Wyoming Bill Would All But Outlaw Clean Energy

[Thebobo]

Just fucking amazing some Republicans are so despicable, have they no shame? Link

While many U.S. states have mandates and incentives to get more of their electricity from renewable energy, Republican legislators in Wyoming are proposing to cut the state off from its most abundant, clean resource—wind—and ensuring its continued dependence on coal.

A new measure submitted to the Wyoming legislature this week would forbid utilities from providing any electricity to the state that comes from large-scale wind or solar energy projects by 2019. It's an unprecedented attack on clean energy in Wyoming, and possibly the nation. And it comes at a time when such resources are becoming cheaper and increasingly in demand as the world seeks to transition to clean energy to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

The bill's nine sponsors, two state senators and seven representatives, largely come from Wyoming's top coal-producing counties and include some deniers of man-made climate change. They filed the bill on Tuesday, the first day of the state's 2017 legislative session. Activists and energy experts are alarmed by the measure, which would levy steep fines on utilities that continue providing (or provide new) "non-eligible" clean energy for the state's electricity. But they are skeptical it will get enough support to become law.

 

[theeedude]

Republican "free markets" at work.

 

[mikeymikec]

Jesus. We have some tools posing as politicians here (UK) but in comparison they're mostly pretty benign; e.g. an idiot politician once suggested that the speed limit on motorways should be removed because if vehicles get to their destination quicker, they're obviously polluting less.

 

[ivwshane]

They should totally pass it. Then, when alternative energy, recycled plastics and bio plastics become the standard, their economy and state will turn to shit and we can use it as a nuclear dumping ground.

 

[Jhhnn]

For anybody who's ever been there, the notion that the Wyoming legislature would outlaw wind energy is absurd. It's a place where the wind rules.

 

[theeedude]

This is the modern day Republican party for you.

 

[K1052]

Lol, the waining kicks of a dying industry. Guess the Powder River Basin mines really want to be the last ones out of business.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Good news for companies that have spent a fortune on wind farms in the state to diversify. Meanwhile the bill won't make a dent in the coal business in Wyoming since they use very little and it won't change what the rest of the country are doing and what their demands for coal are.

 

[mikeymikec]

For anybody who's ever been there, the notion that the Wyoming legislature would outlaw wind energy is absurd. It's a place where the wind rules.

This is the modern day Republican party for you.

It does sound like the most textbook example of conservatism (unless fossil fuels never had an industry or market there).

---

Side question - does America have a lot of these NIMBY-types who complain about wind power ruining the countryside?

 

[jman19]

For anybody who's ever been there, the notion that the Wyoming legislature would outlaw wind energy is absurd. It's a place where the wind rules.

Money rules more, apparently.

 

[Jhhnn]

It does sound like the most textbook example of conservatism (unless fossil fuels never had an industry or market there).

---

Side question - does America have a lot of these NIMBY-types who complain about wind power ruining the countryside?

Not these guys, given their support for strip mining coal.

 

[mikeymikec]

Not these guys, given their support for strip mining coal.

When I said "these", I didn't specifically mean those republicans

 

[bshole]

Side question - does America have a lot of these NIMBY-types who complain about wind power ruining the countryside?

Yes and this crosses all political lines. Nobody wants coal plants, nuclear plants, wind farms, etc, anywhere near where they live. NIMBYS are a huge impediment.

 

[Thebobo]

I

Side question - does America have a lot of these NIMBY-types who complain about wind power ruining the countryside?

There are some "NIMBY" types but there are some places they probably wouldn't be a good idea like if they were visible from the Grand Canyon.

 

[who?]

I want Wyoming to use alternative energy because here in northwest Arkansas we burn 5000 tons of Wyoming coal per day to generate our electricity.

 

[ElFenix]

article is massively defective by having absolutely no reference to the bill number or link.


found it
http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2017/Introduced/SF0071.pdf

 

[Jhhnn]

article is massively defective by having absolutely no reference to the bill number or link.


found it
http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2017/Introduced/SF0071.pdf

The article is accurate, however.

 

[Jhhnn]

Not these guys, given their support for strip mining coal.

We have NIMBYs for everything.

 

[K1052]

http://trib.com/business/energy/con...cle_1e849e05-8f5f-5410-8722-f522746de416.html

One of the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devil’s Tower, debated the bill’s efficacy in a Facebook stream Wednesday. A commenter said coal had no future and asked why the senator didn’t see wind as a chance to diversify Wyoming’s economy.

“Put the shoe on the other foot,” Driskill responded.

“We have subsidized wind … while regulating coal out of business,” he said. “This is not the American way.”

He went on to assert that forcing consumers toward clean power has led to commercial and residential bills going up.

“I will withdraw my support of the bill the same day that we remove the forced use of “clean power portfolios nationwide,” Driskill wrote.

Hicks echoed that sentiment in an interview in Cheyenne.

“We can’t do anything about the federal government other than to protest and litigate. But we certainly have the ability in Wyoming to pass electricity standards,” he said.

The cheap leases that the BLM has been giving these guys for many years amount to a multi-billion dollar annual subsidy and helped wipe out their eastern competition since they can sell for so much less. Good luck to them holding their hands over their ears and humming loudly.

 

[ivwshane]

It does sound like the most textbook example of conservatism (unless fossil fuels never had an industry or market there).

---

Side question - does America have a lot of these NIMBY-types who complain about wind power ruining the countryside?

Yeah, we just elected one of them.

 

[imported_tajmahal]

article is massively defective by having absolutely no reference to the bill number or link.


found it
http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2017/Introduced/SF0071.pdf

Thanks for posting it.
https://www.dasolar.com/solar-energy/net-metering

 

[MongGrel]

For anybody who's ever been there, the notion that the Wyoming legislature would outlaw wind energy is absurd. It's a place where the wind rules.

As long as it is not near Jackson Hole or the Tetons, I imagine they would be down with it full bore.

It is not a small state.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Insane. Completely, utterly insane.

 

[werepossum]

http://trib.com/business/energy/con...cle_1e849e05-8f5f-5410-8722-f522746de416.html

The cheap leases that the BLM has been giving these guys for many years amount to a multi-billion dollar annual subsidy and helped wipe out their eastern competition since they can sell for so much less. Good luck to them holding their hands over their ears and humming loudly.

The longstanding law that mining is the highest, best use of public lands desperately needs to be changed. With the exception of large scale clear cutting, mining is the most environmentally damaging use of land short of building a city on it, using it as a nuclear test site, or dumping NBC waste. Public lands are held in trust for various reasons, and the most important parts of holding anything in trust not trashing it and not liquidating it.

 

[IronWing]

The longstanding law that mining is the highest, best use of public lands desperately needs to be changed. With the exception of large scale clear cutting, mining is the most environmentally damaging use of land short of building a city on it, using it as a nuclear test site, or dumping NBC waste. Public lands are held in trust for various reasons, and the most important parts of holding anything in trust not trashing it and not liquidating it.

Nah, welfare grazing has mining beat for landscape scale destruction. Mining is limited to where one finds minerals. Ranchers would graze the moon -- and talk about what great shape the range is in -- as long as the subsidies were high enough.