House panel advances legislation to establish Oklahoma residential wind turbine setbacks

OKLAHOMA CITY — Lawmakers on Wednesday advanced a bill that would create the first residential setbacks for wind turbines amid growing calls for additional regulation on Oklahoma’s renewable energy industry.

Critics warned that House Bill 2751 could limit investment opportunities and impede on Oklahomans’ private property rights.

Currently, wind energy facilities must be 1.5 nautical miles from any public-use or municipality owned airport, public schools and hospitals. The bill would expand the setbacks to require industrial wind turbines be 0.25 miles or 2.5 times the turbine’s height, whichever is greater, from “residential dwellings or functional buildings.”

One nautical mile is equivalent to about 1.15 miles.

“There are people in Oklahoma, people in this building, that think that this goes too far, and there are people that think this goes not far enough. And so this is trying to be a middle road,” said Rep. Trey Caldwell, R-Faxon, the bill’s author. “We’re trying to find a common sense solution to a very complicated problem that essentially at its root cause is the rub, or the conflict, between competing property rights. Property rights of the property owner, but also the property rights of the abutting landowner.”

The measure comes as a growing number of Oklahomans have rallied at the Capitol and elsewhere calling for more regulations and protesting against expanding solar, wind and other renewable energies in the state even as the demand for electricity and energy continues to grow. In 2023, Oklahoma was the third-largest wind electricity producer in the U.S., behind only Texas and Iowa, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

Caldwell’s bill does not create blanket coverage for the whole state but instead affects counties with a population density greater than 8.5 people per square mile or with average wind speeds under 9.5 mph. Caldwell said this happens to break down between eastern and western Oklahoma.

“You see much more population dense areas … in eastern Oklahoma,” he said. “But at the same point in time, you also see the net wind speed of what is considered ‘good wind’ much higher, much more consistent in western Oklahoma than you do in eastern Oklahoma. So there are key regional differences, and we’re trying to walk that balancing act.”

Caldwell said as wind energy facilities look to expand to eastern Oklahoma where the wind is not as strong, they will look to build taller windmills. As of 2023, the average height of a wind turbine was 339 feet, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty. Rising heights of wind turbines would cause the setbacks to grow under this legislation.

Enel Energy operates over a dozen wind energy facilities in Oklahoma, including the proposed 5,000-acre Cedar Run Wind Project in Lincoln County, which is one of the wind farms facing local pushback.

Heath Herje, head of southern development at Enel North America, said wind farms create jobs and “tremendous” economic growth for rural Oklahoma.

“Wind leases help farmers and ranchers preserve their land for future generations of agriculturists through steady income,” Herje said in a statement. “Private property rights are important to Oklahomans, and rural families should be able to use their private property as they see fit. Wind farms help all Oklahomans by keeping electricity costs low and providing millions in taxes for rural schools, rural county infrastructure, and public services. We need more investment opportunities for rural Oklahoma, not more regulations.”

Caldwell said counties already have the ability to put in place everything in this legislation.

Property owners can choose to waive the setback requirements of Caldwell’s bill. The setbacks would be in effect unless a local county commissioner refers the issue to voters and puts the choice of opting out on the ballot.

If a county were to opt-in to this legislation while an adjoining county opts out, a company seeking to establish a wind energy facility between the counties would have to abide by the setbacks and regulations for each county.

Rep. Jim Grego, R-Wilburton, questioned if this bill was targeting a single industry in parts of Oklahoma.

Caldwell said it was because of the differences between regions of the state in relation to the wind energy industry.

“We have a very diverse state,” he said. “That diversity in our state of Oklahoma is something we should be proud of, but we also have to understand that one size fits all, blanket policies normally don’t work great for Oklahoma.”

Caldwell said this bill originally was voted down in a committee last month, but was reworked and passed through the House Utilities Committee. He said the bill as it currently reads is the result of hours of his caucus’ discussion on utilities but he’s open to further caucus changes before it hits the House floor.

He said it is not intended to be retroactive.

The bill would also charge the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, a three person board that regulates utilities in the state, with maintaining a “publicly accessible and searchable” database with county information on if setbacks are in effect.

If signed into law, Caldwell said this database from the Corporation Commission would work in tandem with another of his bills, House Bill 2756, which he said would notify neighbors when a wind farm is coming to their area as well as county commissioners, EMS, the fire department, and other relevant parties.

The measure is eligible to be heard by the full House after the chamber’s Energy and Natural Resources Oversight Committee passed it 10-6 Wednesday with bipartisan support.

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