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Colorado legislators introduce legislation requiring energy companies to remove decommissioned wind turbines
Denver Gazette ^ | Jun 16, 2023 | Scott Weiser

Posted on 06/17/2023 5:42:45 PM PDT by george76

The blight on the landscape of abandoned and decommissioned wind turbines stimulated Colorado's U.S. Reps. Ken Buck, Doug Lamborn and Harriet Hageman, Wyoming, to introduce the Production Tax Credit Reform Act.

According to a press release, the bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to require energy companies remove decommissioned wind turbines from leased land as a condition of receiving federal tax credits.

Currently energy companies are not obligated to remove wind turbines from leased land once they are decommissioned, putting the onus on landowners — typically farmers and ranchers — to remove the turbines.

According to the United States Geological Survey, as of the first quarter of 2023, there are 72,731 wind turbines covering 43 states, including Guam and Puerto Rico.

A 2011 article by Mark J. Perry, Senior Fellow Emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank, says at that time there were an estimated 15,000 or more abandoned wind turbines in the US.

“Forcing heavy financial burdens onto landowners to appease the failing Green New Deal is inappropriate,” Lamborn said in the release. “Government-subsidized infrastructure is not the responsibility of private citizens and must be disposed of by the energy companies that created the mess in the first place.”

There is controversy about the actual number of abandoned windmills that remain standing and what it might cost to remove them.

“The American Wind Energy Association, representing wind power generators, assures the public that owners are contractually obligated to take them down at their own cost and that their salvage value will pay for the cost of doing so," according to a 2020 article by the Washington Times. “That sounds great, but turns out to be more hopeful than accurate. Wind farm operators have overestimated routinely the salvage value of their windmills and underestimated the costs of removal. Moreover, the windmills do not last a generation, so the cost comes sooner than expected.”

“The burden for removing and disposing of decommissioned wind turbines should not fall on landowners across the Eastern Pains,” said Buck. “Energy companies must remove retired turbines from leased land themselves and not leave it as a costly problem for hardworking landowners to solve.”

While many jurisdictions are now imposing permitting conditions requiring removal and remediation, many installations are on private property where the contract may not include those provisions, according to reports.

“Every square foot of land owned by farmers and ranchers is valuable, and an industry known for tight fiscal margins should not be responsible for disposing of wind turbines subsidized with taxpayer dollars,” said Hageman. “By making removal of decommissioned turbines a condition for Production Tax Credits, private landowners will no longer suffer the financial burden of abandoned or failed green bad deal energy projects.”


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Colorado; US: District of Columbia; US: Wyoming
KEYWORDS: energy; farmers; ranchers; renewable; renewableenergy; renewables; turbines; unaffordable; unreliable; wind; windturbines
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1 posted on 06/17/2023 5:42:45 PM PDT by george76
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To: george76

A little late to the game...this should have been considered BEFORE the artificial boom in wind farms.

I believe Kalifornia has already dealt with this issue...IIRC, companies are required to post a bond to pay for removal, before the turbines are built.


2 posted on 06/17/2023 5:46:59 PM PDT by rottndog (What comes after America?)
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To: george76
Should have been the rule from the start. Funny how these "eco" people dump
junk onto land and expect other people to clean up after them. That's how they
go through life, expecting others to clean up their mess.

3 posted on 06/17/2023 5:47:34 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (LORD, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: MileHi; dynachrome; backspace; Balata; bboop; Ben Dover; Benito Cereno; BigEdLB; bluejean; ...

Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)

-2- A Colorado school district is suing social media companies claiming the platforms have harmed kids and left schools to pick up the pieces.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4161641/posts


4 posted on 06/17/2023 5:50:46 PM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76

Amazing, where are the horror stories, I have never seen any.

This is a heck of a thing for people to never have heard of.


5 posted on 06/17/2023 6:01:30 PM PDT by ansel12 (NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.)
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To: george76
are contractually obligated to take them down at their own cost and that their salvage value will pay for the cost of doing so,

Then these companies should have no problem doing so themselves.

6 posted on 06/17/2023 6:12:09 PM PDT by MileHi ((Liberalism is an ideology of parasites, hypocrites, grievance mongers, victims, and control freaks.)
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To: All; george76

Good riddance...wind turbines cause local/global warming (downwind) and “climate change”:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-02089-2

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-wind-power-could-contribute-warming-climate

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0406930101


7 posted on 06/17/2023 6:15:50 PM PDT by Drago
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To: ansel12
>>This is a heck of a thing…

Each commercial wind turbine has a house sized chuck of concrete for the foundation that needs to be removed.

Would guess that the utility companies feasibility studies did not include removing the concrete after the lease period expired.

8 posted on 06/17/2023 6:16:58 PM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's for sure.)
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To: george76

I’ve been saying for years that wind companies need to post surety bonds with a fiduciary company before being allowed to build these monstrosities. That way the bond money will be available to restore the sites after the company goes bankrupt (which they surely all will do). Coal companies have had to post such bonds forever before opening a new strip mine. The money is used to reclaim and restore the land to its former character after mining operations are done.

Colorado Congressional Reps Colorado’s U.S. Reps Buck, Lamborn and Hageman have their hearts in the right place, but are going about this all wrong. Their proposed bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to “require energy companies remove decommissioned wind turbines from leased land as a condition of receiving federal tax credits.”

But what happens when the wind companies go bankrupt and no company exists to pay for removal? I can see all the wind operators (except the large utilities) declaring bankruptcy to avoid this downstream cost.

Their proposal is a half-ass measure that will be easy to ignore as there are no financial teeth in it. How in the world can they require companies to remove decommissioned turbines before they are even built?

The ONLY way to properly do this is require the companies to post the surety bond for the full removal cost BEFORE they receive federal tax credits and/or BEFORE the project gets permitted.


9 posted on 06/17/2023 6:20:40 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (I don’t like to think before I say something...I want to be just as surprised as everyone else.)
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To: george76

Jon Cary should be required to remove them.


10 posted on 06/17/2023 6:21:04 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

“That’s how they go through life, expecting others to clean up their mess.”

Exactly right. Look at a venue or field after a massive conservative event — it’s spotless. Look at the same venue after a massive liberal event and it’s a filthy pig sty.

Conservatives have always looked after their own because they don’t expect the government to take care of them. Liberals depend entirely on government for everything and act accordingly in everything they do.


11 posted on 06/17/2023 6:22:58 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (I don’t like to think before I say something...I want to be just as surprised as everyone else.)
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To: Deaf Smith

I knew about the dimensions, this all smacks of corruption.


12 posted on 06/17/2023 6:37:27 PM PDT by ansel12 (NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

Given that thesd “’eco’ people” are LIEberal Democrats, EACH AND EVERY ONE, what do you expect?


13 posted on 06/17/2023 7:00:31 PM PDT by Taxman (SAVE AMERICA! VOTE REPUBLICAN IN 2023 AND 2024!)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

“ Exactly right. Look at a venue or field after a massive conservative event — it’s spotless. Look at the same venue after a massive liberal event and it’s a filthy pig sty.”
Look at the mess left behind at the Washington Mall when 0bama was coronated, there was something like 100 tons of trash left behind that took several days to clean up. I attended PDJT’s inauguration and the only trash left behind was overflowing trash cans.


14 posted on 06/17/2023 7:16:11 PM PDT by wjcsux (On 3/14/1883 Karl Marx gave humanity his best gift, he died. )
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To: george76

require energy companies remove decommissioned wind turbines from leased land as a condition of receiving federal tax credits.


What is a warrantee worth if the business is bankrupt?


15 posted on 06/17/2023 7:20:27 PM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: george76

“The American Wind Energy Association, representing wind power generators, assures the public that owners are contractually obligated to take them down at their own cost and that their salvage value will pay for the cost of doing so,” according to a 2020 article by the Washington Times.


The contract my farmers signed said they would remove the concrete foundation to within 12 inches of soil surface.


16 posted on 06/17/2023 7:23:53 PM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Deaf Smith

Would guess that the utility companies feasibility studies did not include removing the concrete after the lease period expired.


Contract I saw said they would remove down to 12 inches, so addressed.

But what is a contract worth when the business is bankrupt.


17 posted on 06/17/2023 7:25:51 PM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: ansel12

This is 2010 article, but it addresses the issue of abandoned wind farms.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2010/02/wind_energys_ghosts_1.html


18 posted on 06/17/2023 7:40:49 PM PDT by chickenlips (Neuter your politicians)
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To: chickenlips

But the wind-subsidy proposals being floated in Congress suggest that American political leaders have yet to understand that “green power” means generating electricity by burning dollars.


from the article.


19 posted on 06/17/2023 7:45:22 PM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: PeterPrinciple
>>would remove down to 12 inches

Anyone who has worked fields knows that rocks (and concrete) float and over time work themselves to the surface, needing to be removed before dragging a disc.

20 posted on 06/17/2023 8:08:48 PM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's for sure.)
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