CASPER — A group organized by a Wyoming senator plans to quintuple Wyoming’s wind tax in an unusual way — by a vote of the people.
Wyoming has a unique tax on wind energy production; just one other state levies a fee on wind power. A few lawmakers, like Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, have pressed for an increase to that tax for years, arguing that it fails to compensate for what’s lost in Wyoming: an unmolested landscape.
Industry supporters say wind is an economic boon and shouldn’t be stymied with taxes, while developers say the tax increase proposed year after year would break the favorable economics of Wyoming wind. That argument has held back lawmakers for some time, despite the efforts of Case and others.