Winding Down on Wind

The finale

I’ve noticed over the last few weeks my pattern of mentioning I’d be writing about public opposition to wind power and then pivoting off into something else. Upon reflection, I believe I know the cause of my discomfort. It’s that I’d be writing about Wyoming, the place I love beyond anywhere else. I’d be writing about its people, including those who don’t want commercial scale windfarms in their “backyard” but are more than happy to have the electricity these generate. I have friends who hang their nimbyism on the rack of viewscapes, historical landmarks, and other sticky objections to filling vast previously natural spaces with industrial clutter.

Folks, I’m with you on all of it. (This YouTube link will take you to a 60 Minutes interview with current Wyoming governor Mark Gordon, recorded in 2024.)

It’s been a few years since we’ve made the trip from northeast Iowa to Wyoming, but we’re planning to do so this summer. It’s a reward to ourselves for surviving(so far) bouts of illness that could have taken us out, but so far, haven’t.

So we’ll take the back roads across Iowa and Nebraska, and eventually dip down into the Big Square Wonderful. It doesn’t matter if we head west to the mountains, or cut southwest down to Laramie. Vast windfarms are inescapable, regardless of which path we choose. Instead of traumatizing myself in advance by considering this reality, allow me one final dip into Traveling the Power Line: From the Mojave Desert to the Bay of Fundy, published in 2013.

Here is another except from Chapter 1, “Of Megawatts and Meadowlarks: A Wyoming Wind Farm.” If you didn’t think Wyoming ever elected Democrats to statewide office, you might be surprised to know that in the increasingly dim past they actually did so, with good result.

Excerpt

…Wyoming’s governor during much of this wind rush, Dave Freudenthal, organized a coalition of state leaders and interested citizens to make sure Wyoming develops its wind potential in a smart way. He has stood with one foot in the stirrup of two runaway horses, bringing together both pro- and anti-development people. During a symposium at the University of Wyoming, he recalled a period after the oil embargo of 1973, when Wyoming was poised as a key player in the national energy policy. Wyoming up to that time had mined only a modest amount of coal underground. Then technology arrived to make strip mining of Powder River coal economical.

“Suddenly, Wyoming was action central for development of coal,” he said. Fast forward thirty years. “Now some people come into my office and say it’ll be the end of the world if we develop wind.” Other visitors to his office are developers who say if the state isn’t “nicer” to them they’ll pull out, he said.

Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat who served as Wyoming governor from 2003 to 2011.

Freudenthal tries to find a middle road between these pro- and anti-development positions, saying, “I don’t think we ought to be rushed. We’ll be at this for several years.” He stresses the importance of developing ground rules for development. Wind is the most highly subsidized form of energy production in the country, far larger than oil and gas, or coal, he said.

“We’re glad to host the turbines but we’re expecting the people who put them up to do a little more. It is not the case that we’re going to be happy being some colony with a bunch of towers sticking up in the air, and no jobs,” he said.

Even though the governor sees tremendous potential in wind development, he must still make its proponents play by the same rules that guide coal, gas, and oil.

End of excerpt

I’ll leave it to you to read what he said next. I have a road trip to plan.