Oklahoma lawmakers are considering a bill that would require new wind farms to get approval from the aeronautics commission, which is pushing for more oversight. Another proposal would require the state's military commission to sign off before new wind farms break ground.

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Without comment, Corporation Commission Administrative Law Judge Mary Candler denied the attorney general's motion in a hearing Thursday morning. However, Candler approved another motion to have PSO pay for witness fees and other case costs for the attorney general's office, which represents consumers in utility cases.

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In Friday's hearing, Assistant Attorney General Dara Derryberry said commission rules only allow preapproval for generation capacity. ...PSO couldn't ask for a waiver of competitive bidding rules because construction has already started on the wind farm. Commission rules allow a pre-construction review as an alternative to competitive bidding, but PSO didn't ask for that either, she said.

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The motion, filed late Friday by Attorney General Mike Hunter's public utility division, said if the commission doesn't dismiss the case, it should make PSO pay for the attorney general's costs to represent Oklahoma consumers in the case. "...PSO's customers are at risk to bear the $1.36 billion cost of the Wind Catcher project if the commission grants PSO's requested relief." 

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To take maximum advantage of the federal production tax credit before it declined in 2017, project construction began last December. 

General Oklahoma

A $4.5 billion wind farm and transmission line announced last week by Public Service Co. of Oklahoma and a sister utility needs a quick answer from Oklahoma regulators so the project can fully qualify for federal tax credits for renewable energy.

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The turbine appears to be part of EDP Renewables' Blue Canyon Wind facility. There were four phases to the project totalling 424 megawatts and located in Caddo, Comanche, and Kiowa Counties. The project uses a combination of Vestas and GE model wind turbines. The news report did not cite the make or model of the burned turbine. The initial turbines (phase 1) were placed in service in 2003. 

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[T]he initial assessment for their property was valued at around $187 million which the company is required to pay taxes on to the county. Following an informal protest a second assessment to about $177 million. Now the company is asking for the value to be lowered to around $60 million. ...The Excise Board ruled against Taloga Wind and upheld the second assessment.

Taxes & Subsidies Oklahoma

We would encourage NextEra to release its finding when they determine what happened that caused the turbine blade to break. We realize they are a private company, but this is a big project that people see every day. We think the public deserves to know what the problems are.

Safety Structural Failure Oklahoma

Here’s another problem with wind farms. They are too tall. They are so tall, in fact, that they interfere with military aviation training with bases in Oklahoma.

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"The turbine sits in the cornfield, but the blade broke off and flew about 100 yards north of the turbine ," recalls Carpenter. "It flattened the corn, destroyed it." Since the May 31 incident, the turbine's blade has been replaced by General Electric and it has resumed to normal operations.

Safety Structural Failure Oklahoma

The Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission head says wind farms in western Oklahoma are having a negative impact on military flight training.

Safety Oklahoma

On a sunny day last summer, in the middle of a vast cornfield somewhere in the large, windy middle of America, two researchers from the University of Tulsa stepped into an oven-hot, elevator-sized chamber within the base of a 300-foot-tall wind turbine. They’d picked the simple pin-and-tumbler lock on the turbine’s metal door in less than a minute and opened the unsecured server closet inside.

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No details have been released yet as to what caused a wind turbine to collapse Monday afternoon east of Hooker, Okla.

Safety Structural Failure Oklahoma

The broken blade sits about 100 yards behind the wind turbine, crushing all of the corn that surrounds it. The cornfield belongs to Ken Carpenter, who declined to comment. Cleaning up the blade and wind turbine could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to two months, and will involve bringing a large crane near the field to take the blade off, McIntyre said. 

Safety Structural Failure Oklahoma

U.S. District Judge Stephen P. Friot ruled on a narrow jurisdictional issue on whether Minco Wind IV LLC and Minco V LLC had the standing to challenge a town ordinance. Hinton's Board of Trustees adopted an ordinance in January declaring wind project equipment within two miles of the town to be a public nuisance.

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Construction is moving forward on a more-than $400 million wind farm project, despite the scheduled sunset of state wind tax credits.

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Events in Oklahoma have raised concerns over states’ readiness to continue subsidy support in an era of budget cutbacks and fiscal constraints, while potential trouble is also brewing in California, Iowa and Texas, suggesting that the industry’s ability to lobby effectively on crucial issues will soon be put to the test.

Taxes & Subsidies USA Oklahoma

A simple way to make up some of that shortfall is for wind developers to pay sales tax on their purchases, just like nearly everyone else in Oklahoma. Each new wind turbine, which is manufactured somewhere else and shipped into Oklahoma, could net the state about $90,000 in sales tax revenue.

Taxes & Subsidies Oklahoma

In a 5-1 decision, the justices overturned a lower court’s dismissal of the case, which argues that the Osage County Wind Energy Ordinance should be thrown out because county commissioners allegedly failed to give proper public notice before approving it.

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