Wind Issues Blow Into Legislature

By JUSTIN PITTMAN
Reporter

A tax on wind energy that could bring $2.25 million into Converse County during 2011 and several other bills recently endorsed by Gov. Dave Freudenthal foreshadow the sweeping impact this year’s legislative session could have on the county’s booming wind industry.

“I think the challenge is to, first of all, listen carefully to the people and try to reach a level (of development) that’s fair and equitable,” Sen. Jim Anderson of Glenrock explained. “I think the people of Wyoming are going to have to determine what level they want.”

Anderson, Senate majority floor leader, chaired a nine-member legislative task force convened by Gov. Freudenthal to deal with issues created by Wyoming’s recent wind energy “gold rush.” Two of the four proposals endorsed by the governor came directly from the task force’s recommendations. In addition to those proposals and the wind tax, the governor also backed an initiative that would suspend wind energy developers’ right to imminent domain for a year.

The proposals birthed by the task force and backed by the governor include a bill (sponsored by Casper’s Drew Perkins) that would lower the $17 million threshold for projects regulated by Wyoming’s Industrial Siting Act (ISA) and a bill (sponsored by Natrona County’s Tim Stubson) that would create minimum standard regulations for wind projects.

Proposed bills

“I don’t think we’re getting a fair shake on (the ISA) and the limit should be lowered,” said Rep. Richard Cannady of Glenrock. “People with smaller projects should have to pay into it.”

The ISA currently comprises Wyoming’s primary state-level mechanism for regulating large-scale wind projects. The proposed bill would require the regulation of some wind farms with a construction cost below $17 million and ensure that projects have adequate bonding or other financial assurances to operate properly through the entire life-span of the wind farm (including the site’s decommissioning and reclamation).

Rep. Frank Peasley of Douglas – who has represented the towns of Glenrock and Rolling Hills during industrial siting proceedings – expressed a more dismal view of the ISA. He called the man hours “wasted” by the process “frustrating” and described its “flaws” as “almost systemic.” He suggested that the costs companies incur while dealing with the industrial siting process only adds incentive to develop projects below the current ISA threshold and skirt the regulations.

“There isn’t much the local community can do to influence the process,” Peasley said. “Even when you have the siting council – and this is what I like about it – about all you create is a forum where people can come and yell and scream.”

Despite his feelings on the ISA, Peasley said he will not sponsor any wind energy bills during this session.

“Jim (Anderson) has been on top of this wind energy, really on top of it, so I’m generally following his lead on a lot of this stuff,” Peasley said.

Cannady said he hoped to be better informed on the topic after a meeting of the Republican caucus in Cheyenne this weekend.

“(The proposed minimum industry regulations) enable the counties to have a little more flexibility in putting forth regulations,” Anderson said of the second, Perkinssponsored, bill. He compared the legislation to current subdivision regulations and said it could provide counties without zoning regulations (like Converse County) the means to regulate wind developers.

The regulations would create minimum standards for development issues, such as setbacks, that counties could then augment at their discretion.

Meanwhile, the proposed $3 per megawatt hour wind energy excise tax could bring up to $5.9 million into Wyoming, with Converse County receiving the largest share of the revenues, according to Freudenthal’s estimates.

All three of Converse County’s legislators seemed supportive of a wind energy tax, but Peasley expressed a desire to see even more of the revenue channeled to local entities.

“I see no reason why 110 percent of it shouldn’t go to the counties and the cities,” he said. Freudenthal suggested around 40 percent.

The proposed one-year imminent domain moratorium would suspend the power to take land in situations where it would be used to access private lands for the construction of “collector lines” that tie a wind farm to the main power grid. Peasley and Anderson expressed support for the suspension.

This is part of the February 4, 2010 online edition of The Glenrock Independent.

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