Wind energy has pros and cons, but could benefit Wyoming, professor says

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Wyoming wind could power all of California at peak demand five times over, but allowing companies to develop wind fleets in the Cowboy State is a contentious topic.

Exchanging a scene of sagebrush on a pale horizon for a viewscape of turbine blades is considered a bad deal by many in the state. But Wyoming is also plodding through an economic valley, and the state’s key revenue drivers — coal, gas and oil — are each depressed. Talk of diversification enters every discussion on Wyoming economics. That dialogue frequently turns to wind energy, but more often than not those conversations leave a wake of uncertainty and frustration behind them.

Are the gales that blow through the state at 50 miles an hour an economic benefit in this time of trouble? Or is the development of wind a liability that blights the landscape and challenges an already troubled coal sector?

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