Wyoming Infrastructure Authority

By BOB MOEN (AP) – 16 hours ago

CASPER, Wyo. — Private companies that want to string small power lines from wind turbines to the main power grid wouldn’t be able to seize land from Wyoming landowners under a recommendation made by a task force Thursday.

The Wind Energy Task Force voted 5-4 to deny the power of eminent domain to private companies building so-called collector lines for wind projects in the state. Eminent domain is the forced acquisition of private property for public use and has been used to build railroads, pipelines and other projects.

At the same time, the panel recommends that regulated public utilities retain the power of eminent domain. Public utilities are subjected to more scrutiny from state Public Service Commission regulations and oversight.

Task force chairman Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie, said the panel’s eminent domain recommendation seeks fairness for landowners whose land is needed only for small collector lines.

“All he gets is one lump sum payment for the fair market value of what little property they need and he never sees another dime,” Brown said.

Landowners with the wind turbines on their land pocket monthly checks from the wind producer, Brown said.

The task force’s recommendations go the Legislature, which would have to approve any change in state eminent domain law.

Wyoming imposed a moratorium on the use of eminent domain for collector lines that went into effect in March and will last through June 30, 2011. It’s meant to buy some time for Wyoming citizens and policymakers to examine the issue.

The Legislature last made changes to the state’s eminent domain law in 2007 mainly because of complaints from landowners who felt run over by booming oil and gas development. The process proved contentious.

Brown still refers to the 2007 debate as the “eminent domain wars.”

“They’re just tough, tough issues every time they come up,” he said.

Jill Morrison, an organizer with the Powder River Basin Resource Council, which advocates for private landowners, applauded the panel’s decision.

“If we can restrict eminent domain in any way I think our landowners support that because we believe these issues should be addressed through private negotiations and agreement, not through holding a gun to somebody’s head and threatening eminent domain, which basically forces the landowner to take whatever the condemner is offering because they have the greater power,” Morrison said.

Cheryl Riley, executive director of the Wyoming Power Producers Coalition, declined immediate comment on the task force’s action until she can study its recommendation.

Brown said he couldn’t say how the task force’s recommendations might affect the growing wind industry in Wyoming.

The dozens of wind farms that have been built or are being proposed in the state so far have hugged the main power transmission lines that cross the state. Building wind farms farther away from the grid will mean erecting many more of the collector lines.

Wyoming is one of the most reliably windy inland areas of the United States, and its wind energy potential has attracted wide interest in recent years.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Though it is no longer actively pursuing interest in a $3 billion high-voltage, direct-current transmission line moving wind power west from Montana, TransCanada Corp. wants the industry to know it is still open to the idea.

TransCanada’s power transmission director, John Dunn, said Sept. 17 that the company has failed to garner enough interest in the 1,000-mile line, known as Chinook, during an open season. But the company will wait to see whether “commercial support materializes” until Dec. 16, he said, when it will officially end the project’s open season. “We did not receive and we have not received sufficient interest at this point to proceed with the project,” Dunn said. “That could change, but we don’t perceive that it will change because the phones aren’t ringing off the hook.”

Dunn has said TransCanada is now focusing its efforts on developing and permitting another $3 billion HVDC line, called Zephyr, which would carry 3,000 MW of wind-generated power from southeastern Wyoming to a southern point past Las Vegas. The 500-kV Chinook project was planned to move another 3,000 MW of wind power run from a station near Harlowton, Mont., to that same termination point.
Dunn said the company will not pursue permitting on the Chinook line. “When you start to permit a project,” he said, “that’s when really substantial dollars are required.”

Dunn described the Chinook line as one of several transmission lines proposed within the Western Interconnection that have failed to garner enough commercial support to take off. “There’s a slew of them that have had multiple open seasons, and they have not been successful,” he said. “That does not mean the projects are dead. That just means there isn’t sufficient market support for projects to proceed now.”

It prefers state control to EPA regulations

By DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER - Star-Tribune energy reporter trib.com, September 22, 2010

JACKSON — An executive of Wyoming’s largest electrical utility is urging lawmakers to regulate greenhouse gases — or at least tell federal regulators that Wyoming can regulate its own industrial greenhouse gas emissions.
MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., parent company of utility giant Rocky Mountain Power, hopes Wyoming doesn’t have to actually regulate greenhouse gases for a long time. But it would prefer that Wyoming and other states take on the duty rather than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“I have no confidence in how long it will take EPA to issue a permit for greenhouse gas emissions. … It’s not clear how that permitting process would work,” said Cathy S. Woollums, senior vice president and chief environmental counsel for MidAmerican Energy.
Woollums testified before the Legislature’s Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee on Tuesday. The committee took no action on the issue.

Toward the end of the George W. Bush administration, EPA was forced by the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize greenhouse gases as pollutants and therefore subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act. In the absence of a climate and energy policy by Congress, EPA officials continue retooling agency rules in preparation to regulate greenhouse gases.

A key piece of the EPA’s plan, the “Tailoring Rule,” is scheduled to begin Jan. 1, requiring large industrial facilities to obtain permits for greenhouse gas emissions. The Tailoring Rule attempts to delay regulation requirements for small businesses, agriculture and other sources. Last week, Gov. Dave Freudenthal told EPA that Wyoming is statutorily prevented from regulating greenhouse gases, referring to a 1999 provision in state statutes originally intended to shield Wyoming from taking part in the Kyoto Protocol, an international climate treaty.

But Woollums warned that Wyoming — and 13 other states that say they either cannot or will not regulate greenhouse gases — are in EPA’s crosshairs. Although the agency might not have wanted the highly complex and politically volatile job of regulating greenhouse gases, it is determined to carry out the task unless Congress finally addresses the issue through climate legislation.
Woollums likened the situation to Cinderella’s ugly step-sister trying to stuff her foot into the glass slipper, “and that ugly step-sister is not going to stop,” she said.

Rob Hurless, Freudenthal’s telecommunications and energy policy adviser, said EPA’s plan to regulate greenhouse gas is very unpopular among industry and environmental groups alike. Industry fears unintended consequences and being forced to shutter some facilities, while environmental groups say the regulatory thresholds don’t go far enough.

And even the states that say they’re willing to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act seem to agree that they need much more time to figure out how to do it.

For these reasons, and the fact that the country is in a highly contentious election season, Hurless said he believes EPA will delay implementation of the Tailoring Rule.

“There are probably 150 institutions in some 30-odd lawsuits,” Hurless said. “Some folks have argued that this is kind of a big game of chicken between the (Obama) administration and Congress about who is actually going to regulate these gases.”

Hurless said a bill by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to strip EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases at all was too extreme politically and likely won’t survive. However, a draft bill by Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., that would put EPA’s plans on hold for two years will likely gain traction.

Yet the situation remains “a colossal mess,” Hurless said.

For now, it appears coal-heavy utilities including Rocky Mountain Power will be subject to dual permitting authorities: EPA for greenhouse gases and individual states for other pollutants. Additionally, EPA is moving forward with plans to reduce the maximum threshold regarding ozone, another regulation that may require significant changes for industrial activities.

“These are all the issues we have to deal with in the very near term, and my organization does long-term planning, 10 years and further,” Woollums said. “It’s going to force us into a situation where some investment in existing facilities is not going to be viable. It’s probably going to mean that smaller, older units are going to have to shut down.”

Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 577-6069 or dustin.bleizeffer@trib.com. Go to http://tribtown.trib.com/DustinBleizeffer/blog to read Dustin’s energy blog.

LCG, August 25, 2010–The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced yesterday that, beginning next year, it will idle nine coal-fired units that have a combined electric generating capacity of approximately 1,000 MW. One of the units will be considered for repowering, with the fuel switched to biomass. These steps are part of TVA’s strategy to replace or retire older, less-efficient, coal-fired units as a means of reducing carbon and other emissions from its generation portfolio.

TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore stated, “Much of our stakeholder input and other assessments point toward a greater reliance on nuclear power and energy efficiency and less reliance on coal….Replacing some coal with other, cleaner fuel sources allows a reduction in air emissions including carbon. One of TVA’s key goals is to improve air quality.”

Two units at the Widows Creek plant, located near Stevenson, Alabama, will be idled in fiscal year 2011. Four other units at the Widows Creek plant will be idled between 2011 and 2015. Shawnee Unit 10, near Paducah, Kentucky, will be idled and evaluated for conversion to biomass fuel. Two units at John Sevier near Rogersville, Tennessee will be idled within the next four to five years.

To offset the loss of generating capacity, TVA is installing new gas-fired, electric generation units at the John Sevier site. Additional gas and nuclear generating units are under construction at other TVA sites.

TVA is evaluating the future of other units within its coal fleet that includes 59 units at 11 plants with about 15,000 MW of generation. Over half of this coal-fired capacity is equipped with advanced environmental controls. The remaining units, totaling about 6,000 MW, will be evaluated to determine whether to install new emission controls, idle them or replace them with alternative generation.

TVA is not alone in its idling or repowering of older coal plants. Earlier this month, Xcel Energy submitted to the Colorado Public Utility Commission its plan to comply with Colorado?s new Clean Air, Clean Jobs Act, which requires Xcel to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 70 to 80 percent from several coal-fired power plants by December 31, 2017.

Xcel’s proposed plan will retire 900 MW of coal-fired generation at the Valmont and Cherokee stations by the end of 2017 and 2022, respectively. Furthermore, the 717-MW Cherokee facility will be repowered to use natural gas, which will increase the capacity to 883 MW. Unit 4 of the Arapahoe plant will also be repowered.

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