From the Plains to the Mountains

Return to state-by-state climate policy map

This summary is part of Beyond the Beltway: A Report on State Energy and Climate Policies produced by the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law

Oklahoma to North Dakota

This may seem a bit surprising, but wind power has a solid political base in many solidly Republican states. It’s a case of economics outweighing politics. Here are the top five states for wind power^[1]:

You might not have expected to see the four red states on this list. But there’s a geographic reason they’re on the list: the wind belt that runs north from Oklahoma, through Kansas and Nebraska, and all the way up the Dakotas, where winds are strongest. (While Iowa is immediately to the east of this column of states, it shares the same geographical and political currents) It is no wonder that wind power is a big deal in the states along the corridor.

Wind power generation is continuing to grow in those high-wind states. Midwest Energy News reports:

“Wind power represents more than 80 percent of the new electricity generating capacity built in the Midwest and Great Plains states over the past five years as the industry continues to grow. . .

“The American Wind Energy Association’s annual 2016 report notes that two states in the region generate more than 30 percent of their electricity needs from wind – Iowa (35 percent) and South Dakota (30 percent). North Dakota, Oklahoma and Kansas produce more than 20 percent of their electricity demand from wind.

“Not surprising, the Midwest/Great Plains nexus—combined with Texas—captured 89 percent of all investment in wind last year.

“For instance, in July, two corporations announced ‘they’re building a 2,000-megawatt wind project in the Oklahoma panhandle, which, upon completion, could hold the title of second-largest wind farm in the world.’”^[2]

The availability of wind is reflected by the energy mix of wind versus fossil fuels in the tier of states from Oklahoma northward (2015 figures):

The other thing that leaps out of this table is the very low use of natural gas in most of these states. A look at a map of gas pipelines indicates that South Dakota and a large part of Nebraska are not served, but Kansas is a puzzle because of a dense pipeline network and low in-state use.^[3] The appeal of coal in some of these states may be explained by proximity to the Wyoming coalfields.

Unless you’re in the industry or live in or near these states, the importance of wind power on the Great Plains and Midwest may not seem to have much to do with your life. But it makes a real difference in terms of energy politics. No less an advocate of fossil fuels than Senator James Inhofe has advocated for policies to support investment in transmission infrastructure and further development of wind resources in his home state of Oklahoma^[4]Or consider Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he saidthat if President Trump wanted to do away with wind power, “he’ll have to get a bill through Congress, and he’ll do it over my dead body.”^[5] Grassley sponsored the original tax credit law for wind power, and he came out hard against a draft report by Trump’s Department of Energy that was allegedly anti-wind. Not to mention Sam Brownback, who led Kansas in its failed experiment with right-wing governance:

“Speaking at the American Council on Renewable Energy’s (ACORE) recent Renewable Energy Finance Forum, Gov. Brownback said he believes generating half of Kansas’s electricity using wind is ‘doable’ and he expects it to happen. He noted that Kansas is ‘going to be aggressively recruiting and working with [wind] companies,’ and working on transmission build-out to better enable the wind industry to grow even faster.”^[6]

These are important, mostly hardline conservative politicians. If you’re Mitch McConnell or Paul Ryan – or for that matter, the Secretary of Energy – you can’t afford to ignore the views of Republicans like these. That’s why, despite Trump’s personal antipathy toward wind power, it will likely not only survive his administration but continue to grow.

1. Official Nebraska Government Website, “Wind Facilities’ Installed Capacity by State,” http://www.neo.ne.gov/statshtml/205.htm.
2. Frank Jossi, “Industry Report: Midwest and Great Plains Lead Wind Energy Expansion,” Midwest Energy News (April 19, 2017), http://midwestenergynews.com/2017/04/19/industry-report-midwest-and-great-plains-lead-wind-energy-expansion/.
3. US Energy Information Administration, “Natural Gas Pipelines in Central Region,” https://www.eia.gov/naturalgas/archive/analysis_publications/ngpipeline/central.html.
4. “Inhofe Praises Pickens’ Call for Increasing Use of Natural Gas, Wind Power,” U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (July 9, 2008), https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases-republican?ID=092B5F5E-802A-23AD-4F38-1AD8834F2C9F.
5. Devin Henry, “Grassley: Trump Will Attack Wind Energy ‘Over My Dead Body,’” The Hill (August 31, 2016), http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/293924-grassley-trump-will-attack-wind-energy-over-my-dead-body.
6. Paul Dvorak, “Gov. Brownback: Wind Power Could Supply 50% of Kansas Electricity,” Windpower Engineering & Development (July 6, 2016), http://www.windpowerengineering.com/projects/ gov-brownback-wind-power-supply-50-kansas-electricity/.