of great feedback on the successes our landowner client group recently achieved in its “cooperative bargaining” effort with wind developers. So we thought we’d put some of the best tips in one place for easy reference. Tips_for_Successful_Cooperative_Bargaining
If you’d like to get your own “Cooperative Bargaining” effort underway, just contact us through the “Need Help?” form in the right-hand column of this page. It could be one of the most worthwhile contacts you make this week . . . maybe even this year! We’d be happy to get you started.
Tags: Alliant Energy, Beebe, BP Wind, BP Wind Energy, Coastal Energy, Community Energy, Constellation Energy, cooperative bargaining wind, CPV Renewables, Duke, Duke Energy, E.On, Edison Mission, enXco, First Marine Wind, First Wind, Foundation Windpower, GenGrowth, Heritage Sustainable, Horizon, Horizon EDPR, Horizon Energy, Iberdrola, Invenergy, John Deere Wind, Juhl, Juhl Wind, Michigan Energy Generation, National Wind, NECO Wind, NextEra, NextGen, Own Energy, Pattern Energy, Renewable Energy Systems, RES, Synergics, Terra-Gen, tips neotiating wind, Trans Canada, Vestas, Wind Capital Group, Wind Capitol Group, wind development tips, Xcel
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Cooperative Bargaining by Landowners for Wind Farm Agreements; Article 14
by energy-attorney
One of the principals in our landowner client group recently asked me what I had learned from the competitive bidding process with wind developers. It was a great question (not a surprise — our farmer clients are on the ball!) and deserved some thought. So as the final expected post on this project, here are some reflections:
1. “Cooperative Bargaining” Best Describes the Process. We’ve been told that landowners east of the Mississippi have never formed a group and successfully conducted a competitive bidding process with wind developers. A phrase needed to capture the concept. At first, I thought “Collective Bargaining” was best. Now, “Cooperative Bargaining” fits the bill better in my mind. Farmers have worked in cooperatives for a long time, so the concept is not foreign. More importantly, though, the word “Cooperative” better describes the negotiation process. There were times when the interests of the landowners did not align with the interests of the developers, and in those situations very tough negotiations occurred. In most cases, though, there was more cooperation than confrontation: Ultimately, both the developer and the landowner group wanted to see a project built. That common interest can help drive the cooperation necessary to reach a fair agreement. The trick is to find an intermediary who understands the developers’ business and the landowners’ concerns, so that the process doesn’t lead to frustration for all involved.
2. Cooperative Bargaining Can Offer Something for Everyone. There’s no doubt that our landowner clients will benefit financially from our Cooperative Bargaining effort. All financial aspects of the deal saw material improvements over the offers that had been made on a landowner-by-landowner basis. But there were also real advantages for the developer who succeeded. It’s true that the developer reimbursed our client’s attorney fees and paid a more for the right to develop a project. Even so, the developer also assembled property rights much more quickly than if the developer had to go door-to-door, the developer did not have to negotiate with individual landowners or their attorneys, and the developer will enjoy built-in goodwill for the project because it has been supported on the front end by neighbors who are all participants. How can I be sure that this process worked for the developers? Most all of them who participated in the process — including many not selected — have asked to be involved in the next effort, should one develop.
3. This is a New Kind of “Community Wind.” In the traditional sense, a “Community Wind” project is one in which the community takes an ownership interest in the project. That would not have worked here, because our landowner client group did not want to be exposed to that sort of financial risk. However, the “Cooperative Bargaining” effort still secured many of the benefits that would be derived from a traditional “Community Wind” project, like assurance of participation and a higher anticipated return than if leases had been negotiated and signed by individual landowners.
4. Get Together Quickly. Developers, like landowners, don’t have much experience yet with “Cooperative Bargaining.” Consequently, developers should be expected to do what developers have always done: They will knock on doors one-by-one and offer a standard lease. If you want to increase your bargaining power, you should get together with your neighbors quickly to determine whether you want to negotiate as a group. Otherwise, a developer may believe that it has invested too much time and made too much progress through the traditional door-to-door method to deal with a group.
5. Don’t Rush the Process. The leases and easements that wind developers seek may commit your property for a very long period of time. The shortest lease period we’ve seen is about 35 years; the longest with developer-triggered renewal options can last around seventy years. Because farm property often passes through generations of a family, your decision to sign a wind lease is not just a decision you are making for yourself — it might be a decision you are making for your grandchildren, too. It’s important that you take the time to find competent counsel who can review the documents, negotiate your best deal, and answer any questions you have. Be wary of any developer who imposes artificial deadlines or tries to create a sense of urgency. It’s your land and you should be given the chance to thoughtfully consider the commitment that you might make.
6. The Process is Scalable and Can Be Transferred. The Cooperative Bargaining concept can be scaled to involve more landowners as the process develops. It can also be applied to other situations like Oil & Gas leases, where landowners have more experience negotiating as groups and where the documents are less complicated. Something less than a full-scale competitive bidding process is also possible. For example, neighbors can collectively engage counsel to review a proposed lease in order to split fees and make such a review more efficient.
I’ll try to boil down more “top tips” for “Cooperative Bargaining” soon.
Tags: Alliant Energy, Beebe, BP Wind, BP Wind Energy, Coastal Energy, collective bargaining wind, Community Energy, Constellation Energy, cooperative wind, CPV Renewables, Duke, Duke Energy, E.On, Edison Mission, enXco, First Marine Wind, First Wind, Foundation Windpower, GenGrowth, Heritage Sustainable, Horizon, Horizon EDPR, Horizon Energy, Iberdrola, Invenergy, John Deere Wind, Juhl, Juhl Wind, Michigan Energy Generation, National Wind, NECO Wind, negotiation wind, Negotiting wind, NextEra, NextGen, Own Energy, Pattern Energy, reimburse attorney wind, Renewable Energy Systems, RES, Synergics, Terra-Gen, Trans Canada, Vestas, wind agreement, Wind Capital Group, Wind Capitol Group, wind lease, Xcel
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Landowner Group to Get Attorney Fees Reimbursed; Article 13
by energy-attorney
Our second signing event occurred in June, as expected — now there are just a few additional Agreements to complete. Those Agreements are primarily with landowners that don’t live in the area or who otherwise had conflicts with the two signing events.
Happy news is coming quickly, too: The landowners who were part of the first signing are getting their first check from the developer, and the developer has just reimbursed our entire fee for representing the landowner group, too. That means that every landowner who contributed a retainer to get the legal work started will soon receive a check from us reimbursing that entire fee . . . so no landowner will be out-of-pocket for any of the work we completed on the group’s behalf.
This process has worked well. There is no guarantee, of course, that the project will ever be built. That call is now up to the developer, as it is with all developments. We’ve done everything we can, though, to improve the chance that the project will proceed: Our clients selected a very good developer with a lot of experience, the group has demonstrated its philosophical support for the project which should be expected to continue, the process helped to speed along the land control issues that the developer would otherwise face, and while the financial package eventually negotiated was materially higher than that generally available in this market, it is not so “blue sky” that it would be expected to make the project unprofitable.
This type of competitive bidding process seems to have a lot going for it. . . and when the chance exists that it can be conducted without expense to the landowners, that’s certainly another attractive feature!
Tags: Alliant Energy, Beebe, BP Wind, BP Wind Energy, Coastal Energy, collective bargaining fees, collective bargaining wind, Community Energy, Constellation Energy, cooperative bargaining wind, cooperative bargaining wind fees, CPV Renewables, Duke, Duke Energy, E.On, Edison Mission, enXco, First Marine Wind, First Wind, Foundation Windpower, GenGrowth, Heritage Sustainable, Horizon, Horizon EDPR, Horizon Energy, Iberdrola, Invenergy, John Deere Wind, Juhl, Juhl Wind, Michigan Energy Generation, National Wind, NECO Wind, NextEra, NextGen, Own Energy, Pattern Energy, Renewable Energy Systems, RES, Synergics, Terra-Gen, Trans Canada, Vestas, wind agreement attorney, wind agreement fees, Wind Capital Group, Wind Capitol Group, wind development, wind development attorney, wind easement, wind lease, wind lease attorney, wind lease feesWind lease, wind project, Xcel
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First Set of Agreements Signed with Wind Farm Landowner Group Members; Article 12
by energy-attorney
Several weeks have now passed since the winning developer was selected by our landowner client group and the agreements to be signed were finalized. During the time that’s passed the developer has been conducting title work to verify ownership of the parcels that will be committed to the project. About 40 agreements have now been finalized and are ready to sign.
Yesterday was a clear, crisp, and beautifully breezy day up in the Thumb of Michigan — a perfect opportunity to get some ink to paper and execute the Agreements that we’ve solicited and negotiated over the past 14 months. It is only happy coincidence that the day of the first signing event is also the fortieth anniversary of Earth Day.
Our landowner group client members filed into the basement of the local church throughout the day. All totaled, 30 Agreements were signed with landowners. Some, understandably, demonstrated their first bit of reluctance about executing the document. That’s to be expected, because this is where the “rubber meets the road,” and these wind leases can commit property to a project for a very long time. In the end, though, all of the group’s members signed the Agreement, confident that the work done during the previous 14 months meant that they had struck a fair deal with the developer.
Not all of the Agreements were prepared for this first of the signing event. The title work is more complicated for some parcels than others, and sometimes requires more time to complete. A second signing event is expected in June; the bulk of the remaining Agreements will be executed then.
Tags: collective bargaining wind, cooperative bargaining wind, wind developer, wind easement, wind lease, wind project attorney
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Landowner Wind Group Grows; Article 11
by energy-attorney
Our landowner client group is growing. Quickly.
It seems that the landowner group adjacent to our current client group is within the anticipated project boundaries of a development — in fact, the property represented by “group 2″ is along the route to transmission. Our current clients don’t see a downside to involving more landowners, particularly if those landowners would probably be approached by the winning developer anyway. So group 2 is now part of the original landowner negotiation group.
Many others are also trying to join. Even though specifics of the deal aren’t being mentioned — at least we don’t believe they are — the landowners are really pleased with what we’ve accomplished and those that may have been a little reluctant to try this new “cooperative bargaining” approach now have a new sense of what the process can accomplish. Some will probably still be too late to the party, but it’s nice to see such widespread participation.
Someone once said that “success breeds many fathers.” It’s great to see that this approach is being embraced by so many and working well for a deserving group of landowners. The group’s now around 70 landowners representing 15,000 acres.
Tags: collective bargaining wind, cooperative negotiation wind, negotiate wind, negotiation group wind, wind easement, wind leases
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Landowner Group Meets with Developers; Article 10
by energy-attorney
We’ve come a long way in a year . . . last February, we met with a few landowners who wanted to create a group to negotiate with wind developers. Since then, we helped form that group, we identified terms our landowner clients wanted to achieve, we ran a competitive bidding process and finalists were identified. In the last few months, we’ve had very detailed negotiations in order to secure the best offers from each of the two finalists.
Then the “rubber met the road” on all of that work. Both of the finalists have now met with all of the landowners as a group, and each developer made its pitch on why they deserve the chance to move this opportunity forward. Both presentations were very well received, and we wish that we had two projects . . . each of the developers has worked hard and each deserves success. But only one developer can be selected.
Documents have been nailed down with each finalist, so there’s little chance that the offer will move once a developer is selected — and if some backtracking does occur, the runner-up will be waiting in the wings.
After hearing both presentations, the group made its choice — there were a lot of questions, but the concensus was reached fairly quickly. We will be sharing the news with the developers as soon as possible.
Tags: collective bargaining wind, cooperative negotiaiton wind, negotiation wind developers, negotiation wind development, negotiation wind lease, wind easement, wind lease
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Landowner May Grow Dramatically; Article 9
by energy-attorney
It seems that word of some of our recent success is starting to spread.
To this point, we’ve been reluctant to increase the size of our existing client landowner group because we don’t know whether a larger group would be beneficial for the project and, therefore, beneficial to our clients. Another group of landowners close to our current group has heard of some of our “cooperative bargaining” success. The adjacent group of landowners has an interest in either forming their own group to negotiate with the developers or joining our existing group.
My partner and I just came back from meeting with “group two.” There’s a potential that this group will dramatically increase the size of our existing client group . . . maybe pushing it to 11,000 acres or so. We’re going to have to get a sense from the developers as to whether the land represented by this second group would be expected to be within their project boundaries and, if so, whether our existing client group approves of an expansion.
Tags: colelctive negotiation wind, landowners negotiating wind, negotiating wind leases, wind easements, wind leases, wind negotiation group
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Whittling Down the Wind Developer Candidates; Article 8
by energy-attorney
It’s been a couple of months now since we identified the five wind developer candidates interested in the Tuscola opportunity.
We’ve been hard at work sorting through the proposals, gathering more information, talking with the developers and trying to improve the offers. The work is starting to pay off, and we’re getting a better sense of who the finalists will be.
The combined biodigester-wind project was a really interesting twist on our potential project. The developer, however, would prefer that the farmers take some financial stake in the project and the developer is also interested in getting a long term source of material that could fuel the biodigesters. Our landowner client group is intrigued, but the idea seems too far removed from the original purpose of developing interest in a wind project, and the landowners are reluctant to make direct investments in the project — instead, they are focused on improving their financial returns in the form of lease royalty and other payments. That’s all understandable, so this developer has been whittled from the candidates. There’s an important take-away here: a traditional “Community Wind” model which requires financial participation in the project would not have worked. Nevertheless, this group is achieving many other benefits associated with a “Community Wind” model, like ensuring the participation of all group members. So this is shaping up as something like a new “Community Wind” model.
Another developer was exceptionally responsive to the proposal, but in follow-up conversations was reluctant to share any information about where project financing would come from. As a result, we have to recommend to our landowner client group that this developer be whittled as well. While the financial terms offered are important, it’s even more important that the project has a real chance of being built — only then will the royalties be paid. Eliminating this developer from the process will probably come as a disappointment for some in the group, because this developer was the first on the ground and has spent a lot of time with the farmers. Goodwill, though, doesn’t get a project built — the developer must have some ability to demonstrate its ability to finance the project.
A third developer has been aloof. This developer is sizable and capable, but has been reluctant to get specific about its offer and how it intends to respond to the Terms Sheet. We’re making good progress with other developers, and the ship may sail before we get the information we need from developer #3.
That leaves a couple of developers, both sizable and financially capable and each with many projects already under their belts . . . so they aren’t making the cut because of the shortcomings of the other developers, but based on their own merits. We’re gaining material improvements in the terms of their initial offers — our effort to create competition is working.
Tags: biodigester, collective bargaining wind, cooperative bargaining wind, project financing wind, selecting wind developer, wind developer
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