Mixed Messages from OG&E and OU

Something Oklahoma University students can give thanks for this holiday season is a future in clean energy. Thursday's Daily Oklahoman reported that state regulators signed off Wednesday on a new OG&E wind farm being built out in Woodward. This approval will help OU achieve a goal of being powered entirely by renewable energy by 2013. This will actually be a bit of publicity coup helpful for recruiting green minded students and possibly making Oklahoma look more like a wind energy leader. To my eyes this appears to be good news, a solid commitment to rewnewable energy by the state of Oklahoma.

But what exactly did we approve?

It's not until the last few paragraphs of the article that you discover what the Oklahoma Corporation Commision signed off on is a rider increasing OG&E customer's utility bills about 90 cents per month over the next year. Then it will drop to about 80 cents the next year.

Clean energy investment is a top-heavy thing. You dump a lot of money into the front end, namely the construction costs of these $3-million-dollar-a-piece turbines and then you pump a lot of money out of them seven to ten years down the road. Turbines last around 20 years. If they're well maintained it could be longer.

It doesn't seem fair that OG&E customers should have to pay a dollar more per month so that OG&E can recoup construction costs on something they understand will be very profitable down the road. It might be different if there was any promise to customers that they would see a rebate of some kind when the turbines start to turn a profit. But this is basically a consumer tax pushed through using the publicity of hope and green energy.

Also the rider doesn't appear to benefit those paying for it. The article states the wind farm will generate 101 megawatts for Oklahoma University's Norman campus. That is enough power to run about 30,000 homes. Does OU campus require that much power? Perhaps. They have 30,000 students and 3,000 faculty, but they don't all live on campus. I'm sure the lights at the Oklahoma Memorial Stadium eat a little more power than the average home. But what happens when the lights aren't on?

What upsets me most about this move by the OG&E and the Oklahoma Corporation Commission is that wind energy is profitable, but this rider makes it appear that it isn't. It is an investment that takes several years to pay back and I understand that lots of people would rather see their investments pay off in a year or two rather than seven to ten. If you start sticking your consumers with start-up costs for your profitable venture, you're going to stir up a significant backlash against green energy. Wind will look more and more like a scam to milk customers rather than the profitable, necessary, and beneficial investment that it is.