{"id":20684,"date":"2014-07-24T06:15:16","date_gmt":"2014-07-24T11:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=20684"},"modified":"2014-07-24T09:28:14","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T14:28:14","slug":"why-oklahomas-wind-energy-future-could-be-shaped-by-osage-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/07\/24\/why-oklahomas-wind-energy-future-could-be-shaped-by-osage-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Oklahoma’s Wind Energy Future Could be Shaped by Osage County"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bob<\/p>\n

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

Bob Hamilton, director of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve near Pawhuska, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Oklahoma is moving up the national ranks in wind-generated electricity. But as wind farms expand into northeastern Oklahoma, developers are facing a team of unlikely allies: oil interests and environmentalists.<\/p>\n

Wind farm developers encounter opposition wherever projects are planned, but the debate in Oklahoma is perhaps most magnified in Osage County, where there\u2019s a confluence of money, government and prairie politics.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Wind energy is becoming a big deal in Oklahoma. Last year, this state was the country\u2019s fourth-largest wind power producer, data from the U.S. Energy Information Agency show. And while many Oklahomans are excited about the promises of wind energy \u2014 fewer carbon emissions and regular royalty checks for leased land, to name a few \u2014 the industry is facing entrenched resistance.<\/p>\n

Wind farms are a common sight in western Oklahoma, but the industry is new to northeastern Oklahoma. Developers say the wind here is good, and this region is closer, geographically, to electrical infrastructure, which makes it cheaper to get wind power to the grid.<\/p>\n

\"Bison<\/p>\n

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

Bison on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve near Pawhuska, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Preserve and Protect<\/h4>\n

The Nature Conservancy is a high-profile national environmental organization that has a mission, in its own words, to protect \u201cecologically important lands and waters for nature and people,\u201d a mission that would seem to align with wind energy.<\/p>\n

The Conservancy owns the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve near Pawhuska in Osage County. The 40,000-acre preserve is one of the few remaining swaths of tallgrass prairie, which used to encompass 140 million acres across 14 states and was one of the continent\u2019s largest ecosystems. Today, less than 5 percent of the grassland remains in southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, it\u2019s our most highly impacted ecosystem type in North America,\u201d says Bob Hamilton, the preserve\u2019s director. \u201cEven more highly impacted, percentage-wise, than the rainforest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wildlife the preserve is working to protect, especially grouse like the greater prairie chicken, need wide open spaces to thrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cNatural selection has removed those chickens that have been \u2014 especially the females \u2014 that have been foolish enough to nest too close to a vertical object, and they\u2019ve been nabbed by owls and hawks,\u201d Hamilton says.<\/p>\n

The little tallgrass prairie that remains in Oklahoma has survived because it\u2019s rocky and elevated above the plain, which, historically, made it hard for farmers to plow. But that elevation has attracted interest from wind developers, which is why Hamilton says the Conservancy is fighting to keep TradeWind Energy\u2019s 16,000-acre Mustang Run project<\/a> from breaking ground near the preserve.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real estate issue, Hamilton says. \u201cLocation, location, location. Where you put industrial wind development can be a tremendously critical decision, especially if you\u2019re talking about at-risk species and ecosystems that are at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prairie \u2018Playbook\u2019<\/h4>\n

TradeWind\u2019s director of project development, Aaron Weigel, says the Kansas-based company has worked to minimize Mustang Run\u2019s environmental impact and is particularly attuned to the concerns of the Conservancy\u2019s conservationists.<\/p>\n

But he says a lot of the anti-wind energy sentiment in Osage County is the same brand of not-in-my-back-yard \u201cNIMBYism<\/a>\u201d that accompanies any industrial development.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the playbook,\u201d Weigel says. \u201cPlay up the fears of opposing locals, do everything you can to grind the process to a halt, and scare off investors in hopes that the project will stall and leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

In May, the Osage County Board of Adjustment denied TradeWind a conditional use permit for its Mustang Run project. Landowner and environmental concerns were among the reasons cited for denying the permit. TradeWind is fighting the permit denial in court.<\/p>\n

During the 2014 legislative session, Sen. President Pro Tempore Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa, authored a measure that would have placed a temporary moratorium on wind development in northeastern Oklahoma. The bill stalled, but Bingman asked the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to consider new statewide rules and regulations for the wind industry.<\/p>\n

That process has just started, but local and state officials are wrestling with a key question: Where do one person\u2019s property rights end, and another\u2019s begin?<\/p>\n

\"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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Which Side of the Fence?<\/h4>\n

Frank Robson is one of the loudest anti-wind energy voices in Oklahoma. Robson, a commercial real estate developer in Claremore, has been fighting to keep a 59-turbine project from being built near his ranch near Centralia in northeastern Oklahoma’s Craig County.<\/p>\n

While Robson doesn\u2019t own land there, he sees Osage County as a front line in a broader war with wind developers. Effects on wildlife top Robson\u2019s complaints against the wind industry, and he doesn\u2019t shy away from admitting he doesn\u2019t want a wind turbine within sight of his backyard.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people don\u2019t move to the country to have an industrial unit right next to their house,\u201d Robson says. \u201cHow would you like to have a 495-foot turbine that goes whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh and never shuts down?\u201d<\/p>\n

But many landowners, like Joe Bush, do want wind turbines in their back yards. Bush has leased land to TradeWind for the Mustang Run project and the Osage Wind project, which has already broken ground. To Bush, the line between property owners is clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cStay on your side of the fence,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s not how we do things in America. It\u2019s capitalism, it\u2019s America. Private property is our heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Everett<\/p>\n

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

Everett Waller, chairman of the Osage Nation Minerals Council.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Drilling Down<\/h4>\n

The Osage Nation has objected to wind-energy projects on the grounds that construction could unearth and disturb native remains and artifacts, and that spinning turbine blades could kill eagles. But there\u2019s another element at work here: oil.<\/p>

Members of the Osage Nation own most of the mineral rights in Osage County. The council that represents those interests is worried that wind farms \u2014 their large footprints as well as their power lines and associated electrical equipment \u2014 could interfere with oil and gas development.<\/p>

\u201cThe site is the problem,\u201d says Everett Waller. \u201cIt\u2019s not the alternate energy or the wind energy, anything of the fact. I have a job as chairman of the Minerals Council to protect my shareholders. This is a business. We\u2019re in the oil business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma is moving up the national ranks in wind-generated electricity. But as wind farms expand into northeastern Oklahoma, developers are facing a team of unlikely allies: oil interests and environmentalists. Wind farm developers encounter opposition wherever projects are planned, but the debate in Oklahoma is perhaps most magnified in Osage County, where there\u2019s a confluence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":20700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490],"tags":[144],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20684"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20707,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20684\/revisions\/20707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}