Is it time for a fair tax for wind and solar in Wyoming?

A new AOER study, Balancing the Scales: How Wyoming Can Protect Its Energy Revenues, commissioned by the Wyoming Liberty Group, reveals a striking imbalance in how Wyoming taxes its energy producers. While coal, oil, and natural gas shoulder the vast majority of the state’s energy tax burden, intermittent energy sources like wind and solar pay disproportionately little, or in the case of utility-scale solar, nothing at all. With fossil fuel revenues projected to decline by $171 million by 2030 and $621 million by 2040, our report outlines how modest tax reforms on wind and solar could help fill the growing budget gap without sacrificing energy development.

The Wyoming Liberty Group presents two primary paths forward. First, replacing the current $1 per megawatt-hour (MWh) wind excise tax with a 9 percent royalty tax on wind and solar could generate $60 million annually by 2030 and as much as $1.4 billion by 2040. Alternatively, simply increasing the wind tax to $5/MWh could yield over $1 billion in new revenues over the next 15 years, while extending the same tax to solar energy would raise an additional $87 million. These funds could be used to support schools, roads, and property tax relief for Wyoming families, while restoring tax parity across all energy resources.

The message is clear: taxing industrial-scale wind and solar at levels comparable to those of fossil fuels is both fair and fiscally prudent, especially considering the favorable treatment wind and solar have received at the federal level over the last four decades. With energy revenues in flux, now is the time for Wyoming to balance the tax scales.