Federal stimulus success at Windy Point
MORE than a year has passed since Congress enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. With the national unemployment rate still hovering near 10 percent, there is cause to question whether the $787 billion stimulus package was money well spent.
A new wind-energy project in Klickitat County is evidence that the federal stimulus bill got a few things right. Spanning 26 miles along a ridge line near Goldendale, Windy Point is one of the nation’s largest wind-energy projects to benefit from grants authorized under the bill.
Like many small American towns, Goldendale has struggled for decades to make ends meet. When a nearby aluminum smelting plant closed several years ago, the town quickly fell on hard times. Unemployment rates in Klickitat County rose well above the state average, and capable young residents increasingly exited the community for jobs elsewhere. Left behind were a shrinking tax base, struggling ranches and farms and little hope for improvement.
Fortunately, Goldendale is a blustery town. Chinook winds from the Pacific Ocean flow up the Columbia Gorge and into the area during much of the year. Since the 1980s, developers have mulled building a wind-energy project in the grassy hills east of Goldendale — an area reputed as one of the windiest developable areas in the Pacific Northwest. About four years ago, federal tax credits and a rising demand for renewable energy convinced Cannon Power Group to give development a try.
Local governments in the Goldendale area welcomed wind energy with open arms. Klickitat County adopted an expedited permitting process for wind farms, and the county’s public utility district cooperated with Cannon in securing transmission arrangements. Construction costs for Phase I of Windy Point were financed with relative ease.
Cannon had already begun preparing to finance Phase II of the project when the national economic meltdown threatened to stop the project in its tracks. Credit markets froze and tax-equity investors — a critical component of financing involving federal tax credits — quickly dried up.
The stimulus bill came to Cannon’s rescue, creating the Renewable Energy Grant Program in Lieu of Tax Credits. With grants under the program, Cannon was able to finance Phase II, avoiding delays that could have otherwise thwarted further development.
When Windy Point reaches full operation, the 500-megawatt project will supply electricity to more than 250,000 households and displace more than 800 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.
But the project’s benefits don’t stop there. Local landowners will receive about $3 million in annual rent payments under wind-energy leases, enabling many of them to continue operating their ranches and farms. And Windy Point has helped to reduce unemployment rates in Klickitat County, directly creating 40 to 50 permanent jobs and providing years of steady work for independent contractors, engineers and professional firms.
Goldendale Mayor Arletta Parton sent a letter to Cannon last December, gushing with gratitude for the project. In her words: “I look at the motels being filled, restaurants being busy, the RV park being full … thanks to all of you for the overall benefits you have brought to my community.”
Congress sold the stimulus bill to Americans upon the promise of more successes like Windy Point. Less than 1 percent of the bill has been spent under the Renewable Energy Grant Program, yet the program has attracted billions of dollars in private “green” investment and created thousands of jobs. By sparing projects like Windy Point that could have otherwise failed in the economic downturn, the grant program has spurred clean-energy development and job creation that will benefit the nation for decades to come.
-Troy Rule
