

Firm seeks to harness Wyoming's wind energy for California





But not a single kilowatt would be consumed in Wyoming. Instead, it would feed a new 750-mile transmission line to the California grid, where the electricity would help California's crusade against global warming, while much of Wyoming continues to rely on the fuel that is one of the big contributors to climate change: coal.

"The enviros look at us and wonder what we are all about," Miller said. "We got into renewables because we think it is a good business."



Wyoming residents enjoy the cheapest electricity prices in the nation, thanks to low-cost power from coal-fired plants near vast surface mines in the Powder River Basin. California, which has all but phased out coal power and has the nation's most aggressive renewable energy laws, has close to the highest prices, according to U.S. Energy Department data. State law requires that one-third of the state's power come from alternative energy by 2020.

Wyoming has no legal requirement for renewable energy, and Republican Gov. Matt Mead's staff says such a mandate would be politically inconceivable in such a conservative stronghold. Wyoming recently became the first state to tax renewable energy.




The wind is so strong and so consistent in Rawlins — even the mayor admits "it wears on people" — that Miller says the wind farm can deliver power across four states and still beat the price of California's own renewable power projects by a wide margin. If Anschutz's meteorological and engineering research is correct, the Rawlins wind farm will undercut the power prices from some California renewable energy installations by half.

"It is understandable that California wants to build their own generation facilities, but it makes a lot of sense for California rate payers to consider Wyoming power," said Loyd Drain, executive director of the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority. "We are not talking about Wyoming wins and California loses."

Drain, formerly a Texas lawyer, has worked his charm on California officials, meeting with dozens of the state's top regulators. But the idea of buying green energy from a state that burns coal is politically unpalatable for some California politicians, and many regulatory officials are suspicious about the idea.

After attending a conference on Wyoming wind power, Edward Randolph, energy division chief at the California Public Utilities Commission, observed: "All they wanted to talk about was selling coal power to the coastal states." Randolph wonders whether buying wind from a state that burns so much coal is really accomplishing the climate change goals California has set.

"If we are taking renewable power from Wyoming, while they burn coal, then you aren't accomplishing very much," said Severin Borenstein, a UC Berkeley expert on the California electricity market.





"It is incumbent for California to find the cheapest way to do this," Ren Orans, founder of the San Francisco consulting company, said of the state's renewable energy mandate. One way is to integrate renewable resources across the Western U.S., as far away as Wyoming and Colorado.


Wyoming officials make no apologies for their cheap power or where it comes from. "I'm not green," Rawlins Mayor Kenneth Klouda said. But he said the wind farm could stoke the local economy. And Californians, if they don't avail themselves of Wyoming power, "could end up freezing in the dark."

One thing both states agree on is that Wyoming offers the economies of scale. What Anschutz is planning in Rawlins would not be possible anywhere in California. The wind farm would be located on the company's 500-square-mile ranch, so big that it stretches to the treeless Wyoming horizon. The entire city of Los Angeles could fit inside.



The connection near Hoover Dam means that the Wyoming wind energy counts the same as renewable power generated in California in terms of California's renewable energy law, a legal quirk that the company has carefully studied. Even after all the wind turbines are put in place, they would occupy a small footprint of the ranch.


"The cattle don't mind the wind turbines at all," Miller said.

n't mind the wind turbines at all," Miller said.

Copyright © 2014, Hartford Courant
Related Content