When it comes to wind power, Oklahoma is usually a step behind Iowa.
The two states follow Texas when it comes to electrical power generated by wind farms. But something is happening in Iowa where just as in Oklahoma, there has grown an anti-wind sentiment.
“Wind energy development has all but ground to a halt in the face of community opposition, a phaseout of federal tax credits and the Trump administration’s actions to slow the approval of federal permits,” reports The Gazette, a local news outlet based in Cedar Rapids. Now, many locals are wondering whether Iowans have shot themselves in the foot by embracing an anti-wind and anti-renewable political agenda,” according to an Oilprice.com report.
One energy analyst said U.S. onshore wind is in its weakest shape in about a decade. Some blame the increase in opposition to more wind farms and certainly it has been on display in the Oklahoma state legislature in the past year. Residents demanded more restrictions on wind farm developments and legislators responded with more required setbacks.
It has become a complicated development because while proponents for wind power claim it has keep electricity prices lower, those same states that are home to thousands of wind turbines are seeing increases in utility costs largely because of industrial growth and the ballooning increase in data centers.
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