States are going against the green energy wave and reverting back to the status quo: fossil fuels. In Wyoming, elected officials are mulling a legislation to add a tax to wind farms. In Vermont, the state senate voted to shut down a 38-year old nuclear power plant that is receiving a 20-year extension to operate.
The Wyoming legislature, in an apparent nod to the coal industry, is trying to “even the playing field” between coal and wind in the country’s eight windiest state. In a sign the bill is intended to slow the development of commercial wind farms only, the legislation does not tax individuals who produce wind for their own consumption.
The promulgation of a tax may seem duplicitous for a state whose representative in Congress, Cynthia Lummis, cosponsored a bill last year “expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Obama Administration and Congress should end the assault on America’s energy independence by leaving in place domestic energy tax incentives.” But to Representative David Anderson who sponsored the bill, it is about equity. “In comparison with the way we’ve taxed the petroleum and extractive industries, the wind industry needs to pay its fair share.” Apparently $1 per megawatt hour is that fair share.
Although recent leaks of radioactive tritium gave the locals a scare, the state’s decision flows against the recent push to allow regulatory flexibility and financial support to encourage the building of nuclear power plants. Safety concerns and storage of radioactive waste from will always be key concerns for increased nuclear power– the drivers in Vermont appear to be the poor safety record and relations with the government. The decision by the state clouds the regulatory picture for the operation of new plants as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission usually has sole responsibility to regulatory.
The recent fore of both states into the energy is well within their purview but underscores the difficulty in pushing forward with a national energy plan that reduces the US reliance on fossil fuels.
