This piece first ran in the Akron News Reporter on August 8, 2021:
By Greg Brophy
As technology advances our rural landscape changes. Just as wooden oil derricks were once a common site in the early 20th century but then gave way to modern drilling rigs, wind energy has advanced from its early iconic windmills used to pump water to today’s utility scale turbines capable of generating 3MW of electricity.
If we attempt to prevent this change through government regulation we need to do so with a full understanding of the implications. Currently Washington County has a set of proposed ordinances that intend to limit wind energy development but in practice would completely ban any utility scale wind development in the county.
The proposed restrictions in Washington County include a 410 foot height limit on turbines, a 1.25 mile setback from neighboring homes, and a .5 mile setback from property lines. Each of these individual restrictions could potentially prohibit all wind development but taken as a package there would be virtually no chance of future development in the county.
Nearly every modern wind turbine exceeds the proposed height, almost all turbines being built today are 480 feet or taller. New turbines planned for the next two to five years will be even taller because more consistent and powerful wind resources are typically found at greater heights. The taller the tower the more efficient and cost effective the turbine is to operate. It’s almost the same as insisting that no one use wheat heads in Washington County that are wider than 20 feet. They technically work, but no custom harvester is going to show up in WashCo with a head that small.
Both the setback of 1.25 miles from neighboring homes and a .5 miles setback from property lines creates serious implications for landowners and their rights to use their property as they deem most productive. The 1.25 mile setback essentially gives small acreage land owners control of a 1.25 mile radius of land, or 3,100 acres, surrounding their property; they would control land that they do not own. The .5 miles setback from property lines would require a landowner to own tens of thousands of contiguous acres that are not broken up by county roads. An owner of a 1 mile by 1 mile section would be prohibited from putting up a turbine because when taking into account the diameter of the turbine footprint, a turbine in the exact center would push into the .5 mile exclusion. Taking both of the setback requirements together would be a de facto ban on wind anywhere there are houses or property holdings intersected by county roads.
When the Governor from Boulder pushed oil and gas setbacks that were de facto development bans, Eastern Colorado rightly and resoundingly said “no”. There should be no difference this time around just because the energy source has changed. Energy development is a common use of land in eastern Colorado and it should be the landowner’s choice to develop, not the government’s.
I trust that the Washington County Commissioners will do what is in the best interest of the citizens of the county. I sincerely hope that they understand that the current restrictions are effectively a ban on wind development and approving the restrictions will have serious consequences. Washington County will lose out on tax revenue (paid mostly by people in Denver and Boulder), landowner lease payments and much needed economic activity and local jobs. Just to the south, Kit Carson and Lincoln counties’ renewable energy facilities generate annual county and district tax revenue of $3.7 million and $2.8 million respectively. This revenue can be used at the county and special district’s discretion and will remain a constant source for at least 20 to 30 years without price fluctuations. Landowners in Kit Carson and Lincoln counties who lease their property to house turbines are estimated to earn up to $10,000 per year per turbine. Across the Eastern Plains it is estimated that landowners receive $15.2 million annually from renewable energy leases which flows into local economies benefiting the entire region.
Washington County has every right to draft land use requirements as it sees fit but the commissioners must balance the rights of landowners to utilize their land for its highest productive use and should be cautious when approving a ban in the guise of a restriction. The wind development that will happen in the next five years may never be repeated. If you miss out on this chance, there is no guarantee that you will get another.
Greg Brophy is a former state legislator from the Eastern Plains and the Colorado director of The Western Way (www.thewesternway.org), a conservative nonprofit that seeks pro-market solutions to environmental challenges.