Wyoming Infrastructure Authority

2/1/2010

****** For Immediate Release ******

Contact: Press Secretary Jonathan Green

Phone: 307-777-7437
Mobile: 307-421-0197

E-mail: jgreen3@state.wy.us

Governor Freudenthal promotes wind project legislation

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Problems associated with the massive development of Wyoming wind energy “are simply opportunities dressed in work clothes,” according to Gov. Dave Freudenthal.

“With proper ground rules, wind energy can generate income for the agricultural community, help diversify Wyoming’s economy and tax base and perhaps become a significant source of employment,” the Governor continued. Freudenthal has scheduled an 11 a.m. news conference today to discuss four proposals for the Legislature to consider:

(1) Strengthening the Wyoming Industrial Information and Siting Act to ensure adequate bonding or other financial assurances so that the facility will be operated properly from initial site construction, through operation, decommissioning and eventual reclamation.

(2) Providing minimum state standards and enhancing county permitting requirements for the proper siting of wind facilities, such as setbacks from homes, roads and towns.

(3) Imposing a $3.00 per megawatt hour excise tax on wind energy produced in Wyoming, with a provision to send 40 percent of the revenues to local governments, and 60 percent to the state General Fund. The tax would return an estimated total of $5.9 million per year to the six counties where wind projects are already in operation. Converse County would receive the largest share of that figure, an estimated $2.25 million in 2011. In the aggregate this is believed to equate to a 5 percent excise tax.

(4) Suspending the power of condemnation for one year where it might be used to gain access to private lands to construct wind energy collector lines (those lines that tie the wind farm to the electric grid) and asking the Legislature to study the issue before adopting a permanent solution.

Freudenthal praised the Wind Task Force created by the 2009 legislative session for its policy recommendations to improve the Wyoming Industrial Information and Siting Act and local government permitting requirements.

“During the last legislative session, we all knew it was time for a long, hard look at wind development in Wyoming,” Freudenthal said.

“With representatives from across the spectrum, from local governments to the wind industry itself, we all got an education and, ultimately, a first cut at some meaningful changes that will hopefully lead to better planning and more involvement from local governments and private citizens on the front end of these projects,” the Governor said. Proposals (1) and (2) are a direct result of the Wind Task Force Report.

“Wind energy developers should pay an excise tax based on the amount of power generated with a large share of the revenue returned to the county of origin. A production tax moves towards a level playing field for all Wyoming energy producers and helps diversify Wyoming’s tax base. While wind energy is one of the heroes of the former Vice President’s ‘Inconvenient Truth’ and it enjoys a most favored position in the federal tax code, we must remember that it remains a profit oriented business that should be treated the same as other energy producers,” Freudenthal said.

The Governor is concerned with the broad powers of condemnation wind developers enjoy when building transmission lines from the wind farm to the electrical grid because the developers are, by their nature, merchant ventures.

“I doubt that most legislators or citizens understand the degree to which current state eminent domain law favors the merchant developer over the private property rights of the landowner. This tends to weaken the landowner’s position during negotiations. It also encourages building lines on private rather than public lands since condemnation cannot be used against federal or state land interests,” Freudenthal said.

Citing a need to “take a breath” on the question of condemnation, Freudenthal noted his hope “that the right of condemnation for collector systems could be suspended for a year so the Legislature can define appropriate sideboards for the exercise of eminent domain by wind developers, particularly tied to the issue of landowner compensation.”

“The increasingly heated discussions around wind projects and power lines are just the beginning. We must develop a set of fair rules that protect Wyoming people while providing certainty to wind developers. The wind energy development problems can be addressed by taking this opportunity to do right by Wyoming. And opportunity seldom knocks twice,” Freudenthal said.

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Jonathan Green
Press Secretary,
Office of Gov. Dave Freudenthal
307-777-7437 Desk
307-421-0197 Mobile
** This email may be subject to public records disclosure law and hence may be released to third parties.

Phil Taylor, E&E reporter

A southeast Wyoming landowners group is urging public officials to place a moratorium on commercial-scale wind farms in the northern Laramie Range and consider permanently banning industrial developments above certain elevations.

The 600-member Northern Laramie Range Alliance on Tuesday warned a Converse County planning committee that ranchers will face “chaotic and uncontrolled energy and transmission development” if officials do not restrict such projects in the rugged mountain terrain.

The alliance is petitioning the five-member planning and zoning commission to place a three-month moratorium on new large-scale industrial projects and pass zoning rules permanently banning such development at elevations above 5,500 feet.

“There’s a very strong tradition here that respects private property,” said Ken Lay, a founding member of the alliance who serves on the group’s steering committee. “We need a moratorium until the public and county government has had enough time to consider a permanent solution to this issue.”

Earlier efforts by the alliance to halt wind development across a broader area of the county were rejected by Converse officials who determined that such a moratorium would likely face a legal challenge. Converse is one of only a few Wyoming counties that has no zoning laws, a hands-off approach that has traditionally been welcomed by landowners.

But public sentiment appears to be shifting as energy developers look to the Laramie Range as a potential location for new wind turbines.

Industrial wind projects “would require construction of vast and intrusive supporting infrastructure, including roads, substations and transmission lines,” the group’s petition reads.

Large projects would also threaten the quality of hunting and fishing in mountainous areas home to spruce, Douglas fir and aspen trees, as well as vast stretches of open range, Lay said.

“We’d like to have this southwest corner of the county — where all the recreational opportunities exist — declared off-limits to industrial wind,” he said, adding that many ranchers depend on revenue generated by hunting and fishing fees.

The high plains of northern Converse, by contrast, would be ideal for wind power development, Lay said. Those areas are typically held by fewer landowners and do not have the same mixed-use history, he added.

The alliance’s latest proposal was narrowed to include only high-elevation areas south and west of Interstate 25. While the exact acreage is unknown, Lay estimated the area to be no more than one-fifth of the 4,254-acre county.

“There’s a balanced approach here that we’re looking for,” he said.

David Pellatz, vice chairman of the commission, said Tuesday’s standing-room-only crowd of 150 was a reflection of how important the issue is to Converse residents, but that the diversity of opinions underscored the challenge facing the commission.

“This is just one of a string of hearings and other meetings we’ve held to get a sense of where the county wants to go with this issue,” Pellatz said.

The board will now decide whether to recommend the proposal to the county commissioners, decline it, or recommend an amended version. Pellatz said he was unsure when a decision would be made but cautioned that similar industrial zoning recommendations made by his board to the county commission have all failed.

“They’ve been fairly blunt that the recommendations we’ve been sending them are a waste of their time,” he said.

Curbing renewable energy rush
What southeast Wyoming lacks in tradition mineral resources it makes up for with winds that howl from Casper to Laramie.

With up to 15,000 megawatts of wind power potential — enough to power some 5 million homes — developers have flocked to the Cowboy State in hopes of profiting from a lucrative market for renewable energy subsidized by federal tax incentives.

Firms have already submitted more than 90 wind monitoring applications covering some 1.5 million acres of federal land, said Janelle Wrigley, of the Bureau of Land Management’s Wyoming office. Collectively, those applications would translate into 34 million acres if fully developed.

The agency is reviewing six applications for commercial-scale wind farms, Wrigley added. Meanwhile, Converse saw its fourth farm — Duke Energy Corp.’s 99-megawatt Campbell Hill project — come online last month under a 20-year contract that will send the power west to markets in Utah and Oregon.

But while many in Wyoming welcome wind farms for their economic development potential, some ranchers and landowners have fought against the placement of turbines, transmission lines and other energy infrastructure on pristine mountain landscapes.

Under intense pressure from the alliance, developers of the $2 billion, 1,150-mile Gateway West Transmission Line last year decided to reroute the project west of the Laramie Range instead of crossing over to its eastern slope.

Lay counts that decision as a victory for his group but said he is worried many landowners are now selling rights-of-way to a Utah developer seeking to build a major wind farm on the range.

“The independent companies approach landowners pretty much in secret to sign them up,” he said. “They create a kind of fait accompli.”

In addition to landowner resistance, wind power developments in Wyoming are restricted by a state mandate to protect sage grouse “core areas” deemed essential to the survival of the chicken-like bird.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to announce next month whether to list the bird as a federally protected species, a decision that could cripple the expansion of wind farms and other large-scale development projects in Wyoming.

Saving the ranch
As opposition mounts in places like Converse County, several pro-development groups have formed to promote wind farms, touting their clean energy benefits, job creation and added local revenue.

Bob Whitton, chairman of the Renewable Energy Alliance of Landowners, argued against the zoning petition at Tuesday’s hearing, saying recreational opportunities would be preserved if ranch owners could generate revenue from wind power agreements. Without such income, many would be forced to sell their lands to residential developers who would impose a much wider and long-lasting mark on the land, he said.

“Our position as landowners is that we have a right to do what we want on our deeded land,” he said, echoing Lay’s argument for property rights. “But they want to be able to reach across the fence lines and say, ‘You can’t build a wind farm because it would be in my view.’”

REAL’s 300 members own 800,000 acres in six counties, including areas considered ripe for wind power development. Depending on the size of the ranch and the turbines involved, ranchers stand to gain up to $8,000 per tower annually, Whitton said.

“Cattle ranching is a very risky business,” he said. “They make money some years, they lose money in others.” And for many, supplementary income from wind power agreements is needed just to keep the business afloat.

Moreover, Whitton added, in addition to exporting coal, oil and gas, and beef, Wyoming is also exporting high school and college graduates. Promoting wind development in the state could create service and manufacturing jobs needed to stanch the flow of young Wyoming natives, he said.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D), a proponent of wind energy development, has said he is sensitive to those who want to direct the massive turbines to certain areas, but he has cautioned against unreasoned opposition.

“You can’t come to me and say, ‘Governor, we want to support alternative energy, but that power line — I just don’t want them,’” he told attendees of the Wyoming Wind Symposium last August. “The state has to be careful that it keeps a fair and open playing field so that people can build those power lines. Because without power lines, all of the things we’re talking about won’t happen.”

But Freudenthal also called on energy firms “to do a little more” to aid in the state’s economic development. “We expect them to talk about manufacturing plants being in Wyoming, we expect construction facilities to be in Wyoming and we expect the jobs to be in Wyoming.”

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By MATT JOYCE - Associated Press writer | Posted: Thursday, January 21, 2010 12:00 am

CHEYENNE — Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal said he’s working with lawmakers on a proposal for the upcoming Legislature to tax wind energy production.

Freudenthal’s pursuit of a wind tax bill follows a November vote by the Joint Revenue Committee against sponsoring two bills to tax wind energy generation.

The governor said a wind tax would level the playing field.

“All of the other sources of energy pay to contribute, to help build the state, and it’s only fair,” Freudenthal said. “One of the things I want to do in this bill is to return a big chunk of the revenue back to the counties where the turbines are located, because they have to maintain the roads and they have to do all of that.”

Freudenthal wouldn’t discuss specifics of a potential new wind tax bill during an interview last week or name the legislators he’s working with.

The Wyoming Power Producers Coalition, a wind industry group, planned to meet with the governor’s office today to discuss the wind tax issue, said Cheryl Riley, the group’s executive director. The coalition planned to present some “numbers and concepts” requested by the governor, she said.

She said the group’s position on a wind tax will depend on the specifics.

“All along we’ve said that we want to be part of a solution figuring this out,” Riley said.

Wyoming wind farms currently pay property tax, and when an exemption sunsets at the end of 2011, wind developers will begin paying sales tax on equipment.

The two bills the Joint Revenue Committee voted down would have implemented a state tax on electricity generation while also providing exemptions and credits so other power generators, such as coal-fired power plants, would ultimately break even.

Wind industry representatives told committee members that the proposals would increase costs for Wyoming households and hurt the wind industry.

Freudenthal said the previous proposal died because it was too confusing. He said his renewed effort “may or may not work.”

“It’s a new idea,” Freudenthal said. “If you look at it, there’s a whole set of new issues surrounding wind that we have to figure out the principle of on our terms.”

Posted in State-and-regional, Energy on Thursday, January 21, 2010 12:00 am Updated: 10:45 pm. | Tags: Wyoming, News, State, Regional, Wind, Wind Energy, Taxes, Dave Freudenthal, Legislature

By DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER - Star-Tribune energy reporter | Posted: Tuesday, January 5, 2010 12:00 am

Conservationists are hailing a federal plan that would limit oil and natural gas development in prime sage grouse habitat in Wyoming.

On Monday, the Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming announced it would modify its sage grouse management plan to more closely align with the state’s “core areas” approach, which severely limits new industrial activities across large areas of the state.

For example, the plan would restrict oil and natural gas development to one well pad per square mile in sage grouse habitat. Further, the state’s core areas plan requires that potential developers demonstrate how any proposed activities would not diminish grouse habitat or bird populations before the activity is permitted.

Previously, the BLM has attempted to make changes in sage grouse management retroactively.

Conservationists say it’s a long-awaited move by the BLM, and a critical step in possibly avoiding a listing of the sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act.

“This is not the kind of policy move that would necessarily stop an endangered species listing process, but it’s likely to help,” said Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist for the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.

Reached for comment Monday, the staff of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming said it had not read enough of the BLM documents to comment on the new sage grouse management plan.

The federal government estimates as many as 16 million sage grouse inhabited the West in the early 1800s. Populations, particularly in the past 40 years, have dropped dramatically. Only an estimated 150,000 to 500,000 of the birds remain on an estimated 770,000 square miles in 11 states — roughly half of the bird’s historical range.

Wyoming’s sage grouse population is by far the largest of those 11 states; the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s estimate is around 200,000. Statewide numbers have increased in recent years, officials say, though population declines have been documented in areas of intense energy development.

In 2008, Gov. Dave Freudenthal signed an executive order creating the sage grouse “core areas” conservation plan. It has been hailed by many as one of the best arguments against the need for an endangered or threatened species listing of the bird.

Yet the BLM, which oversees the bulk of sage grouse habitat in Wyoming, has been criticized for not strictly adhering the state’s core areas plan. BLM continued offering oil and gas lease parcels within the state’s core areas, as well as in areas considered critical winter habitat for elk.

Now that the BLM has promised to embrace Wyoming’s sage grouse policy, conservationists say they expect a major shift restricting oil and natural gas development within the core areas. But whether land managers follow through on the policy, and whether it’s enough to avoid a listing, remains to be seen.

“Under this memorandum, it’s even more questionable whether critical sage grouse habitat areas outside core areas will get protection, and if so, how much,” Molvar said.

An estimated 80 percent of the state’s sage grouse core areas are already under lease by the oil and gas industry. Some of those leases were protested and remain under review by the Wyoming BLM state director. Molvar said the BLM now has the opportunity to impose restrictions on those lease parcels.

“The BLM is, at same time, trying to do as little as possible to impede oil and gas development,” Molvar said. “As they walk that line, you have to ask, ‘Will it be enough to save and recover sage grouse populations?’”

Brian Rutledge, executive director and vice president of Audubon Wyoming, said he’s pleased with the BLM decision. However, it remains to be seen how the policy is implemented and enforced.

“We look to both industry and federal managing agencies to approach this with an enlightened and determined manner to avoid listing of this species,” Rutledge said. “For me it’s not even about the sage grouse. It’s about the sagebrush ecosystem.”

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.

By MATT JOYCE - Associated Press writer | Posted: Tuesday, January 5, 2010 12:00 am

CHEYENNE — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Monday announced the routes it will analyze for a proposed power line from eastern Wyoming to western Idaho, setting aside some of the most contentious proposals.

The BLM’s draft environmental impact statement for the Gateway West Transmission Line Project will study routes proposed by Rocky Mountain Power and Idaho Power, along with possible alternatives. The document is to be released this summer.

The utilities plan to build a $2 billion, 1,150-mile line to carry wind and other power to their customers in Wyoming, Idaho and other Western states. They plan to construct new 230-kilovolt and 500-kilovolt lines, depending on the segment.

The proposed line would start near Glenrock, drop south to Interstate 80, and run across southern Wyoming and southern Idaho to a proposed substation near Melba, Idaho.

The companies hope to complete the project by 2014, but they delayed the siting process for several months this summer to address concerns raised by landowners and local governments along the route. Earlier proposals ran into opposition in Converse and Lincoln counties in Wyoming and in the Idaho counties of Power, Cassia, Ada and Owyhee.

“A lot of groups worked real hard with us to develop these alternatives,” said Walt George, project manager for the BLM. “We wanted to emphasize these routes because these are the routes that the public is going to see in detail.”

The Northern Laramie Range Alliance fought a proposed segment of the line that would have crossed the range and run along its eastern edge. The latest map includes several routes running west of the range.

“The alliance has been pleased that Rocky Mountain Power has been responsive to the concerns expressed by the nearly 800 citizens about routes that had earlier been proposed for segment 1,” said Kenneth G. Lay, a founder of the alliance.

In Lincoln County, developers ran up against conflicts with historic trails, as well as habitat for sage grouse and big game, George said.

Ryan Lance, deputy chief of staff to Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, said the governor’s office has supported siting the new transmission lines along the routes of existing lines.

“You have a convergence of private land issues with historic trails and viewsheds, and you have also a convergence with big game and sage grouse habitat out there, and so you’re going to have to find a way forward,” Lance said.

The governor’s office was pleased that Gateway West developers dropped the contentious eastern segment in the northern Laramie Range and routed the proposed line around the community of Fort Steele in south-central Wyoming, Lance said.

The public will get a chance to comment on the proposed routes when the BLM releases the draft environmental impact statement this summer.