Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
quently harsh climate: wind. Wind power technology as we now know it started in
the early 1980s. As the eighth-windiest state, Wyoming ranks 14th in wind power in-
stallations, and their numbers are growing steadily—in 2011 the energy produced by
wind was more than double the 2009 figures. In addition to constant wind, the vast
tracts of public land and the low population density make Wyoming an ideal wind-
energy producer. The benefits of wind power to Wyoming include jobs and electri-
city produced without greenhouse gases. However, the challenge is trying to sell that
wind energy to major urban areas that need it: Las Vegas, California, Arizona. The
distances are vast, and as of 2013, there is a significant lack of transmission capa-
city. A consortium of companies, some of them affiliates of the privately held Ans-
chutz Corp., which aims to build the biggest wind farm in the country, are proposing
to build three major transmission lines—Transwest Express, Zephyr, and Gateway
West—to send the energy to the Southwest and California.
Spend a few days in Wyoming, particularly in the southern half of the state, and
it will come as no surprise that Wyoming has some of the most consistent wind in
the country. The state has the highest per capita wind power capacity in the country,
followed by North Dakota in 2nd place and Montana in 11th place. In April 2011,
there were 1,412 wind towers in Wyoming, according to the American Wind Energy
Association, and hundreds more were under construction. Estimates put the eventual
tally as high as 10,000 towers across the state, which will clearly change the land-
scape of Wyoming.
Somewhat controversially, Wyoming is the first state to put a tax on wind energy
production. Proposed by Governor Dave Freudenthal, the $1 per megawatt hour tax
went into effect in 2012 after a sales tax exemption for renewable energy projects
expired in 2011. In its first year alone, the tax generated roughly $2.6 million for the
state. Experts expect this number to grow significantly as the state's ability to sell and
transport the energy expands. The crux of the controversy is that some feel this makes
Wyoming unfriendly to wind power producers, but the governor and his supporters
argued that the producers are going to make a lot of money but that Wyomingites will
bear the environmental—primarily visual—and socioeconomic burden. They point
to the benefits gained statewide by tax revenues from oil, gas, coal, and coal-bed
methane.
