Wind Power News: Oklahoma
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational effort to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Proposed wind farm near Newkirk causes uproar by surrounding neighbors
NEWKIRK, Okla. – A proposed wind farm just east of Newkirk has some Kay County and Newkirk residents desperate, hoping to see the plans amended. Duke Energy Renewables has been planning the project, called Frontier 2 Wind Power Project, with the Kay County Board of Commissioners for the past two years. The plan is to build a 350 megawatt project comprised of 70 to 80 turbines, each 599-feet tall, on several leased properties owned by 130 landowners east of the . . . Complete story »
NextEra Energy to build wind farm near Enid
OKLAHOMA CITY – Florida-based NextEra Energy said Monday it plans to build a 250-megawatt, 90-turbine wind farm in Garfield and Alfalfa counties near Enid. Skeleton Creek wind farm, planned to be operational by the end of the year, will raise more than $54 million in property taxes, have $300 million in capital costs and pay $57 million to participating landowners over the 30-year life span of the project, said NextEra Communications Specialist Roxanne Reyes. Reyes said the project will create . . . Complete story »
Wind industry tax protests disrupt school financing
In the halls of the state Capitol, lobbyists for the wind industry have been handing out brochures touting the millions of dollars in property tax revenues that Oklahoma schools and counties have received as a result of wind farms being built in their jurisdictions. But there’s something those brochures don’t say: Most of those property tax payments to date have not been paid by wind company owners. Instead, they’ve been paid by Oklahomans whose income tax and other tax payments . . . Complete story »
NextEra Energy to construct wind farm in Garfield, Alfalfa counties
GOLTRY – NextEra Energy plans to have a new 250-megawatt wind farm operational in parts of Garfield and Alfalfa counties by the end of the year. The 250 MW Skeleton Creek wind farm, comprises of about 90 GE wind turbines, will be located in the northwest corner of Garfield County and southeast corner of Alfalfa County, said Elinore Beitler, a project manager with NextEra Energy. She said the wind farm will generate between $50 million and $60 million in property taxes and . . . Complete story »
Corporation Commission adopts rule change that will require wind facility operators and developers to pay annual fees
Oklahoma’s Corporation Commission on Thursday adopted updated rules that include a new provision to require wind developers to pay the agency annual fees. The provision requires owners of wind energy facilities to pay the agency $2,000 annually per facility to help compensate it for its oversight responsibilities. It also requires developers of proposed wind energy facilities to pay the agency $5,000 whenever they submit notices to the agency of their plans to build a new project. Negotiations on the fee . . . Complete story »
Oklahoma Senate’s Energy Committee sends wind-related bills along
Several wind energy-related bills proposed by lawmakers worked their way through the Oklahoma Senate’s Energy Committee on Thursday, although senators sponsoring two of the measures stripped them of their ability to become law, for now. Senate Bill 904, authored by Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, would tweak language Oklahoma’s Legislature approved in 2018 that sets up procedures wind farm developers and regulators must follow to make sure proposed farms don’t interfere with military training routes. Pugh said Thursday the pending measure . . . Complete story »
Apex offering chance to learn about proposed wind farm
ADA, Okla. – People who are curious about a proposal to build a wind farm in this area can learn more about the project later this month. The Virginia-based company Apex Clean Energy will host an open house for the Diamond Spring Wind project from 5 to 7 p.m. Feb. 18 at the Chickasaw Nation Community Center, 700 N. Mississippi Ave. in Ada. The come-and-go event is open to the public, and light refreshments will be served. Apex team members will . . . Complete story »
100 percent “green” energy far from feasible
Wishing something is so doesn’t make it possible, and nowhere in politics is the gap between aspiration and reality larger than in the push to quickly eliminate fossil fuel use. Some politicians and environmental activists want to require that all U.S. electricity be generated from renewable sources by the 2030s. That would mean replacing an overwhelming majority of current production, which is generated by coal- or natural gas-fired power plants. What would such a transition look like? Robert Bryce, a . . . Complete story »
U.S. Supreme Court leaves Osage County wind developments in doubt
With the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to hear a case against an 8,400-acre project west of Pawhuska, the future of wind development in Osage County seems clouded. Five years ago, after previous legal efforts failed to stop construction, the federal government filed a lawsuit arguing that massive wind turbines interfered with the Osage Nation’s mineral rights and that wind developers should have obtained permits from the tribe before building the project. A federal district court dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that . . . Complete story »
Defense, NextEra extend deadline
The Department of Defense and NextEra Energy have extended the deadline to reach a mitigation plan on a wind farm along a route of airspace the military uses for training. Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter announced the extension Friday. NextEra has been authorized to proceed with construction on turbines that have been approved by the FAA. Construction on the company’s wind farm west of Hinton was stopped in October after NextEra and Oklahoma Strategic Military Planning Commission agreed to work . . . Complete story »
