The Alabama Environmental Council (AEC), one of the state’s most active liberal environmental groups, released an “Action Alert” to its members on Wednesday urging them to help stop a bill in the Alabama Legislature that would provide basic oversight for wind energy companies seeking to locate in the state. AEC called the bill “perverse” and said that it does not create a “level playing field.”
But creating a “level playing field” is hardly what environmentalists and their Democratic allies in Washington, D.C. have been trying to do in recent years.
According to the American Enterprise Institute, “renewable energy sources receive 25 times more in taxpayer subsidies per energy unit produced than fossil fuels.” In other words, taxpayer resources are being used to prop up green energy companies that do not currently have a viable business model. American taxpayers have been fleeced for hundreds of billions of dollars that have been funneled into the Obama Administration’s favored energy companies, dozens of which have still somehow managed to go bankrupt. That would continue in Alabama if wind energy companies go unchecked. State Sen. Phil Williams, R-Rainbow City, said he believes the “driving force behind the introduction of wind energy in Alabama is once again the free-flow of taxpayer funds used to prop up each windmill.”
The data above, which is reflected in the chart below, clearly illustrates that energy companies are playing on anything but “level playing field.”
RELATED: Are your tax dollars going to help fund a wind farm in Alabama?
But the Alabama Environmental Council on Wednesday continued to hammer the wind farm bill currently pending in the Legislature.
“SB12 intentionally imposes heavy-handed government regulations,” the AEC wrote.
In reality, the bill provides basic oversight for wind energy companies and offers protection to Alabama citizens who live in areas where wind farms are being proposed.
Here are a few things the bill does:
• Standardizes the rules on wind energy production in the State of Alabama
• Allows the Alabama Public Service Commission to regulate wind energy companies, just like they do other energy providers in Alabama
• Establishes uniform setbacks from property lines
• Sets noise decibel limits for wind farms
• Requires wind energy companies to submit a reclamation plan for how they will repair the landscape once they leave
• Requires wind energy companies to give “financial assurance” in the form of a surety bond or cash escrow account, so if they go bankrupt like Solyndra and other green energy companies, there will still be money left to remove the project
But aside from the facts, it’s hard the believe that the AEC could utter the words “heavy-handed government regulations” as if they believe they carry a negative connotation. After all, heavy-handed government regulations are the enviros’ weapon of choice against fossil fuels industries. The Obama Administration’s much-maligned “War on Coal” is entirely dependent on such measures. In a recent report, The New York Times noted that EPA’s most recent round of regulations “would primarily affect the 600 power plants in the United States that are fired by coal, and could ultimately shutter hundreds of them.”
In spite of the AEC’s last-minute efforts to derail the bill, it appears to be on track for final passage. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly several weeks ago, passed out of the House Commerce Committee Wednesday, and is set to come up on the House floor shortly.
In an effort to push it over the goal line, 6-year-old Lilli Coker yesterday delivered a petition to the Legislature containing the signatures of 1,400 Alabamians calling for passage of the bill.
RELATED: Is this kindergartener Alabama’s most effective political activist?
With only four days left in the 2014 session, legislators have the opportunity to choose between well-funded environmental special interests or the taxpayers of Alabama. That should be an easy choice for the GOP majority.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
