It's time for Wyoming to get more from the renewables that will be sited here.
I know a lot of East and West coasters travel I-80 and think that we are a God-forsaken country. I like it this way.
I don't think there's a bad drive in Wyoming and I'll take the Red Desert over the Tetons. There are two types of people in the world: those that like open spaces and those that find them very uncomfortable. This has a lot to do with why we're a target for renewables.
Within our state, we need to put aside our own differences and realize two points: renewables are here to stay and they are going to have enormous impacts on our Wyoming landscape.
We should not permit consumers in California, Oregon, and Washington to decide the fate of the landscapes we love because they want to use renewable energy to run their Jacuzzis and charge their Teslas.
Trust
My legislative experience in this area has taught me that this is an industry you can't trust. It is cacophony of Wild West operators rushing to grab all the federal subsidies they can to meet market opportunities in states with renewable portfolio standards and bans on fossil fuels.
These industries have hired an astounding number of the capable lobbyists to influence the state legislature and regulators in Cheyenne.
They will tell us anything to keep us from adopting more siting restrictions and more taxation on renewable resources that will benefit us and Wyoming’s future citizens.
Previously they told us that our extremely small 1/10 cent per kWh tax on renewables would break the industry. They argued that tax was the reason for several years there was a slowdown on new renewable placement in Wyoming.
Now we know the truth. The small tax, representing a fraction of the federal subsidies the industry enjoys, had nothing to do with it. All these entities were waiting for new transmission to be in place. Now the new transmission is well underway.
North America's largest wind farm developed by the Anschutz companies near Rawlins recently broke ground on the now fully permitted Transwest Express Transmission Project, opening the door for the company to move forward and deliver Wyoming-based wind power to Southern California.
Similarly Rocky Mountain Power has two major projects underway to take wind (and solar) generation out of Wyoming to California, Oregon and Washington. Gateway South runs from Medicine Bow to Mona, Utah.
Gateway West starts at Glenrock, runs through Medicine Bow, and will carry power to the grid at Downey Idaho. Rocky Mountain Power will soon file still another rate case to force Wyoming customers to pay an allocated part of the cost of these facilities, which have no significant benefit to them.
Key to the trust issue is that the whole last rate case RMP told us that fossil fuels were driving costs!
Forcing Wyoming customers to pay the transmission costs of supplying power to other states adds insult to the injury of the industry’s landscape pollution. Wyoming is losing in the renewable energy transition.
Land intensity and permanence
Wind and solar generation are land intensive. We can view wind turbines from many miles away. They affect wildlife. They pollute our vast beautiful landscapes, many still largely in their natural form.
The biggest costs in developing renewables is the siting and the transmission and associated infrastructure. It’s not the cost of the turbines or solar panels themselves. This means that when these projects come up for permit renewal – so as long as the wind still blows and the sun still shines in Wyoming – their life will be extended with turbines and panels. Does anyone doubt that we'll need energy in 50 years 100 years? Renewables will be on our landscape for decades and possibly even centuries.
Like the line from a Jimmy Buffett (RIP) song, will we rue the placement of industrial scale wind on our landscapes like the tattoo that became “a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling”?
Compensation
We don't get enough compensation for what we're losing. Our modest wind tax brings in very little in relation to the scale of the projects. The same is equally true of the property and sales tax revenues which are only significant if you do not consider the enormous nature of these projects and the investment behind them. The investment is greater than any ever made in Wyoming, including the Interstate highway system and the railroads. We need better siting and we need better tax policy. We need it now.
We need to keep companies from sticking Wyoming customers for the costs of these facilities. We need to think about the generations of Wyoming citizens who come after us. What will we leave them if we sever their opportunity to see the most spectacular landscapes in the lower 48 and we put nothing in the bank to compensate them for what they perhaps will not even realize they've lost.
Politics
Not too long ago, there was a guest column in Reuters that said this about the new renewable projects in Wyoming’s future:
“Power companies in densely populated states such as California often face challenges in sourcing locally-generated clean power due to shortages of land appropriate for renewable facilities, as well as being met with fervent opposition to the development of wholesale energy infrastructure of any sort.” Gavin Maguire, Reuters 9-12-2023
This leaves me more than a little bit outraged. California, Oregon, and Washington have lots of places where they could site these facilities, but they prefer to place them on our landscapes without compensating Wyoming’s current and future citizens for the impacts of doing so. It is time for Wyoming to stand up, put these facilities only where they minimize negative impacts and get a fair deal in terms of tax revenues.
Cale Case represents Senate District 25 in Lander
