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Wind farm, transmission facility could spark jobs, create tax base
| Saturday, Mar 31 2007 7:25 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, Mar 31 2007 7:31 PM
TEHACHAPI -- A proposed wind farm and transmission facility will generate more than clean energy, if approved.
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Officials anticipate more than 500 construction and 300 long-term jobs, a boost in property taxes, and 1,500 megawatts of power.
"It will create jobs and it will create tax base at the same time," said Oak Creek president and chief operating officer Hal Romanowitz. "It will be very good for the local economy."
Local officials agree.
"We anticipate it will be a pretty big boon to the city," said David James, the community development director for the city of Tehachapi.
Figures on expected property taxes from the project weren't available, but the county's wind producers overall pay about $5.5 million in annual property taxes, according to Tony Ansolabehere, an assistant assessor for the county.
The Alta Wind Energy Center would more than double the wind energy currently produced between Tehachapi and Mojave.
"It will have a huge impact," said Tehachapi City Manager Jason Caudle.
There could eventually be as many as 800 turbines on the site.
"It's really an exciting time for us," said Linda White, executive director of the Kern Wind Energy Association. "There are other wind farms in production. It's coming at us really fast now."
The project's impact on state electricity users is not yet known.
"It's too early to tell if rates will go up or down as a result of this," said Tom Burhenn, SoCal Edison's manager of regulatory operations.
Burhenn said SoCal Edison would seek approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to recover the cost of a $1.8 billion transmission project it expects to build to handle the new power from rate payers.
He said if approved, the cost of the project would spread out over the roughly 10 million users of the California Independent System Operator grid, including SoCal Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. users.