The wind battle has been renewed in Oklahoma, thanks to a Tulsa World editorial by State Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones and an anti-wind group of oil and gas industry leaders who call themselves the Windfall Coalition.
Anti-wind billboards have popped up in Oklahoma City along I-235 not far from the state capitol, pointing out how $242 million a year is lost in tax to out-of-state wind companies. Who’s behind the billboards and who makes up the Windfall Coalition? No one’s stating for sure but News 9’s Grant Hermes says one of those financing the project is reportedly Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Energy Resources.
The response of the wind energy industry?
“Why are they doing this? Because they can,” said Jeff Clarke, Executive Director of the Wind Coalition based in Austin, Texas. He met with Auditor Gary Jones this week but Jones came away undeterred in his editorial that bemoaned the tax credits given the wind industry.
“I’m not anti-wind,” explained Jones in an interview with OK Energy Today. He’s focusing on the loss of millions in revenue for the state, not just in the wind industry tax credits but from other sectors including a cut in the state’s income tax.
Even the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association sides with those who sponsored the billboards and says energy production deserves a fair regulatory and tax environment and an even playing field.
“Oil and natural gas producers are not opposed to tax policies that encourage investment, but are opposed to a tax structure that devalues one of our state’s most valuable resources,” said the OIPA in a statement.
View Grant Hermes on News 9.
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