PHOENIXΒ βΒ A House panel voted to put a new financial hurdle in the path of some future solar and wind projects in Arizona, saying that's needed in order to preserve cattle ranching.
House Bill 2411 would make it illegal to construct either solar or wind operations on state or federal land that is currently leased for grazing. And a project would be able to move forwardΒ only if the rancher holding the lease would be compensated by the new occupants for loss of profits.
The measure approved Friday on a 5-4 margin by the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has no cap on the amount that would have to be paid nor for how many years. As worded, HB2411 would require those payments to continue "in perpetuity," saidΒ Mike Gardner, lobbyist for the Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association.
The vote followed the testimony of Safford rancher Mark Brawley who said there is an application by a solar company to lease 20,000 acres of land from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on which he currently has a permit to graze cattle.
He said losing that much land would amount about a $2 million financial loss. Beyond that, he said the loss of that acreage, about 30% of his grazing, might make the operation run by his family for generations no longer financially viable.
"It's not anti solar,'' Jeff Eisenberg, lobbyist for the Arizona Cattle Growers Association, said of the measure. "We just want to have some fairness to these people who have been around a long time. Why not stand up for the dignity of the men and women who make a living on the land?''
But there's an important fact being left out of the discussion, saidΒ Stan Barnes, who lobbies for Interwest Energy Alliance.
He said the issue here is the land belongs to and is leased from the government. Barnes, whose family has a history of farming in Pinal County, said once someone offers more money, there is no obligation by the new leaseholder or purchaser of the government land to compensate the prior occupant for future lost profits.
"When home builders come to take it from us, we get nothing,'' he said, other than reimbursement for infrastructure like wells.
"But we don't get perceived profits in the future,'' Barnes, a former GOP legislator, told lawmakers. This legislation, he said, would create a special privilege for ranchers.
"What kind of Republican-oriented thinking is that?'' Barnes asked.
Sandy Bahr, Arizona chapter president of the Sierra Club, said the proposal interferes with the legal obligation of the state Land Department to get the most money possible from the leasing of state lands, as the proceeds go to supporting public schools and other government functions.
The dispute in some ways comes down to preserving a historic lifestyle in the face of possibly incompatible technology.
There are some wind projects in Arizona. But the bigger potential is for solar, given the number of days of sunshine and the amount of available land.
In either case, developers often look to place their projects near existing high tension lines to have a way of moving power to buyers.
Those lines, however, often are in areas of the state where land now is being leased to ranchers. That results in those developers outbidding the ranchers for the use of that land.
"Ranchers have come to us and told us these projects are going to take out their operations,'' Eisenberg said.
"We're responding to a human need here,'' he said. "You're taking out businesses and families and communities that have been in place for years.''
Rep. Marcelino Quinonez, D-Phoenix, said "ranchers should be compensated."
"But the argument with this bill is it's particularly outlining a solar or wind-energy project,'' Quinonez said. "Is the bill not going directly after a particular business entity to operate in Arizona?''
He said he might be more sympathetic if those particular words were removed, to level out the playing field.
Eisenberg, however, said these solar projects have become "a real problem.''
"We're not like making this up and saying, 'Oh, we don't like solar, we don't like wind,' '' he said.
But amending the measure to expand who would have to compensate ranchers beyond wind and solar projects may not be politically feasible. It could provoke new opposition from commercial and residential developers who would then face additional financial hurdles for their own projects.
And it wouldn't solve the legal problem that whoever wants to lease these properties likely would be willing to pay more than the ranchers are chargedΒ β and that the Land Department is required to accept the highest bid.
Bahr cited figures from the Land Department that it collected more than $54 million from the leasing of public lands.
"Of that, only $2.2 million came from grazing,'' she said, despite the fact that grazing leases cover nearly 88% of state trust lands.
"So livestock grazing is not doing much for the trust beneficiaries,'' Bahr said. "Commercial leases, on the other hand, generated $33 million on just 74,000 acres of state land."
Rep. John Gillette, R-Kingman, who voted to support the measure, said he fears these projects will seek to locate near the cities they hope to power.
He figures it would take 300 acres of solar panels to create enough energy for a community of 5,000.
"So if you multiply that out for, let's say, the city of Kingman, you're going to be well over a thousand acres in land mass to power that,'' Gillette said. He said that could eliminate "prime grazing land'' around the city.
"A thousand acres in land mass would devastate every rancher I know just to power a city the size of Kingman,'' Gillette said.
Bahr said that ignores the fact there are millions of acres of state trust lands in Arizona, not even counting federal land owned by the Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management.
"So there's a lot of areas that would not be under any kind of solar leases or permits,'' Bahr said.
Gillette remained unconvinced, saying those areas are rarely used because of the terrain, as much of the land is above 4,000 feet which he said is not suitable for grazing.
The measure now goes to the full House.
Get your morning recap of today's local news and read the full stories here: tucne.ws/morning
