Arkansas lawmakers listen to a virtual presentation about wind turbines from Mary Dye, a Republican lawmaker from Washington on Dec. 4, 2024. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)
State’s first wind turbine farm expected to be operational next summer
By Mary Hennigan, Arkansas Advocate
A Washington state lawmaker presented a case against wind turbines to an Arkansas legislative committee on Wednesday, continuing an ongoing discussion about the renewable energy source.
Republican Rep. Mary Dye, who serves on the Washington House Environment and Energy Committee and attended Wednesday’s meeting virtually, told the Arkansas Children and Youth Committee that renewable energy projects were a way to transfer the land’s wealth to foreign countries.
In November, industry experts told the same Arkansas legislative committee that renewable energy was needed for the state’s future as some coal plants will be offline by the end of the decade.
“We’re talking about industrializing the entire agricultural base for renewable energy, and it’s weather dependent, it creates instability in the grid, it costs a tremendous amount of money and it has a social cost,” Dye said.
Arkansas does not yet have an operational wind turbine farm, though three are in the works. In November, industry experts told the same Arkansas legislative committee that renewable energy was needed for the state’s future as some coal plants will be offline by the end of the decade.
Those experts said modern, taller wind turbines that generate triple the amount of energy of a turbine produced five years ago were ideal for Arkansas’ landscape. The resources would supplement what will be lost with the coal plants, they said.
A new Environmental Protection Agency rule that’s being challenged in court would require many coal-fired plants to capture 90% of their carbon emissions or shut down within eight years, according to the Associated Press.
Prior to the rule, Entergy Arkansas planned to close the state’s two largest coal-fired plants and a 50-year-old plant by the end of 2030 due to a 2021 settlement agreement, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Washington started establishing wind turbine farms about a decade ago, but Arkansas won’t have its first operational farm until the Crossover Wind Project starts up next summer in Cross County. (Editor’s Note: The company behind the Crossover Wind Project, Cordelio Power, is also is developing wind turbine projects in Independence, Jackson, and Woodruff counties. A Cordelio executive recently told state lawmakers that the Independence County site was chosen near the Independence County Power Plant location because once coal plants go off-line, there will be available line capacity in the area.)
The state’s two other developments are planned for Crittenden and Carroll counties.
Sen. Bryan King chairs the Children and Youth Committee and said he cultivated the two-sided discussion following a plan to bring wind turbines to his district. The Green Forest Republican said the state’s Joint Energy Committee didn’t pursue the discussion.
“My brother’s on the quorum court, so it’s been a controversial issue at least in Carroll County with the possibility of about 40 [to] 50 windmills coming into [the] county,” King said.
Answering to some of King’s concerns, Dye said the wind turbines are like having “skyscrapers everywhere.” She also said some turbines in fire prone areas can burn tens of thousands of acres in 15 minutes because of the dry and windy conditions.
Dye also noted that Arkansas’ wind potential is low compared to other states.
“That tells me that there’s something else driving the mission, and the something else is the flow of money,” Dye said. “The wealth-generating capacity of American sovereign land to large, global corporations that have no loyalty to the benefit of affordable, reliable energy that supplies our grid.”
Dye agreed with King’s concerns about threats to wildlife and said renewable energy projects have left little cash flow to come back to the small towns. She spoke passionately about her beliefs of the wind turbine farms and at one point described the situation as an “oligarchy.”
“I think it’s a liberal policy, and I’m not sure — it’s just a plan to destroy this country and take over our country. I’m hoping that this new administration — and I think they will — will put a stop to some of this insanity with this green energy.” — Sen. Gary Stubblefield
“Agriculture is a base for economies in our states, and we’re putting in an opportunity for people to exploit our wind resource and exploit the revenues of our taxpayers and take it out into their own portfolios,” Dye said. “I think that’s the fundamental problem with the industry itself. It’s like a great, massive shift of power and money to governments and global companies.”
Sen. Gary Stubblefield, a Republican from Branch and a member of the state’s energy committee, was the only other lawmaker on Wednesday to comment. He spoke negatively about the current federal leadership under President Joe Biden and said the shift to green energy was a “governmental joke.”
“Why all of a sudden have we had everything shifted to green energy?” he asked. “I think it’s a liberal policy, and I’m not sure — it’s just a plan to destroy this country and take over our country. I’m hoping that this new administration — and I think they will — will put a stop to some of this insanity with this green energy.”
The Arkansas Advocate is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to tough, fair daily reporting and investigative journalism that holds public officials accountable and focuses on the relationship between the lives of Arkansans and public policy.
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