{"id":18884,"date":"2014-03-13T06:15:58","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T11:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=18884"},"modified":"2014-07-23T15:41:26","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T20:41:26","slug":"as-wind-energy-moves-into-eastern-oklahoma-resistance-turns-political","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/03\/13\/as-wind-energy-moves-into-eastern-oklahoma-resistance-turns-political\/","title":{"rendered":"As Wind Energy Moves Into Eastern Oklahoma, Resistance Turns Political"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Joe<\/p>\n

Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Joe Bush, owner of a ranch near Shidler, Okla., has signed agreements to lease land for two wind farms. Bush worries a 2014 bill that would impose a moratorium on some wind-energy projects would prevent the wind farms from being built.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Oklahoma is one of the country\u2019s top wind energy<\/a> producers, and companies want to build more turbines across the state.<\/p>

For many landowners, wind farms<\/a> can be a financial windfall. But as wind energy moves into regions unaccustomed to turbines, opponents have taken the fight to the state Capitol.<\/p>

<\/p>\n

Joe Bush grew up in Dallas, and he knows a lot about the energy business. During the frenzied 1980s oil boom, he worked as a tax accountant for a big petroleum company in Texas. After the bust, he started a new life as a cattleman on the ranch his grandfather built near Shidler, in northeastern Oklahoma\u2019s Osage County.<\/p>\n

Bush\u2019s Tower Hill Ranch is named for the opportunity elevation has brought this family. Decades ago, AT&T leased land to build a microwave tower to connect long-distance telephone calls. More recently, Bush leased out land for cell phone towers. Bush hopes the next towers erected on the ranch will carry wind turbines.<\/p>\n

\u201dIt is one of the windiest places around, and I hope they\u2019re able to do the deal,” Bush says. “It’ll make me whole. It\u2019ll make more money than cattle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Turbine<\/p>\n

Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Turbine nacelles for a wind farm project are collecting at a staging area in Osage County.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

County to Capitol<\/h4>\n

But the two wind farms planned for Bush\u2019s ranch may never come. A measure being considered by the Oklahoma Legislature \u2014 Senate Bill 1440, authored by Sen. President Pro Tempore Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa \u2014 would impose a moratorium on new wind energy projects east of Interstate 35. The blackout would last until 2017, and the state would conduct wind energy studies in the interim.<\/p>\n

Rep. <\/b>Earl Sears, R-Bartlesville, is the bill’s House sponsor. There are no wind farms planned for Sears’ northeastern Oklahoma district, but projects have been planned for neighboring counties.<\/p>\n

Osage County could be home to a pair of 150-megawatt wind farms. St. Louis-based Wind Capital Group wants to build a 94-turbine farm called the\u00a0Osage County Wind Energy Project<\/a>, and Kansas-based Trade Wind Energy is planning a 16,000-acre site dubbed the\u00a0Mustang Run Wind Project<\/a>. In Craig County, EDP Renewables North America \u2014 a subsidiary of Lisbon-based Energias de Portugal \u2014 is planning to build a 59-turbine wind farm near Centralia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWind should be the new oil for Oklahoma,” Bush says. “It’s good for the state economy, it\u2019s good for the environment, it\u2019s good for living things in Oklahoma. I don\u2019t understand why the politicians aren\u2019t really embracing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wind Resistance<\/h4>\n
\"A<\/p>\n

Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

A wind farm in Ellis County in western Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Wind energy is a newcomer to northeastern Oklahoma, but wind farm projects have met vicious resistance even in western Oklahoma, where they\u2019re a lot more common. Currently, wind energy projects are relatively unregulated by the state, so local governments like the City of Piedmont have wrestled with rules and ordinances<\/a>, and acrimony between those who want to sell leases and those who don’t want to live near turbines.<\/p>\n

Wind farm opponents are often vocal and well-organized. In northeastern Oklahoma, landowners formed a group called the Oklahoma Property Rights Association to oppose wind farm development there. Rep. Sears says neither side has been shy about contacting him to share their concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am all about property owners and property rights. But on the same token, this just isn\u2019t a typical little building out in the backyard or on the prairie-side,\u201d Sears says.<\/p>\n

Decreased property values and the nuisance of living with the noise and flickering shadow caused by whirring turbine blades are among the top concerns voiced by wind farm opponents. And some worry about the impact wind farms could have on birds and other wildlife.<\/p>\n

The potential threat that <\/b>spinning turbine blades could pose to eagles\u00a0spurred controversy last year in Osage County<\/a>, particularly within the Osage Nation, which opposed Wind Capital Group’s effort to seek a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to kill up to 120 eagles during the lifespan of the wind farm.<\/p>\n

Sears says landowners and lawmakers also worry there won’t be enough wind to sustain wind farm projects, which could mean turbines <\/b>blocking vistas without generating royalty payments for landowners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wind blows on the eastern part of the state, don\u2019t get me wrong, but I don\u2019t know if it blows enough to generate and hold profits for a wind power company,\u201d Sears says.<\/p>\n

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