Two anti-wind bills quietly put on Oklahoma House and Senate committee agendas late Wednesday night received support Thursday at the State Capitol—much to the disappointment of the Oklahoma Wind Coalition.
“This is just an array of dominoes that are devastating that are going to fall because of these measures,” lamented Mark Yates, President of the Coalition. “It is that bad. This is just not good for business. This is about business, no longer just wind. It has everything to do with all investments.”
HB 3710 puts a $35 million cap on wind tax credits beginning Jan. 1, 2019 and won Thursday morning approval in the House and Senate Joint Committees on Appropriation and Budget.
The vote in the House committee was 11-9 while the vote in the Senate committee was 25-12. In the House, Rep. Earl Sears of Bartlesville led the push for approval.
“He’s been on the warpath against wind and has continued the push for punitive measures against the wind industry,” observed Yates.
HB 3711 was not handled in the Senate committee but won approval on a 12-9 vote in the House JCAB. The bill cuts refundability on tax credits from 85% to 42.5%.
“It’s pretty sad to see what’s transpiring right now,” said Yates in an interview with OK Energy Today. “What they’re not seeing is at the end of the day, we’re retroactively going back on something and the state is not in a budget deficit. You’re actually going back and doing this to meet demands of an increased revenue.”
Just as he did in an earlier interview with OK Energy Today when discussing similar efforts last month, Yates predicted the state’s business climate will be harmed.
“Unfortunately now, they don’t recognize or they don’t care they are killing Oklahoma’s reputation for business—they are killing it,” he added. “This is going to impact future investment in the state of Oklahoma regardless of industry.”
Once again, Yates predicted some wind farm projects will go under if the two bills are passed.
“I’m not trying to sensationalize it, but if these measures go through and we retroactively go back and change the terms, we will have projects that go under. That will mean litigation. It will mean school districts–how do they meet the bond requirements? What do you do with land owner lease payments?”
Those who voted for HB3710 in the House J-CAB were Representatives Bennett, Casey, Cockroft, Echols, Hall, Kannady, Lepak, Mcbride, Ownbey, Sears and Wallace.
Rep. Weldon Watson joined the same group in voting for passage of HB3711.
When a House committee handled two other anti-wind measures earlier in the month, HB 2011 and HB 3069, OK Energy Today attempted to get comments from the Representatives. Not one responded with an answer or explanation.
They were: Representatives Josh Cockroft, Jon Echols, Elise Hall, Leslie Osborn, Zack Taylor, Terry O’Donnell, Weldon Watson and Tammy West voted for both.
When the Senate Appropriations Committee voted on SB 1035, another anti-wind bill early this month, none of the members also bothered to answer questions from OK Energy Today.
They were:Senators Bergstrom, Bice, Daniels, Dossett, Dugger, Floyd, Holt, Ikley-Freeman, Jech, Leewright, McCortney, Paxton, Pemberton, Pugh, Rader, Rosino, Scott, Sharp, Simpson,Smalley, Sparks, Standridge, Stanislawski, Yen, Fields, David and Treat.
