Wind and water at CCCOG

The Carbon County Council of Governments (CCCOG) met at 6:30 p.m. on September 16 at the Medicine Bow Community Hall.

Baggs, Dixon, Elk Mountain, Hanna, Medicine Bow, Rawlins and Saratoga had representatives.

Chairman Morgan Irene, Vice Chairman Jon Nelson and Travis Moore, Secretary/Treasurer, were present.

After all attendees made introductions, the council approved the minutes from the July 15 regular meeting. The treasurer’s report was approved after a quick review.

Kara Choquette, Director of Communications and Government Relations for the Power Company of Wyoming LLC (PCW) was the first speaker of the evening.

She said the TransWest project had obtained all required federal, state and county permits. Choquette said this process began in 2008.

“We got our last permit from Clark County, Nevada and we are very excited,” Choquette said. “We are also working on the very extensive requirements for the BLM concerning the environmental survey and engineering designs.”

She said PCW was well underway with that aspect of the project.

“The biggest news is overall the entire route of 732 miles, we have 94 percent of the total right-of-way required and that includes almost all the private land across the route,” Choquette said. “That is a huge accomplishment.”

She said construction is scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2022. Choquette said roads and infrastructure were already being built.

Choquette added there is still movement by legislators to try and put forth a wind tax. She said as an independent developer of wind projects, this tax would be detrimental.

“We are not the same model as rate regulated utility project because a company like that will pass any new taxes to the customer,” Choquette said. “For us it is much different business model and in order to stay competitive, we have to keep the price down.”

She said the Corporation Committee of the Wyoming legislature has decided to draft a bill that could become a vehicle to put forth another tax on wind. She said the Revenue Committee also has legislators determined to put forth a bill to tax wind. Choquette encouraged CCCOG to attend legislative meetings in November.

Irene asked if the reason they were hearing from PCW and not companies like Rocky Mountain Power was because they would include any tax to the customers because the company owns the wind generation and transmission.

She said her company and another company outside Cheyenne are independent.

“It just seems like we are a lone wolf in this whole idea that we want wind here and we don’t want to overtax it as compared to traditional generated electricity even though they are regulated and can pass it on, you would think they would still want to discourage it,” Irene said.

Choquette said there was probably fatigue on wind tax proposals and having to defend against them.

Irene pointed out that as technology became more sophisticated, less people were needed to run wind farms and the good paying jobs were getting fewer.

“It is sort of a disappointment,” Irene said.

Two representatives were approved by the council to go the legislative meeting.

Choquette thanked the council for the support.

Lenny Layman, Carbon County Emergency Manager, introduced the next guest speaker, Kim Johnson. He is the Emergency Preparedness Specialist and National Flood Insurance Program Coordinator for the State of Wyoming’s Office of Homeland Security.

Johnson said Carbon County, and most municipalities within, participate voluntarily in the national flood insurance program. Only Sinclair, Encampment and Hanna do not participate.

Johnson said most towns had joined back in the 1970s.

“The National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 made federally backed flood insurance readily available for sale in participating communities by voluntary agreement for the community to manage flood plain development, and map special flood hazard areas, commonly called 100 year flood plain,” Johnson said. “A little bit of a misnomer there, because we will refer to it as a special flood hazard area that has a one percent chance of an occurrence in any given year.”

Johnson said the earliest mapping had been done in the early 1970s. In the year 2000, the federal government and the state began the process of where and when flood plain updating could become available. The federal government pays for all of Wyoming’s flood plain updating.

In 2015 the updating started in Carbon County. In the beginning maps were primitive but, in the present time, flood plain updating is using sophisticated, detailed mapping. This data does reveal where flood plains occur.

“Flood mapping and flood risk are critical,” Johnson said. “And it is vastly misunderstood by the public.”

The flood plain update that started in Carbon County in 2015 will be completed in 2022.

In July, the preliminary versions of these flood plain maps came out. In August, meetings were held with community officials. Public open house meetings were held in mid-September.

Once the maps are complete, the adaption phase starts in which communities continue to adapt the program.

Lois Buchanan, mayor of Hanna told Johnson that she was interested in learning more about participating.

Irene said that if a municipality joined the program, although it was voluntary for a municipality to join, homeowners whose homes are financed living in the mapped flood plain are required to own flood insurance.

“This can cause hardship to some residents financially,” Irene said. “I have heard that sometimes flood insurance can be more expensive than their regular homeowners.”

Johnson agreed there is a cost. He estimated that it would run a homeowner approximately between $500 to $600 a year increase.

There is an appeal time for residents and municipalities if there is doubt about the accuracy. Johnson estimated the adaption would be done in January of 2021 and there would 90 days to appeal. Johnson has said he has not seen an appeal in Wyoming happen.

“That is because the process is so daunting,” Irene said.

Johnson agreed it could be difficult.

Once he was done, Johnson thanked the CCCOG audience for their time.

Just before the meeting closed, Buchanan thanked all the municipalities for their help and support in saving the town of Hanna from the RR 316 fire.

The next scheduled meeting will be at 6 p.m. on November 18 in Rawlins.