County Commissioners in Wichita, Kansas have extended their temporary ban on new commercial solar farms. They originally created a six-month ban on energy projects last September to give them time to revise rules for commercial solar farms. One of the latest proposed farms was a 103-megawatt farm called thee Chisholm Trail Solar Energy …
Category: Solar Energy in Oklahoma
Food Bank in OKC goes solar power
The Oklahoma City-based Regional Food Bank recently finished construction of a $1.6 million project to get some of its electricity from solar power. Bank officials estimate it will result in millions of dollars in utility costs, equating to millions of meals, reported KOCO TV News. Click here for KOCO TV News
Writer says wind farms are not farms…but industrial sites
As a fight between Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry and the renewable power groups took shape in recent days, it would appear more governments around the U.S. are pulling in the reins on the growth of wind and solar farms. With 40 years under his belt in the US energy industry, David Blackmon …
Legislators have yet to hear how much a renewable energy tax would raise in Oklahoma
The tax bill targeting Oklahoma’s renewable energy industry has yet to make it to the floor of the State House a week after Speaker Charles McCall proposed the measure in response to a lack of movement on the Right of First Refusal power for utilities. The House Impact study on fiscal impact of the …
Oil and gas fight with wind is resurrected in Oklahoma
Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall’s push for an electricity production tax on renewable energy sources in the state just renewed an age-old fight between the oil and gas industry and the firms behind wind and solar operations His creation of the tax in the form of HB2950 stunned the wind and solar industry in …
Oklahoma farms to receive USDA funding for renewable energy projects
Four Oklahoma farms are among an estimated 400 across the nation set to receive part of the USDA’s $144 million Rural Energy for America Program. The program was announced Monday by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack who said the project, with the cooperative of the Energy Department, will help small and medium-sized farms save money …
House speaker wants tax hike for renewable energy in Oklahoma—-targets NextEra Energy
The fight over ROFR or Right of First Refusal at the State Capitol in Oklahoma just became a hardball game, and it’s resulted in something of a firestorm for the state’s renewable energy industry. House Speaker Charles McCall, reportedly “furious” over the opposition by NextEra Energy to a possible ROFR bill in the legislature …
Energy quick reads
** A cellular outage early on Thursday hit thousands of AT&T users in the United States, disrupting calls and text messages as well as emergency services in major cities including San Francisco. More than 50,000 incidents were reported around 7:00 a.m. ET, according to data from outage tracking website Downdetector.com. ** The Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed …
Energy quick reads
** The city of Chicago is suing five oil and gas companies and a trade group that represents them over their role in contributing to climate change and its effects, arguing that the companies have misled the public about how the use of fossil fuels affects city residents’ well-being. ** Ray Starling, who served as …
Solar farm fight goes before Kansas legislators
Farm groups in Kansas are urging the state legislature to adopt a bill to stop utilities from using the power of eminent domain for construction of solar farms in the state. Some opponents want legislators to go even further by prohibiting utilities using eminent domain to build huge transmission lines. The Kansas Senate …
