Tri-Cities Cares, the group that has led the fight against the biggest proposed windfarm in WA State, has released information about how President Trump’s recent energy-related executive orders might, and might not, affect wind farm projects, including the Horse Heaven Hills Windfarm slated to run from Finley past Benton City.
The orders primarily affect projects on Federal land, but…
Tri-Cities Cares (TCC) says the orders affect proposed wind farm projects that are offshore and those on Federal lands. The orders significantly reduce or limit, and in some cases ban, wind farm development in those areas.
The Horse Heaven Hills Windfarm is entirely on private land, except for 2739 acres of state Department of Natural Resources territory. TCC also says as far as they know, the incentives and tax credits for building windfarms that were contained in the Inflation Reduction Act passed by the Biden Administration have not yet been affected.
However, according to TCC, many experts say the removal of these incentives would result in the production costs of these farms rising to the point where they would almost not be worth it.

TCC says mega-investor Warren Buffet said 11 years ago, speaking about wind energy:
“…on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without a tax credit”.
So, for now, the recent Trump executive orders will not have any appreciable effect on the HH Hills Windfarm, but given the speed of developments in D.C. things could possibly change.
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