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Wind in SD faces challenges despite new incentives
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- South Dakota's new economic development incentives are making the state more competitive with neighbors on large wind projects, but other industry challenges are keeping South Dakota from tapping its potential.
• Officials say South Dakota's up-front tax structure has been why the nation's fifth-windiest state produces just 784 megawatts in wind energy -- a number more than doubled by North Dakota, nearly quadrupled by Minnesota and surpassed more than six-fold by Iowa.
• The new law gives the state's economic board the ability to refund part or all of the sales tax for large projects over $20 million.
• But South Dakota Wind Energy Association executive director Rob Rebenitsch says developers still need to find customers for their energy and they need access to transmission lines to get the power to those customers.
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Custer to be focus of upcoming discussion
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- George Armstrong Custer's time in the Dakotas will be the topic of a discussion on Sunday at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre.
• Author Jeff Barnes will present the discussion based on his latest book called "The Great Plains Guide to Custer: 85 Forts, Fights and Other Sites."
• The book covers many of the sites that played a significant role in Custer's time in the Dakotas.
• Jay Smith is the museum director for the South Dakota State Historical Society. He says Custer left a significant footprint in the history of South Dakota. Smith says Barnes' program will cover Custer's earlier Dakota experiences and his final battle at the Little Big Horn.
• The discussion is scheduled for 2 p.m.
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Official says eastern SD recovered from drought
• CHET BROKAW,Associated Press
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Recent rains have wiped out drought conditions in most of eastern South Dakota, but lighter rains have not yet fully replenished the soil moisture in many cattle-ranching counties west of the Missouri River and have made the recovery more tenuous, state officials said Monday.
• "East River, we largely have little of anything resembling drought," State Climatologist Dennis Todey said at a meeting of the Governor's Drought Task Force, not (Continued on page 21)
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