Committee introduces bill placing taxes on wind turbines

BOISE — The House Revenue and Taxation Committee introduced a bill Monday that would place a massive excise tax on commercial wind projects that voters disapprove of.

Rep. Jeff Ehlers, R-Meridian, presented HB 317, which would require a preference election when there was a proposed commercial wind turbine in a county, and if local voters disapproved of the project, the county would impose an excise tax on the turbines. If the majority of voters approve of the project, there wouldn’t be a tax.

Rep. Ted Hill, R-Eagle, on Monday asked, “How big is that excise tax? Are we going to go gangster on it, and really go hard core? That’s what we want to do here.”

The tax rate would be $25,000 per foot of height. Ehlers said Monday that the average windmill height would amount to approximately $2.5 million in excise tax per turbine. The tax commission would also be taxed with adjusting this amount for inflation each year.

Committee Chairperson Rep. David Cannon, R-Blackfoot, responded, “for the benefit of the committee, that qualifies as gangster in the eyes of the chairman.”

The money from the tax would go to the statewide fund for school facilities, which is distributed to help districts pay off bonds and levies.

Excise taxes are imposed on certain goods and services; for example, the federal excise taxes are imposed on highway motor vehicles that with a semitrailer have a taxable gross weight of 55,000 pounds or more.

The proposed Lava Ridge Wind Project initially included up to 400 wind turbines in Lincoln County on federal Bureau of Land Management land. BLM approved the project for 241 turbines northeast of Twin Falls, which could power as many as 500,000 homes. The height limit on the turbines would be 660 feet. President Donald Trump later signed an executive order temporarily halting the project, as well as all wind power leasing projects.

Idaho lawmakers and officials have been vocally opposed to the project, and last week the House unanimously passed both a concurrent resolution and joint memorial voicing opposition to the project. Gov. Brad Little and Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke also joined Idaho’s congressional delegation in voicing opposition, and Little signed an executive order to “complement” Trump’s, requiring state agencies to gather input and data on the review of the project.

If the Lava Ridge project were to move forward, under the bill, it could be subject to an excise tax totaling nearly $4 billion.

Jonathan Oppenheimer, government relations director of the Idaho Conservation League, said the bill seemed to be “flowing from some opposition” to the Lava Ridge project.

“There’s no doubt there were a number of issues with that, and there was a lot of opposition, but that doesn’t mean we should be slamming the door on all future renewable projects,” Oppenheimer said.

Oppenheimer said the bill seems “punitive” and would block any new wind projects in Idaho, which, he argues, is counter to Idaho’s best interest.

“The reason energy companies have identified renewable power is because nobody in Idaho wants to pay more for power,” he said.

Natural gas fueled 32% of Idaho’s electricity generation in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and wind accounted for 15%. Idaho has no commercial coal production and no significant natural gas reserves.

Most of the state’s natural gas comes from an interstate pipe, primarily from Canada and Utah.

Hydroelectric power used to account for more than two-thirds of Idaho’s electricity, but since 2012, drought and increased generation from other sources have reduced hydropower’s share to less than half at 43%, according to the administration.

Oppenheimer argues that Idaho should be looking to diversify its energy generation rather than constrict it.

“It’s a lot cheaper to produce the power in the state than it is to import it from other states,” he said.

Oppenheimer also said the bill went counter to Idaho’s previous position on renewable energy, citing a 2008 House Concurrent Resolution directing the governor, Office of Energy, and Land Board to work toward “development of energy production of renewable resources on state endowment land” to maximize returns for education. The resolution was co-sponsored by then-Reps. Mike Moyle and Scott Bedke in the House and its Senate floor sponsor was then-Sen. Brad Little.

House Assistant Minority Leader Steve Berch, D-Boise, said Monday he would vote to introduce the bill to allow it to come back for a hearing but said he had concerns about “taxing the free market out of the ability to do things that are legal.”

The committee voted unanimously to introduce the bill.

Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on Twitter @EyeOnBoiseGuido.