Tax fear for Wyoming giant

A proposal to raise Wyoming’s wind-generation tax could disrupt plans to build the massive 3GW Chokecherry and Sierra Madre project.

The Power Company of Wyoming (PCW) planned to start roadwork later this year, however, increasing the wind tax would make it impossible for the project to compete on price with other wind or solar projects, PCW president Bill Miller said in a letter to the Casper Star Tribune

Wyoming is the only state with a generation tax and wind already pays more than either coal or gas. Coal and gas plants pay about $1.77 to $3.49/MWh while the CCSM project would pay $3.91/MWh under current tax laws, said Miller.

“Wyoming legislators are on the path to destroying something exceptional that was about to happen in Wyoming,” he said.

The legislature’s Joint Revenue Committee discussed the taxes last week and is expected to draft a bill for consideration this year.

PCW proposes to build the 1000-turbine wind farm in two phases and expects to receive final permits for the first 500-turbine tranche in the coming weeks.

The developer has yet to sign a power purchase agreement but plans to export electricity about 800 miles south to the California, Arizona and Nevada market.

The $5bn project will employ about 945 workers at the peak of construction and about 114 operations and maintenance staff.

“We just issued a request for bids on the planned 2016 construction and Wyoming contractors are responding,” said Miller.

PCW is owned by the Anschutz Corp, a Denver-based privately held company.

Image: Wyoming (sxc)