News
Category:
Wyoming
When the Power Co. of Wyoming started developing plans for the 1,000-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project in Carbon County, it estimated paying between $292 million and $438 million in taxes over 20 years. Under the current tax structure, it would pay an estimated $675 million to $821 million.
Also filed under [
General]
Election year politics snag Wyoming wind tower plant
July 27, 2012 by Joan Barron in Casper Star-Tribune
July 27, 2012 by Joan Barron in Casper Star-Tribune
"They need to have a little more certainty around the customer base before they start putting in the capital investment," Jensen said. "They are going to make sure they have somebody to sell the towers to. You can't expect a company to lay out capital investment and hire people based on a one-year certainty."
Also filed under [
General]
Wyoming seeks California, Colorado wind power buyers
July 27, 2012 by Jeremy Fugleberg in Casper Star-Tribune
July 27, 2012 by Jeremy Fugleberg in Casper Star-Tribune
Wyoming officials have started a campaign to sell Wyoming wind to California and are preparing a similar sales pitch to Colorado.
Both states want electric utilities to provide a percentage of their power from renewable sources, such as wind.
Also filed under [
General|
California]
So far this year, no developers have visited the state's Industrial Siting Division to discuss any new wind energy project plans, said Todd Parfitt, administrator for the division, which is part of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.
Also filed under [
General]
Legal challenge costs Wyoming wind project its utility PPA
June 8, 2012 by Richard A Kessler in Recharge News
June 8, 2012 by Richard A Kessler in Recharge News
US developer Wasatch Wind has postponed the completion of a 100MW project in Wyoming until 2013 due to legal appeals by an opposition group, which have forced it to terminate a power-purchase agreement (PPA) with the state's largest electricity utility.
Also filed under [
General]
Meanwhile, with the delay for Pioneer I construction until at least 2013, Wasatch's 50-megawatt power purchase agreement with Rocky Mountain Power was terminated because the company could not fulfill the contractual terms to begin delivering power in October. The agreement is vital to the project because it assures financial backers that the wind power can be sold.
Also filed under [
General]
Legal challenges force delay in Wyoming wind farm project
April 28, 2012 by Jeremy Pelzer in Casper Star-Tribune
April 28, 2012 by Jeremy Pelzer in Casper Star-Tribune
Wasatch said the delay comes because numerous legal challenges to the project by the Northern Laramie Range Alliance have made it impossible to start generating power on that site by October, forcing the company to break a power purchase agreement with Rocky Mountain Power.
Also filed under [
General]
Men scammed investors with fake Butte County wind farm
April 12, 2012 by Associated Press in Rapid City Journal
April 12, 2012 by Associated Press in Rapid City Journal
Reed and Scott paid phone solicitors to make cold calls to investors, telling them that the wind farms were being constructed jointly by private investors and the U.S. government. Potential stakeholders were told that "government funds had been set aside by the President of the United States ...these alleged wind farm projects."
Also filed under [
General|
South Dakota]
Federal regulators deny move against Wyoming wind farm
March 20, 2012 by Jeremy Fugleberg in Casper Star-Tribune
March 20, 2012 by Jeremy Fugleberg in Casper Star-Tribune
The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday denied a petition by the Northern Laramie Range Alliance that would have effectively killed a pair of adjacent wind farms on ridges in the Mormon Canyon area, proposed by Wasatch Wind of Park City, Utah.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy]
Wyoming wind farm construction lags behind permitting
February 19, 2012 by Jeremy Fugleberg in Casper Star-Tribune
February 19, 2012 by Jeremy Fugleberg in Casper Star-Tribune
No developer with state turbine permits in hand has abandoned a project, Parfitt said. But a number of wind farms are on hold, have yet to complete additional construction phases or are still dealing with a range of issues.
Also filed under [
General]
Sweetwater County halts wind farm applications
February 15, 2012 by Jeremy Fugleberg in Casper Star-Tribune
February 15, 2012 by Jeremy Fugleberg in Casper Star-Tribune
The Sweetwater County Commission approved a temporary halt to applications for commercial wind farms, pending changes in county rules and public meetings. The county has not met state standards for wind farm zoning, and Commission Chairman Wally Johnson said that the county is not ready for any new wind farm projects.
Also filed under [
General]
Group to appeal court OK of Wasatch wind farm in Wyoming
January 30, 2012 by Jeremy Fugleberg in Casper Star-Tribune
January 30, 2012 by Jeremy Fugleberg in Casper Star-Tribune
The Northern Laramie Range Alliance appealed the permits granted by the Converse County Commission in May and by the state Industrial Siting Council -- a state board that must approve large commercial projects in the state -- in June.
Also filed under [
General]
Mead has expressed concern that the higher taxes might make wind energy companies look outside Wyoming. Nonetheless, the Legislature's Joint Revenue Interim Committee last fall rejected the governor's proposal to continue the tax exemption for wind energy projects while imposing a lower 2 percent impact fee on wind projects to support county governments.
Also filed under [
Tax Breaks & Subsidies]
Wyoming researchers study impact of wind farms on antelope, elk
January 7, 2012 by Christine Peterson in Casper Star-Tribune
January 7, 2012 by Christine Peterson in Casper Star-Tribune
Hard winters usually limit animals to certain areas where wind blows snow away and food is available. If those are the same places where turbines exist, and elk or antelope avoid turbines, it could hurt the winter survival rate of the herds, Beck said.
"It is an area of research that we don't have a lot of information on.
Also filed under [
Impact on Wildlife|
Impact on Landscape]
Duke-American acquires Zephyr project for Wyoming wind power
January 3, 2012 by J.F.S. Valdez in Eco-Seed
January 3, 2012 by J.F.S. Valdez in Eco-Seed
Duke-American Transmission Company acquired the 3,000-megawatt-capacity Zephyr Power Transmission Project, committing to use at least 2,100 MW of the transmission line's capacity to provide wind power to California and the southwestern United States from the wind-rich areas of eastern Wyoming.
The Legislature's Joint Revenue Interim Committee in October shot down Mead's proposal to continue the tax exemption for wind energy projects while imposing a 2 percent impact fee on wind projects to support county governments.
Despite that setback, Mead said he's not giving up on addressing the wind taxation issue.
Also filed under [
Tax Breaks & Subsidies|
Energy Policy]
Gov. Mead pushes to reduce tax on wind energy projects despite lawmakers' opposition
December 27, 2011 by Ben Neary in The Republic
December 27, 2011 by Ben Neary in The Republic
Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, a member of the Senate Revenue Committee, said Tuesday he doesn't believe the wind industry is taxed enough. He said the 2-percent impact fee that Mead and others had supported, "really unacceptably lowered taxes on the industry, and I don't think that was appropriate."
Also filed under [
Tax Breaks & Subsidies]
The county requests the most restrictive development criteria be placed upon enXco uniformly on lands under BLM administration as well as privately-owned and state-owned lands. The project will encompass a total of 7,652 acres -- 48 percent of which is privately owned, 44 percent under the BLM's administration.
Also filed under [
Impact on Landscape]
Duke, ATC plan $3.5 billion Wyoming-Nevada power line
December 19, 2011 by Thomas Content in Journal Sentinel
December 19, 2011 by Thomas Content in Journal Sentinel
The 500,000-volt line would be a direct current line that’s projected to cost about $3.5 billion. The project would help transport electricity generated from Wyoming wind farms to California, which has set a renewable target to obtain one-third of its power from renewable sources by 2020.
Also filed under [
Transmission|
Nevada]
Rather than see building more transmission as the solution, though, Bowman sees its drawbacks as a symptom of a bigger problem: a highly centralized power system.
"I'm going to predict the day of very large transmission lines to carry energy from remote areas to urban centers are about over," he said. "What I do think you'll see happen is smaller projects that are built to accommodate the existing system you have in the rural electric districts and to move that power to the cities that way. I think there will be a different model."
| << West Virginia |