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 Wind Facts 

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Wind Energy Needs our Tax Dollars to Survive

"For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit." 

Warren Buffett

Wind energy exists because our representatives in both the federal government and our local governments give them our tax dollars.  There are two significant tax revenue sources for these companies. 

 

The federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) provides a significant tax revenue for wind installations.  It is estimated that this tax credit will provide $48B of our tax dollars to the wind energy industry by the time it phases out.   The PTC is a subsidy that benefits a few energy corporations. Only 15 parent companies account for more than three-fourths of all PTC eligibility.  The PTC distorts electricity markets. It encourages wind energy producers to accept negative prices. The negative prices increase costs for other energy producers and electricity suppliers. The PTC operates within a web of wind energy incentives that increase costs to taxpayers, further distort electricity markets, and benefit large corporations.  The PTC was slated to phase out completely by the end of 2019, but was extended through 2020 in the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Relief Tax Act in December of 2019. 

 

Local property tax abatements are also sought and provided to wind energy companies.  Under Texas Chapter 312 & 313 of the property tax code, local governments can provide a cap on the valuation of the newly installed wind facilities at $10M per year for 10 years.  Provided that the installed cost per turbine is currently $4M to $5M and with the proposed installation is 60 - 80 turbines, the total value of the proposed wind farm will be $250M - $400M.  Taxpayers see little benefit from this installation value as it is capped at the $10M level for 10 years.  Over this time, the equipment depreciates.  With a life of 10 - 15 years, at the 10 year mark where the $10M cap on value is to be lifted, the market value at that time of the equipment will be greatly reduced.  Therefore, the taxpayers of the county will never see the benefit of the increase in tax base due to this installation. 

 

Local tax abatements under Chapter 312 & 313 are also granted at the local level.  County Commissioners are also not required to ask for public input on this issue until just 72 hours prior to their final vote.  This means they can meet with wind companies privately, negotiate agreements, have closed door discussions all without their constituents knowledge.  At the point where the public is finally invited to a hearing on the issue, the decisions are most always already made.  An issue such as wind projects that will potentially impact the county for the next 60 years, should not be a decision made without public input and debate.  To overcome this lack of transparency, communities have actively reached out to their commissioners through in-person discussions, email, phone or petitions.

 

In summary, these wind companies need our tax dollars to build these installations.  Without the PTC, this industry will significantly slow.  Without the local abatements, no proposed project will proceed.  Our county leadership needs to hear from our landowners and residents to ensure they know we will not support tax abatements in our counties.

In the application for a Chapter 313 tax abatement for a project proposed in Eastland County, RWE Renewables admitted they have never built a wind farm without a tax abatement and most likely will not if they do not receive one from Cisco ISD.

 

Sources:

www.TLOW.org​

https://www.texaspolicy.com/the-production-tax-credit-corporate-subsidies-renewable-energy/

https://www.texaspolicy.com/its-time-to-end-tax-abatements-for-renewables/

https://www.texaspolicy.com/texas-wind-power-story-part-1/

https://www.tribtalk.org/2018/08/10/renewable-energy-subsidies-are-wrong-for-texas/

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/nancy-pfotenhauer/2014/05/12/even-warren-buffet-admits-wind-ene...'

Wind Does Not Deliver On Jobs

In Texas, as part of the agreement entered into when a wind energy company receives a Chapter 312 & 313 property tax abatement, they must commit to bring full-time jobs to the local communities granting the abatement.  Those positions are required to be quality jobs with compensation that is above the average annual wage for similar jobs in the area.  The problem lies in the ability of the local governments to issue waivers on the jobs creation requirement after the wind energy company has received the abatement and completed construction.   In fact, 87% of all waivers in Texas under Chapter 313 for job creation are granted to the wind industry.  Multiple statistical analyses of Chapter 313 deals, conducted since the law was amended to allow waivers of job-creation requirements, have shown that wind farms disproportionately take advantage of their ability to qualify for big tax breaks from school districts without providing any new employment opportunities to the community.  During the construction phase, a majority of the labor is from out of the local area.  In most cases, the wind energy company contracts with a construction company that is responsible for building the project.  This company has their own experienced employees that are deployed to each project.  They may utilize some local labor for some tasks but the vast majority of compensation is paid to non-local employees.  In short, wind energy is not about jobs creation.  It is about tax credits for the wind energy companies.

Fire on the wind generator due to a shor

Wind Turbines Catch on Fire

Wind turbines often catch fire, for areas that suffer from grass fires, this can be incredibly hazardous. Fires cannot be put out because the turbines are too tall, so the fire department just monitors until it hopefully burns out without incident. In surrounding counties with turbines, there have been 3 reported fires in July alone with one burning 1,500 acres.

In areas like West Texas, people mostly live in or near town, however in the Big Country people are more spread out throughout the countryside. If a fire burns

1,500 acres here, homes and livelihoods would be lost forever, plus the added risk to our volunteer firefighters.

Wind companies will either not be held responsible or pay as little as possible. After a wind turbine caught fire and burned 500 acres, the rancher was only reimbursed a $1 per acre when a hay field can bring in roughly $180 per acre per year. 

Image by Rabih Shasha

Only Select Few will have Turbines

For example in Brown & Coleman Counties:

The proposed wind project is stated to be a 200MW installation of approximately 60  to 80 turbines that will be 570' tall.  The necessary contiguous acreage for this size project is 25,000 to 35,000 acres or approximately 40 square miles.  That means that there will be one turbine for approximately every 415 acres.  All you have to do is look to their east to see that in neighboring wind installations, there is far more land without turbines than with turbines.  In Brown and Coleman counties, the average acreage of landowners is approximately 300 acres.  So there is the real possibility that many landowners will not see any income opportunity from this wind farm but will have the negative impacts that come with them.  There will be landowners that lease their land hoping for turbine income but only receive a transmission line, roads, buildings or nothing at all but all will have the impact on the decreased value of their land. 

Eastland County's proposed project is 200MW installation with 71 wind turbines at 600 ft+ tall. The proposed project area is 25,000 acres, which is about 352 acres per turbine, while the average landowner owns roughly 150 acres in Eastland County. 

Property Values Will Decrease

Decreasing Property Values of 25% to 40% Where Wind Farms Exist Are Real.  

 

The installation of industrial wind power facilities will severely reduce local property values. In Eastland County, 80% of land is for recreational use, meaning people buy land here to enjoy the beauty, peace, and tranquility of the land and lifestyle that it represents.  The result of a wind project in our area will be a significant reduction in marketability of our land, homes and our county if we allow it to proceed.

 

The common sense approach concerning values, and the most widely used and accepted approach to valuing rural property,  is defined as an estimate of value of recent sales of similar property in the surrounding or competing areas – as compared to the subject property.  The facts are these: property values in Eastland County Texas area have increased 60% over the last several years with buyers from urban areas acquiring land for recreation and retirement purposes. These buyers spend money in our county and our cities.  They eat at our restaurants, shop at our stores, contract with our tradesman, and pay taxes.  In areas of our state and nation where wind turbine companies have developed wind industrial zones, property values have decreased materially. Many cannot sell their land once turbines are introduced.

 

So, what will happen when industrial wind zones are developed in our counties, where land is selling at $3,000 or more per acre? It will significantly slow down our real estate market and slow our economic growth as we have come to know it. Just as scenic views and water features tend to increase property values, we know based on publicly available evidence that massive industrial turbines and power transmission lines will dramatically decrease property values.  Based on independent studies, the values may decrease 25% to 40% or more in these areas. In fact, several brokers in neighboring counties like Comanche and Mills Counties that sell property, state that 8 of 10 buyers will not even look at a property if there are wind turbines in view.  Brokers have reported in Brown County that  they have had clients decide not to buy land because of the potential of wind turbines being built in proximity to the property. Those landowners who wish to sell property are already seeing the effects of this proposed project. Eastland County has had new residents speak out at public meetings stating had they known wind farms were proposed, they would not have purchased land here and would have moved on to somewhere else. 

 

Value and marketability impacts are real and they are substantial.  Furthermore the wind companies gain the large profits of increased electricity costs, federal subsidies, and state tax credits. The landowner gains none of these tax incentives or real profits in comparison to such wind companies. Hard facts are – if wind turbines are in your view, you lose.  

 

Sources: 

Gardner report link http://www.texas-wildlife.org/program-areas/impact-of-wind-turbines-on-market-value-of-texas-rural-land

Forbes:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/judeclemente/2015/09/23/do-wind-turbines-lower-property-values/?fbclid=...

Wind Action Group:  http://www.windaction.org/posts/26696-testimony-of-michael-mccann-on-property-value-impacts-in-adams...

TLOW: www.TLOW.org/windfacts

Do We Have to Destroy the Earth to Save It? | 5 Minute Video
05:16
PragerU

Do We Have to Destroy the Earth to Save It? | 5 Minute Video

Do wind turbines and solar farms hold the keys to saving the environment? Michael Shellenberger, founder of Environmental Progress and noted climate activist, used to think so. Now he’s not so sure. He explains why in this important video. FOLLOW us! Facebook: 👉https://www.facebook.com/prageru Twitter: 👉https://twitter.com/prageru Instagram: 👉https://instagram.com/prageru/ SUBSCRIBE so you never miss a new video! 👉 https://www.prageru.com/join/ To view the script, sources, quiz, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/do-we-have-to-destroy-the-earth-to-save-it/ Join PragerU's text list to have these videos, free merchandise giveaways and breaking announcements sent directly to your phone! https://optin.mobiniti.com/prageru Do you shop on Amazon? Click https://smile.amazon.com and a percentage of every Amazon purchase will be donated to PragerU. Same great products. Same low price. Shopping made meaningful. SHOP! Love PragerU? Now you can wear PragerU merchandise! Visit our store today! https://shop.prageru.com/ JOIN PragerFORCE! For Students: http://l.prageru.com/2aozfkP JOIN our Educators Network! http://l.prageru.com/2aoz2y9 Script: Do we need to destroy the environment to save it? That's the question I faced a few years ago. I co-founded a movement that was the precursor to the Green New Deal. It was called "The New Apollo Project." If we could send a man to the moon, we reasoned, surely we could save our own planet. All we had to do was harness the power of the wind and the sun and get rid of fossil fuels. Compared to the original Apollo mission, how hard could that be? Well, it turned out to be very hard—practically impossible, in fact. The basic laws of physics and chemistry proved to be very stubborn. But, as I did more and more research, something else began to trouble me: the prospect that pushing the planet toward wind and solar energy would actually cause more harm to the environment than good. There's no better example of this than what wind and solar energy do to birds.  Industrial wind turbines—those giant generators of wind power—are the greatest new threat to golden and bald eagles. But the eagles are hardly the only ones threatened. Condors, owls, hawks and falcons all fall prey to the turbines’ mighty blades.    Big Wind—and believe me, there's a Big Wind industry now, just like there's Big Oil and Big Pharma—claims that house cats kill more birds than wind turbines. That's true. But whereas cats kill small, common birds like sparrows, wind turbines kill big, threatened-with-extinction and slow-to-reproduce species like bald eagles and condors. Indeed, industrial wind farms are killing fields for birds. The more turbines you put up, the more birds you're going to slaughter.  According to the American Bird Conservancy in 2017, "Research shows that hundreds of thousands of birds and bats die every year when they accidentally collide with the…turbine blades. That number grows with each turbine built." The Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds reports that wind farms built off the coast of Britain could be the "final nail in the coffin" for endangered sea birds. The Center for Biological Diversity calls the Altamont Pass wind farm in California "a population sink for golden eagles as well as burrowing owls." As for solar farms, they produce an entirely different set of problems, although they also are very harmful for birds. In California, according to a federal report, massive solar arrays produce heat up to 900 degrees. When birds fly into those arrays, they simply burn up. Building a solar farm is a lot like building any other kind of massive industrial facility. You have to clear the whole area of wildlife. For example, in order to construct the Ivanpah solar farm in California near the Nevada border, developers hired biologists to pull threatened desert tortoises from their burrows. The tortoises were then loaded on the back of pickup trucks and caged in pens where many ended up dying.  Solar farms also need millions and millions of gallons of water to clean the mirrors and to generate power. Since most solar farms are built in the desert, we're talking about a precious resource already in short supply. "When push comes to shove, water could become the real throttle on renewable [solar] energy," according to Michael Webber, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.  Then there's the issue of what to do with solar panels that wear out. The panels contain lead and other toxic chemicals that can't be removed without breaking up the entire panel. Since it's far cheaper for solar manufacturers to just buy the raw materials than recycle old panels, those old panels end up in landfills—or, as the New York Times discovered in a 2019 investigation, dumped in poor African nations. For the complete script visit https://www.prageru.com/video/do-we-have-to-destroy-the-earth-to-save-it/
What's Wrong with Wind and Solar? | 5 Minute Video
05:36
PragerU

What's Wrong with Wind and Solar? | 5 Minute Video

Are wind, solar, and batteries the magical solutions to all our energy needs? Or do they come with too high a price? Mark Mills, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, analyzes the true cost — both economic and environmental — of so-called green energy. FOLLOW us! Facebook: 👉https://www.facebook.com/prageru Twitter: 👉https://twitter.com/prageru Instagram: 👉https://instagram.com/prageru/ SUBSCRIBE so you never miss a new video! 👉 https://www.prageru.com/join/ To view the script, sources, quiz, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/whats-wrong-with-wind-and-solar Join PragerU's text list to have these videos, free merchandise giveaways and breaking announcements sent directly to your phone! https://optin.mobiniti.com/prageru Do you shop on Amazon? Click https://smile.amazon.com and a percentage of every Amazon purchase will be donated to PragerU. Same great products. Same low price. Shopping made meaningful. SHOP! Love PragerU? Now you can wear PragerU merchandise! Visit our store today! https://shop.prageru.com/ JOIN PragerFORCE! For Students: http://l.prageru.com/2aozfkP JOIN our Educators Network! http://l.prageru.com/2aoz2y9 Script: Have you ever heard of "unobtanium"? It's the magical energy mineral found on the planet Pandora in the movie, Avatar. It's a fantasy in a science fiction script. But environmentalists think they've found it here on earth in the form of wind and solar power. They think all the energy we need can be supplied by building enough wind and solar farms; and enough batteries. The simple truth is that we can't. Nor should we want to—not if our goal is to be good stewards of the planet. To understand why, consider some simple physics realities that aren't being talked about. All sources of energy have limits that can't be exceeded. The maximum rate at which the sun's photons can be converted to electrons is about 33%. Our best solar technology is at 26% efficiency. For wind, the maximum capture is 60%. Our best machines are at 45%. So, we're pretty close to wind and solar limits. Despite PR claims about big gains coming, there just aren't any possible. And wind and solar only work when the wind blows and the sun shines. But we need energy all the time. The solution we're told is to use batteries. Again, physics and chemistry make this very hard to do. Consider the world's biggest battery factory, the one Tesla built in Nevada. It would take 500 years for that factory to make enough batteries to store just one day's worth of America's electricity needs. This helps explain why wind and solar currently still supply less than 3% of the world's energy, after 20 years and billions of dollars in subsidies.  Putting aside the economics, if your motive is to protect the environment, you might want to rethink wind, solar, and batteries because, like all machines, they're built from nonrenewable materials.  Consider some sobering numbers:  A single electric-car battery weighs about half a ton. Fabricating one requires digging up, moving, and processing more than 250 tons of earth somewhere on the planet.  Building a single 100 Megawatt wind farm, which can power 75,000 homes requires some 30,000 tons of iron ore and 50,000 tons of concrete, as well as 900 tons of non-recyclable plastics for the huge blades. To get the same power from solar, the amount of cement, steel, and glass needed is 150% greater.  Then there are the other minerals needed, including elements known as rare earth metals. With current plans, the world will need an incredible 200 to 2,000 percent increase in mining for elements such as cobalt, lithium, and dysprosium, to name just a few.  Where's all this stuff going to come from? Massive new mining operations. Almost none of it in America, some imported from places hostile to America, and some in places we all want to protect.  Australia's Institute for a Sustainable Future cautions that a global "gold" rush for energy materials will take miners into "…remote wilderness areas [that] have maintained high biodiversity because they haven't yet been disturbed." And who is doing the mining? Let's just say that they're not all going to be union workers with union protections.   Amnesty International paints a disturbing picture: "The… marketing of state-of-the-art technologies are a stark contrast to the children carrying bags of rocks." And then the mining itself requires massive amounts of conventional energy, as do the energy-intensive industrial processes needed to refine the materials and then build the wind, solar, and battery hardware. Then there's the waste. Wind turbines, solar panels, and batteries have a relatively short life; about twenty years. Conventional energy machines, like gas turbines, last twice as long. For the complete script visit https://www.prageru.com/video/whats-wrong-with-wind-and-solar
Michael Moore Presents: Planet of the Humans | A Film by Jeff Gibbs | Full Documentary
01:39:57
Michael Moore

Michael Moore Presents: Planet of the Humans | A Film by Jeff Gibbs | Full Documentary

Michael Moore presents a film by Jeff Gibbs, Planet of the Humans, a documentary that dares to say what no one else will — that we are losing the battle to stop climate change on planet earth because we are following leaders who have taken us down the wrong road — selling out the green movement to wealthy interests and corporate America. This film is the wake-up call to the reality we are afraid to face: that in the midst of a human-caused extinction event, the environmental movement’s answer is to push for techno-fixes and band-aids. It's too little, too late. Donate: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=ANDNYNJC7MTCY&source=url (100% of donations go to translation, further articles and viewing & maintaining wide distribution) Interview with Jeff, Michael, and Ozzie (1hr 16min): https://youtu.be/HBGcEK8FD3w Hill TV Response to critics with Jeff, Michael and Ozzie (17min): https://youtu.be/Bop8x24G_o0 FAQ, Discussion Guide, Media: https://planetofthehumans.com/ Removed from the debate is the only thing that MIGHT save us: getting a grip on our out-of-control human presence and consumption. Why is this not THE issue? Because that would be bad for profits, bad for business. Have we environmentalists fallen for illusions, “green” illusions, that are anything but green, because we’re scared that this is the end—and we’ve pinned all our hopes on biomass, wind turbines, and electric cars? No amount of batteries are going to save us, warns director Jeff Gibbs (lifelong environmentalist and co-producer of “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Bowling for Columbine"). This urgent, must-see movie, a full-frontal assault on our sacred cows, is guaranteed to generate anger, debate, and, hopefully, a willingness to see our survival in a new way—before it’s too late. Featuring: Al Gore, Bill McKibben, Richard Branson, Robert F Kennedy Jr., Michael Bloomberg, Van Jones, Vinod Khosla, Koch Brothers, Vandana Shiva, General Motors, 350.org, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sierra Club, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Nature Conservancy, Elon Musk, Tesla. Website: https://planetofthehumans.com/
Renewable Subsidies: A Bad Deal for Comanche County
02:30
Texas Public Policy Foundation

Renewable Subsidies: A Bad Deal for Comanche County

More than 100 people shuffled into a warm room at the Comanche Community Center last week, on June 18th. These rural Texans gathered to tell stories of the real-life impacts of wind development—the side that is often unheard. “There is flicker and there is noise,” one gentleman recounted, echoing numerous comments about the hours of lost sleep caused by their unwanted neighbors. Another spoke up for the Comanche he knew before, offering a dire warning for others: “You won’t ever see that Milky Way again.” But it wasn’t all scenic overlooks, sunsets, and star-studded skies. The audience commented on the faltering economic logic of the projects and the closed-door meetings that make them possible. “How come our taxes are going up? The papers were full. This was going to pay for new schools!” Abatements under Texas Property Tax Code Chapter 312 and 313—those given to the local wind farm—upset the citizens, who saw their local officials handing out incentives away from public scrutiny (deliberations about the agreements are exempt from Texas’s open meetings and public information laws) with little or no benefit. Without subsidies, recent Texas Public Policy Foundation research indicated wind farms often aren’t feasible. And even with the abatements, wind farms don’t provide many jobs; more than 50% of all Chapter 313 agreements had the requirement to bring jobs reduced or waived, with 87% of those in the renewable industry. The tension is heightened in small towns, where an elected official is often a friend. One gentleman spoke for all present when he said, “I hate that it pits neighbor against neighbor.” It was obvious: secrecy and cronyism did not mesh with local values. “It’s important to get people organized and stay in their faces. I don’t care if they have closed-door meetings, you just tell them you are going to vote them out and you need to make that happen.” Tough words to the lawmakers met with applause. Those gathered were not there because their voices were heard; they came together because they weren’t. Preventing this from happening elsewhere need not be complicated. It’s high time to repeal laws that allow undue secrecy in governing and end crony policies that grant favors to the select few at the expense of the many. It might be too late to roll back wind development in Comanche, but it is not too late for others.
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