Wyoming Infrastructure Authority

Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
(09-16) 04:00 PDT Sacramento - –

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order Tuesday mandating that the state Air Resources Board create a regulation requiring that one-third of energy sold by utility companies in the state over the next decade come from renewable sources.

Schwarzenegger signed the executive order at a massive solar energy site outside of Sacramento and reiterated his intention to veto a bill, which he called “terrible,” passed by the Legislature last week that would have created the same standard.

The governor said he could not sign the bill - supported by environmentalists, labor, consumer advocates and many utilities - due in large part to restrictions that would be placed on utilities’ ability to bring in power from outside the state to meet the goal.

“Not only would this stifle competition, it would also drive up prices,” he said.

He was joined by energy policy leaders from the private sector and his administration, including Mary Nichols, the chairwoman of the Air Resources Board, which will craft the regulation. The governor set a July 31 deadline to do so.

Christopher McKinnon, Senior Policy Advisor

Western Governors’ Association | 1600 Broadway, Suite 1700 Denver, CO 80202 | p: 303.623.9378 | f: 303.534.7309 | www.westgov.org

MATT JOYCE - Associated Press writer | Posted:
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 12:00 am

CHEYENNE — A Colorado utility’s rejection of southeast Wyoming wind power as part of its energy supply doesn’t negate the need for wind development or new transmission lines in the region, Wyoming supporters said.
Xcel Energy released an evaluation last month of bids it received in response to a request for proposals to add nearly 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy for Colorado customers through 2015.
Wyoming wind and infrastructure developers were surprised to learn that Xcel’s report rejected all bids from wind developers in southeast Wyoming.
Trans-Elect Development Company and the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority were among the parties that promoted Wyoming wind to Xcel.
The two are working together to develop the Wyoming-Colorado Intertie transmission project, a $300 million, 850-megawatt line proposed to run from southeast Wyoming to Colorado’s populous front range. LS Power and the Western Area Power Administration are also involved in the project.
“We’re surprised and we’re disappointed but this is just the first skirmish in a long-term campaign,” said Jerry Vaninetti, Trans-Elect’s vice president of western development. “We still believe in the fundamentals of the project.”
Wyoming state government has promoted southeast Wyoming as ripe for wind development because of its strong winds, willing landowners and minimal environmental conflicts. However, there’s a shortage of transmission capacity to export energy from southeast Wyoming to markets like Colorado cities.
Steve Ellenbecker, the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority’s director of governmental and external relations, said the Wyoming-Colorado Intertie is meant to alleviate that “bottleneck.”
“It’s there and (Xcel’s decision) doesn’t become a dispute about that fact,” Ellenbecker said. “There’s a need for opening up a pathway for the exchange of power between Wyoming and Colorado in either direction.”
For Xcel’s purposes, the southeast Wyoming wind bids weren’t better than Colorado wind bids, according to the company’s report.
“SE Wyoming wind bids were higher priced than the most economic Colorado wind bids and provided generation pattern data that appears no more favorable to the overall system than NE Colorado wind,” the report said.
The report found that the Wyoming wind bids were comparable to Colorado’s in terms of capacity factor, or a wind farm’s productivity compared to its maximum potential. The Wyoming bids ranged from capacity factors of about 36 percent to 42 percent, while Colorado’s ranged from about 32 percent to 45 percent.
Xcel’s report also found that northeast Colorado wind farms historically have had better generation patterns, meaning they produce more of their annual electricity from the hours of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. than the Wyoming bids would have.
Ellenbecker said he had hoped Xcel would advance the Wyoming wind bids to serve as a catalyst for both southeast Wyoming wind development and the Wyoming-Colorado Intertie.
“It looks like the advantage went to the resources that had the shorter transmission difference as a significant potential factor,” Ellenbecker said.
Backers of the Wyoming-Colorado Intertie are curious to see what happens during the next couple of months as the Colorado Public Utilities Commission reviews Xcel’s selection of new power supply sources.
“We’re hopeful that there’s a possibility Wyoming wind could get reconsidered during this 90-day period,” Vaninetti said. “We’re all dependent upon buyers in Colorado in buying both wind and the transmission services to deliver the wind.”
Bob Whitton, a Wheatland rancher and chairman of the Renewable Energy Alliance of Landowners, said Xcel’s exclusion of Wyoming bids won’t deter his group’s members from pursuing wind development leases on their lands.
“We’ve got 800,000 acres of ground in southeast Wyoming that could produce way more power at a pretty high capacity factor than the Wyoming-Colorado Intertie could possibly handle,” Whitton said. “So our question is not ‘can we get on the Wyoming-Colorado Intertie?’ The question is ‘where is the rest of the transmission going to come from because we need a lot more?”‘
Posted in State-and-regional on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 12:00 am Updated: 6:03 pm. | Tags: Wyoming, News, State, Regional

Casey, Enzi Introduce Bill to Encourage Private Investment in Carbon Capture and Storage
Jul 23, 2009 –

Congressional Documents and Publications/ContentWorks

U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) today introduced the Carbon Storage Stewardship Trust Fund Act of 2009 to help remove a major barrier to private investment in carbon capture and storage.

“New technology holds great promise for job creation and a cleaner environment,” said Senator Casey. “This bill will encourage the commercial deployment of technology that will allow for the continued use of our Nation’s vast coal resources to produce economical and reliable power while at the same time mitigating the impact of climate change.”

“Coal will continue to fuel the nation and this bill will help coal move into a new era of production. Carbon sequestration could provide endless possibilities for Wyoming coal and decrease our dependence on foreign oil,” said Enzi.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be a key component of both U.S. and international policy to reduce global emissions of carbon dioxide while allowing for the continued use of coal. The commercial viability of CCS will require further advancement of the technology as well as a thoughtful approach to addressing issues such as long-term liability of carbon storage.

The purpose of this Act is to create a program for managing the financial risk, or liability, of the long-term storage of CO2. This program will offer the private sector with a framework for how legal and financial responsibilities for commercial carbon storage operations will be addressed. Moreover, it will provide a strong incentive to industry to manage and reduce risk by deploying carbon sequestration in the safest possible manner.

A liability framework is needed that will encourage firms to invest in CCS but that will not relieve the private sector of the responsibility for ensuring that best practices are followed. The purposes of this Act are to promote the commercial deployment of CCS through the creation of a carbon storage liability trust fund and the sharing of liability between the private sector and the Federal government. Specifically, the Act would:

(1) Require private liability insurance for geological storage facility construction, and for carbon dioxide transport, injection, well plugging, site abandonment and post-closure monitoring;

(2) Establish a Federal trust fund from fees paid for by commercial carbon dioxide storage facility operators that will be used to pay for claims for damages made after storage facility stewardship is transferred to Federal government;

(3) Establish a Federal program to certify closure of commercial facilities and subsequent transfer of liability for long term stewardship to the Federal government;

(4) Convey post-closure liability for long-term stewardship of stored carbon dioxide to the Federal government or State upon receipt of certificate of closure; and

(5) Provide for prompt and orderly compensation for damages or harm from the transport, injection and storage of carbon dioxide in geological storage units.

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Governor Supports BLM’s Response to Transmission Project Concerns
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By DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER
Star-Tribune energy reporter

The state’s recent decision not to allow wind development in critical sage grouse habitat essentially takes 75 percent of Wyoming’s best wind resources off the table, according to one independent wind energy company.

In response, wind developers are teaming up with wildlife agencies across nine western states to launch a $10 million, five-year research effort.

The coalition hopes to gather scientific data needed to understand the impact of wind farms on sage grouse so they might configure them in a ways that avoid impacts.

“The outcome of the collaborative research effort could very well determine Wyoming’s financial future in a carbon-constrained economy,” said Lin Alder, environmental and permitting manager for Wasatch Wind Co.

Alder and others in the industry say Gov. Dave Freudenthal’s ban on wind in core areas is a big blow to budding ambitions to harness thousands of megawatts of wind power in the state. But they admit the sage grouse dilemma overshadows wind resources across the West.

Besides, independent wind developers say they’ve got about five years to wait, anyway, because that’s the amount of time it will take for new electrical transmission lines to access Wyoming’s trove of wind energy.

Collaboration

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering listing the sage grouse as a threatened and endangered species. About half of the bird’s remaining prime habitat lies within Wyoming’s borders. That’s why so many believe Gov. Freudenthal’s “core areas” protection strategy is key in avoiding a listing.

Wyoming also happens to have some of the West’s best wind resources. Alder said several wind developers realized months ago that Wyoming’s core areas restriction could be a major setback for the industry, so they began discussions about a collaborative research effort.

Things really coalesced in recent weeks when it became apparent Freudenthal would ban not only wind energy in the core areas, but even a wind energy research project.

The coalition now includes about 35 wind developers and utilities in addition to nine state wildlife agencies. John Emmerich, deputy director of Wyoming Game & Fish, was instrumental in getting buy-in from the state wildlife agencies.

“There is a concerted interagency, industry effort to get a collaborative research initiative going across multiple states for the very reason to get the data,” Emmerich said. “We don’t have the data. We need that information before we start permitting in areas that are really important to sage grouse.”

Much work ahead

Alder said the collabortive research effort will get about $130,000 support from the U.S. Department of Energy in October. Ultimately, the research must include the construction of one or more wind farms. But what’s yet to be determined is where to build them and how to design them.

“Right now we are in the process of assembling the best possible team of researchers. The research conducted regarding impacts from oil and gas development is not answering questions about wind development,” Alder said. “The big question is where those wind farms will be built. We need to answer those questions by spring.”

As the wind industry puts its best foot forward in the collaborate research effort, there are also quiet grumblings within the industry about whether federal wildlife officials already have too much influence on managing sage grouse. Unless or until the bird is listed, that authority lies with the states.

Some in the industry also complain that wind is paying for the sins of others, noting that wind energy comes last in line after impacts from urban development, agriculture, coal, oil and gas.

“It seems like some forms of energy are being singled out. We need a comprehensive strategy here,” said Tom Darin, staff attorney for Western Resource Advocates.

Darin said wind energy’s impact on sage grouse is a delicate issue for renewable energy advocates. But there must be an effort to promote both the development of wind and the protection of prime habitats.

Darin said a good start might be for the federal government to stop issuing oil and gas leases in the sage grouse core areas, and work with companies to retire some of those leases that are not being developed.

“I think it’s a range of these options to see if we can find ways to protect core areas but also find a way for some of Wyoming’s best wind to get developed,” Darin said.

Contact energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or {M7dustin.bleizeffer@trib.com. Read his energy blog at tribtown.trib.com/DustinBleizeffer/blog.