Bill to limit wind turbines jumps to new committee
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A bill targeting new wind turbines in Oklahoma had another chance to be heard by a different committee on Thursday. It's the same bill, with a few changes, that did not pass on Wednesday in front of the energy committee.
On Thursday, the utilities committee heard the bill targeting wind turbine construction. There were a lot of questions circling why it was brought up again in the first place after representatives in the energy committee made a different choice the day before.
"There were members who spent a lot of time working on asking questions, having debate, and then it pops back up in this committee," said House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City.
Representatives backing the bill said it's similar to the original one, but with some changes after the long debate and feedback earlier this week.
"We addressed some of those concerns. Things like the fact instead of making counties wait five years to be able to try to change the policy, to move that to where they can immediately do it," said Representative Caldwell R-Faxon.
The bill would impact more than half of Oklahoma's counties, primarily those east of I-35.
However, Representative Caldwell is reassuring people the bill doesn't mean windmills are going away altogether.
"They're going to have to get more buy-in from just a single landowner. They're going to have to get buy-in from the abutting landowners as well and build a consensus in the localized area if they want to put one, put a windmill farm in an area," said Representative Caldwell.
Even with the second day of hearing the bill, House Minority Leader, Cyndi Munson, is backing her statement from earlier this week that Oklahomans value property rights and local control. Which is something she believes can be done without this bill moving forward.
"If you have real issues and you want policy to be done, go to your county commissioner. That's the next closest elected official to you versus having the state create the statewide policy where this issue isn't really...as there aren't people as vocal about it across the state," said Rep. Munson.
The bill has to be heard in the Energy Oversight Committee next, before moving to the House floor.