Wyoming Mulls Penalizing Renewable Energy

Worker atop a roof covered in solar panels.
The Inflation Reduction Act gives tax credits of up to 20%, on top of an existing 20% credit, for solar and wind projects located in low-income areas.

PHOENIX - The Wyoming legislature is considering a bill that would essentially ban major types of renewable energy in the coal revenue-dependent state.

Wyoming Senate Bill 71, introduced earlier this month and sponsored exclusively by Republicans, would require that all electric utilities and cooperatives in the state generate their power through what the bill calls "eligible generating resources," or pay a penalty.

If SB 71 became law electric providers in the state would need to produce their power by means of coal, hydroelectric generation, or nuclear, notably leaving absent wind and solar power. The bill would allow utilities to use net metering, in which homeowners with their own solar generation systems could transfer excess power onto the grid.

Wyoming's geography makes it perhaps the most wind-energy rich potential state in the country, a fact recognized by the U.S. government when it began promoting the massive Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project in Carbon County, in the southern part of the state. But Wyoming is the nation's largest coal producer and is extremely reliant on coal and also on natural gas to provide jobs and revenue. The state's Republican governor, Matt Mead, has made diversifying Wyoming's economy, particularly through the development of a more robust high-tech sector, a priority. Analysts have become increasingly concerned about the state's long-term financial health, although it still has ample fiscal reserves.

The bill does not explicitly ban utilities from using energy sources beyond those specified, nor does it require immediate compliance. The bill specifies instead that utilities must get 95% of their power from an eligible source in compliance year 2018, and 100% in compliance year 2019 and beyond. Utilities unable to meet this standard would pay a penalty of $10 for each megawatt hour of energy credits the electric utility failed to procure. An electric utility would not be able to recover this penalty through its electricity rates.

Further, the bill would not penalize wind or solar energy projects producing energy for export to different states, a major idea behind the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre project. The Trump administration appears to support that project and some other wind energy projects, according to an infrastructure priorities list leaked to national media that appeared to be developed for Trump prior to his swearing-in. A $1 trillion infrastructure agenda was one of Trump's signature campaign issues.

The bill was introduced January 10 and is awaiting further legislative action now. The bill has nine Republican sponsors and Republicans can pass legislation without Democrat assistance in Wyoming because the GOP has crushing supermajorities in both the Senate and in the State House of Representatives.

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Wyoming
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