• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022 January 31, 2023
Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB January 31, 2023
Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty January 31, 2023
Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds January 31, 2023
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Next
Prev

Fossils’ War on Wind Could Hurt Oklahoma’s Poorest

February 28, 2018
Reading time: 2 minutes

Edu3k/Wikimedia Commons

Edu3k/Wikimedia Commons

 

In a skirmish reflecting a wider war, Oklahoma’s thriving wind power industry—which delivers a serious boost to the state’s poorest regions—is under assault by powerful oil and gas interests made nervous by surging renewables.

Fifteen years ago, the state successfully drew wind companies to the state’s poorest corners, by way of “two main incentives—a five-year exemption for local property taxes and a tax credit for zero-emissions electricity generation,” the Houston Chronicle reports. Today, “the wind industry is the largest taxpayer in 14 Oklahoma counties, most of them rural, and generates about 9,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state.”

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
New!
Subscribe

Until two years ago, the turbines co-existed with Oklahoma’s vast number of oil and gas wells. Neighbourliness evaporated, however, when the price of oil plunged, taking Oklahoma’s budget with it. “Nearly a quarter of Oklahoma’s revenue comes from the oil and gas industry,” the Chronicle states, “which made it particularly vulnerable to the steep plunge in crude prices between 2014 and 2016.”

Refusing to acknowledge the link between volatile oil prices and broken budgets, Oklahoman oil and gas interests led by Trump administration energy advisor Harold Hamm, CEO of one of the country’s biggest independent oil companies, launched an aggressive campaign of TV and radio ads that blamed US$116 million worth of wind energy incentives in 2016 for the budgetary shortfall.

Those efforts have paid off. In early February, the paper notes, “lawmakers proposed legislation that would cap the cumulative amount of tax credits that all existing wind farms can claim each year to no more than $18 million,” vastly less than the $74 million they claimed in 2016.

That a plan to impose further taxes on wind energy failed to secure the majority needed to pass in the state legislature a few weeks ago is hardly an end to hostilities. Wind energy advocates anticipate further efforts “to impose new taxes on wind power and moves to cut incentives already awarded to projects in years past.” They have already lost the battle to implement state net metering laws “which would make solar energy more attractive by allowing owners of rooftop systems to sell excess power into the grid,” writes Chronicle reporter Ryan Handy.

The action in Oklahoma, said Karl Rabago, executive director of New York’s Pace University Energy and Climate Center in New York, is part of a larger war on renewable energy that is ramping up “as wind and solar increase market share” and Trump energy policy “seeks to promote oil, natural gas and coal”. Arizona killed net metering in 2016, and in Ohio, “lawmakers are considering rolling back renewable energy standards, which require utilities to buy a share of their power from wind, solar, and other renewable sources.”

Back in Oklahoma, the state’s willingness to throw its wind turbines under the Big Oil bus doesn’t seem to be helping it balance the books. As of February, “Oklahoma was running two concurrent legislative sessions to fill a $600-million hole in the current budget,” the Chronicle reports, plus another $878 million gap for its next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Should legislators continue to undermine the wind industry, it may ultimately be the state’s 14 poorest counties that are left out in the cold. Portugal’s EDP Renewables, which has its North American headquarters in Houston, told the Chronicle that “the elimination of the state tax credits and the prospect of other policy changes has led it to cancel projects in Oklahoma.”

“We are a multinational company, the fourth largest renewable energy company in the world,” said Director of Government Affairs Vanessa Tutos. “We can go elsewhere.”



in Clean Electricity Grid, Community Climate Finance, Energy Politics, Environmental Justice, Jobs & Training, Oil & Gas, Solar, Sub-National Governments, United States, Wind

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Mike Mozart/Flickr
Ending Emissions

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
326
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures
Canada

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE
Ending Emissions

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61

Comments 1

  1. Reynold Reimer says:
    5 years ago

    Albertans can expect similar moves against renewable energy if the UCP wins the 2019 election. Let’s not let that happen.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Mike Mozart/Flickr

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
326
Nuclear Jordan/Facebook

TC Energy Wants to Supply ‘Small-Scale’ Nuclear Reactors to Alberta Tar Sands/Oil Sands

May 4, 2022
399
openthegovernment.org

BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package

August 8, 2022
540
Sam Balto/YouTube

Elementary School’s Bike Bus Brings ‘Sheer Joy’ to Portland Neighbourhood

October 16, 2022
260
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing

U.S. Emissions Grow Only Slightly, Offer Hope for Meeting Paris Targets

January 12, 2023
79
RL0919/wikimedia commons

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.4k

Recent Posts

Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61
Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
125
/snappy goat

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
94
Victorgrigas/wikimedia commons

World Bank Climate Reforms Too ‘Timid and Slow,’ Critics Warn

January 31, 2023
42
Doc Searls/Twitter

Guilbeault Could Intervene on Ontario Greenbelt Development

January 31, 2023
132
Next Post
Max Pixels

Fossils’ War on Wind Could Hurt Oklahoma’s Poorest

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}