Colorado legislators introduce legislation requiring energy companies to remove decommissioned wind turbines

Colorado's U.S. Reps. Ken Buck, Doug Lamborn and Wyoming's Harriet Hageman want energy companies to remove decommissioned wind turbines from leased land before getting federal tax credits, arguing that burden should not fall on landowners across the Eastern Plains.

Currently, energy companies are not obligated to remove wind turbines from leased land once they are decommissioned, putting the onus on property owners — typically farmers and ranchers — to remove the turbines, the lawmakers said. The Production Tax Credit Reform Act, which the trio introduced, would amend the Internal Revenue Code to impose the federal tax credit requirement, which would not be retroactive.   

According to the United States Geological Survey, as of the first quarter of 2023, there are 72,731 wind turbines covering 43 states, including Guam and Puerto Rico.

A 2011 article by Mark J. Perry, Senior Fellow Emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank, says at that time there were an estimated 15,000 or more abandoned wind turbines in the US.

“Forcing heavy financial burdens onto landowners to appease the failing Green New Deal is inappropriate,” Lamborn said in the release. “Government-subsidized infrastructure is not the responsibility of private citizens and must be disposed of by the energy companies that created the mess in the first place.”

There is controversy about the actual number of abandoned windmills that remain standing and what it might cost to remove them.

“The American Wind Energy Association, representing wind power generators, assures the public that owners are contractually obligated to take them down at their own cost and that their salvage value will pay for the cost of doing so," according to a 2020 article by the Washington Times. “That sounds great, but turns out to be more hopeful than accurate. Wind farm operators have overestimated routinely the salvage value of their windmills and underestimated the costs of removal. Moreover, the windmills do not last a generation, so the cost comes sooner than expected.”

“The burden for removing and disposing of decommissioned wind turbines should not fall on landowners across the Eastern Pains,” said Buck. “Energy companies must remove retired turbines from leased land themselves and not leave it as a costly problem for hardworking landowners to solve.”

While many jurisdictions are now imposing permitting conditions requiring removal and remediation, many installations are on private property where the contract may not include those provisions, according to reports.

“Every square foot of land owned by farmers and ranchers is valuable, and an industry known for tight fiscal margins should not be responsible for disposing of wind turbines subsidized with taxpayer dollars,” said Hageman. “By making removal of decommissioned turbines a condition for Production Tax Credits, private landowners will no longer suffer the financial burden of abandoned or failed green bad deal energy projects.”