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For Immediate Release September 15, 2003

 

OTTO, HATCH CALL WIND POWER “ECONOMIC ENGINE”
Power grid problems and deregulation “key challenges” to tapping its full potential

Attached Photo: State Rep Rebecca Otto, May Township, discusses the future of wind energy in Minnesota with Senator Ellen Anderson, chair of the Commerce and Utilities Committee, and Attorney General Mike Hatch.

PIPESTONE, MN

Representative Rebecca Otto sleeps well at night, she says, because she uses wind power for most of her home’s electricity. Otto, who lives in May Township, has a wind generator in her own back yard. “It’s nothing like these big commercial units,” she laughed. “But it’s paying for itself and you know something? I don’t have to feel bad about polluting the world my son will have to deal with to get my electricity. I put my money where my mouth is, I sleep well at night, and that’s a smart investment.”

Otto met with Attorney General Mike Hatch, Senator Ellen Anderson, chair of the Commerce and Utilities committee, and other lawmakers here last week at a conference sponsored by the Rural MN Energy task Force to discuss strategies for using wind power as an economic engine for the state.

“We reached an important milestone last month,” said Otto, noting that Minnesota now has 1,000 megawatts of commercial wind power on line – enough electricity to power every residence in the Twin Cities. “We’ve reached the point economically that wind power is the cheapest form of electricity. That protects rate payers. But the real boon of wind power is jobs, and keeping the hundreds of millions of dollars we used to ship elsewhere to buy coal, right here in Minnesota.”

So far, the 1,000 megawatts of generating capacity translates into about 3,100 jobs, $4 million in annual rent payments to farmers, and about $3.6 million in annual tax payments to local governments to fund schools, roads, public safety and health care, Otto said. “This is an economic boon for Minnesota. We’re called ‘The Saudi Arabia of Wind Power’ for a reason, and we need to do more to harvest this huge economic resource. This isn’t just smart environmental policy, it’s smart business and it’s good government to encourage it.”

In fact, it’s such good business that many frugal Minnesota farmers are forming cooperatives to purchase and erect their own commercial wind generators. At a cost of roughly $750,000 each, they don’t come cheap. “But they pay for themselves in about ten years,” said Otto, “and after that they’re cash cows,” she joked.

Besides the economic boon, Otto said, are the environmental health reasons to support wind energy. The turbines turn 90% of the time, avoiding “tons upon tons of coal emissions annually. Those are fewer emissions that end up in our lungs or in our lakes, poisoning our fish.”

“Whether it’s the farmers or utilities that erect the turbines, or the banks that finance the projects, or the electricians that wire and maintain them, or the construction crews that erect them, or the component manufacturers that make the parts, or the tourism industry and the kids that can safely go fishing with grandpa, Wind Power is a wind-win for Minnesota,” said Otto. “It’s a smart investment that helps us all sleep better at night."