Commissioners from Goshen and Platte counties, along with local community members, visit with landowners and officials from the Carbon County wind turbine projects to hear and see firsthand what it is like to live in an area with large wind turbine projects.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story does not indicate any stance taken by Wyoming Newspapers Inc., its reporters and editors, or the newspaper. The Platte Co. Record-Times greatly appreciates Carbon County commissioners and residents for welcoming the paper in and being candid with their experiences.
PLATTE COUNTY – “If you ask my brother and other landowners, these projects are only good to save the family farm,” Carbon County Commissioner Sue Jones said to the caravan of both Platte County and Goshen County residents who toured the Medicine Bow wind turbine projects last week. “He felt pressured into accepting the lease for the turbines because others surrounding him had already done so – but he will tell you, it was the biggest mistake of his life – he regrets it, now.”
“Most of these projects are also on absentee owner private lands; very few ranchers have remained in the area,” Jones added. “Our bats are now all gone from the area too.”
Jones spoke at length and in great detail about the things her communities wished they knew before the first project began construction: things they have learned along the way, and lingering concerns still on everyone’s minds – she held nothing back.
Jones also encourages all community leaders, newspapers and residents in areas where proposed wind projects are popping up to contact her and tour their projects, ask questions and take measurements. Her hope is communities around the state make the best, most informed decisions they can, given their local industries and needs. As for Carbon County, Jones says they’ve all but embraced the fact wind energy is there to stay – at least for the foreseeable future – so they try to do the best they can with their new neighbors, the wind energy companies.
The Platte Co. Record-Times has received numerous requests about these concerns and more from community members and listened to concerns brought up at meetings around the county. The paper is seeking to research, investigate and address those concerns and questions and have reached out to NextEra Energy for interview requests since the newspaper was not given the chance to ask these questions at the Open House in late June in Chugwater. The Platte Co. Record-Times did ask NextEra representatives at the Open House if they were planning, already had scheduled, or if they would at least entertain requests to have a question-and-answer meeting for community members and interested parties to ask their questions, but was advised, “No,” on all fronts. The initial interview set up for June 25, was cancelled as the company requested to reschedule, but as of presstime, had not yet rescheduled, although they were in communication about rescheduling sometime this week.
Additionally, the Platte Co. Record-Times spoke to legislative leaders who have oversight of the Industrial Siting Division and the division administrators about required processes and communication, of which, the administrators said it’s very loose and vague and does not require companies to directly answer community concerns nor require companies to host question-and-answer town halls. The open house hosted by NextEra in both the Chugwater and Torrington communities was considered in compliance with the permitting process.
Wind turbines in Carbon County
An increasing number of concerns have been brought up at various county commissioner and town hall meetings around Platte and Goshen Counties since NextEra Energy announced a renewed interest in a wind turbine farm in the Chugwater area, on the Iowa Flatts. Some of those concerns were addressed during a tour of two projects currently in operation in Carbon County around Medicine Bow, and new concerns were brought to light. Carbon County leaders, a commissioner and residents were candid and pointed with their responses.
There are five wind turbine projects directly in and near Medicine Bow, and an additional sixth project nearby. As of June 2025 there are 28 utility-scale wind farms currently in operation in Wyoming. The five projects in Medicine Bow include: TB Flats 1, TB Flats II, Lucky Star I, Two Rivers and Seven Mile Hill; the sixth outlier project is Rock Creek, which connects to the Aeolus Substation northwest of Medicine Bow.
Nearby in Rawlins, the TransWest Express wind project will eventually connect its production in Carbon County through the northwest corner of Colorado, snake diagonally through Utah and eventually end near the Hoover Dam in the southernmost part of Nevada where Arizona, California and Nevada state lines meet. From there, the power can be sourced out to California and southwest United States regions.
The Platte and Goshen Counties caravan of residents toured TB Flats I and II. This project is a Rocky Mountain Power operation of PacificCorp, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and built by Mortenson, spanning more than 44 square miles inside the rolling hills of Medicine Bow. This project alone has nearly 500 wind turbines in operation, many of which were not rotating when the caravan drove into the area.
“I have seen wind farms before – but at a distance,” Goshen County resident Dennis Baker said. “My biggest surprise was the number of two-pole power lines – and some bigger.”
Adding, “I had assumed everything would be underground.”
“I am sure there is a system, but from the road, they looked like they went every direction – it might be possible to farm around the big turbines – but not in the areas that have power poles and lines,” Baker said.
TB Flats I and II is the largest operation to date in Wyoming, with a total capacity of at least 503 megawatts production, which was built in October 2021. Part of it crosses into Albany County. The wind turbines only operate when winds are optimal, meaning once winds reach 50 miles per hour (mph) or more, the turbines shut off. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, this is for safety concerns to avoid structural damage to the turbines, nearby structures or energy infrastructure – it doesn’t take into consideration potential damages to landscape or residences. In most cases, the wind must reach about 10 mph in order for them to start generating electricity to be stored and transferred.
Although Jones couldn’t speak specifically to the overall trans-state projects or how they ultimately connect, she did say the combination of all projects in the Mountain West region could potentially change the landscape of the West indefinitely – including the culture the West is known for.
A change in marketing strategies more wind turbine companies are moving to is offering land leases to landowners with larger portions of land to include the entire property and not just the immediate area in which each individual turbine is proposed to go, according to Jones, adding, that could ultimately lead to legal use squabbles between turbine companies and landowners. A single turbine requires a minimum of 1.5 acres of land to be leased to the company; however, recent contracts indicate the practice of leasing only the land needed for the individual turbine is being discontinued, and leasing the entire property is being utilized more often.
When asked what sort of legal concerns have been brought up by landowners seeking to make changes to their own properties with active turbine leases, Jones said, “Well, I’ll let you know when that happens – because right now, most of our landowners are absentee landowners and we’ve not had that occurrence, yet.”
When given a specific example using Platte County ordinances for a landowner needing to fix a barn, stable or build other outbuildings on a property, Jones was asked if the turbine leases indicate whether or not a landowner needed permission from the wind company. Jones said she did not know those specifics, but encouraged Platte and Goshen counties to ensure verbiage in leases and permits stipulated wind companies must follow county ordinances in allowing residents to build or tear down buildings on their properties as needed without turbine company approval. Platte County does not currently require notification to county commissioners to build or tear down outbuildings on anyone’s property.
Crime surges, community ignored
“The Industrial Siting Board has never denied permitting – that’s just a fact – in all of its years of operating, it has not once denied a permit for these projects,” Jones further explained. “They have the opportunity for those people (smaller landowners and town folk) to submit in writing their objection to the projects, but it’s not been our experience that those are considered during the process. At least, it doesn’t appear so.”
She said they too, much like Platte and Goshen counties, have had numerous residents object to the wind turbine projects, but very rarely do their concerns get adequately addressed during the process at the county or state levels.
When asked what negative social impacts these projects draw in, specifically about increased crime rates, Jones said, “Oh heavens – a lot (of crime) – I’m not exactly sure how much. I’m sure we could look at law enforcement data, but we did notice a substantial increase of crime when the projects are being constructed and shortly after.” When asked specifically what sorts of crime, she simply said, “all of it,” to include criminal, civil and property crimes.
Using data provided by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (WDCI) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniformed Crime Report (UCR), data indicates all crimes spiked during the construction phases of each wind project in Carbon County, to include violent assaults, other violent activities, property crimes such as burglaries, and civil matters. The data specifically from the UCR shows the years in which no construction projects were being completed had no-to-little reported incidents of violent crime as reported to the FBI by the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO).
Residents interested in exploring that data can do so online for free by visiting www.cde.ucr.cjis.gov and clicking on Wyoming, then Carbon County; or by visiting www.wyomingdci.wyo.gov and then clicking criminal justice information services at the top and then clicking the annual crime and domestic violence reports.
Additionally, Jones told the caravan of Platte and Goshen residents very few of the turbine companies hire locals, and if they are hired, they last for a very limited amount of time in most cases.
“I think there were maybe two local people who worked on these projects for a short time – they don’t work there anymore – but generally it’s not been our experience that these companies hire the locals,” Jones explained. “They come in swiftly to do the construction. Every once in a while, like now, they come back in to do updates or re-power, and they leave almost just as quickly as they come in.”
While standing in front of the larger turbine on the tour, Chugwater area resident, who lives near Slater, Kathryn Stevens shared her thoughts in that moment, “Going into the trip, I was curious what effect these huge turbines would have on the people living directly around them.”
“But, when we got there and saw the wind farm up close, I realized a key difference between the Medicine Bow situation and the proposed Chugwater wind farm,” Stevens shared. “That is – there aren’t any people living amongst the Medicine Bow turbines – in Chugwater, they’d be building these things right in our backyards!”
Adding, “In some cases the turbines would be sited just a few hundred feet from people’s homes.”
Ecological, cultural destruction
Medicine Bow is nestled near the Albany County and Carbon County line, about 109 miles west of Chugwater by highway and nearly parallel to where Chugwater is located. Besides being one of the first small mountain communities connected to the Transcontinental Railroad, Medicine Bow has a deeply entrenched history for being an early American westward expansion hub, the epicenter of cowboy cultures, and is home to Native American tribal medicinal practices. Today, Medicine Bow is a far cry from its roots and frontier spirit with miles upon miles of different sizes of wind turbines, electrical lines and facilities – many of which, the locals say do very little to benefit the communities in the area.
“The juju is gone (from the land) – the dead Indians are gone,” Jones said. “The soul of the land has vanished and with it, some of our wildlife and ecosystems – like our bats. Our bats are now all gone from the area too.”
The absence of bats has led to a noticeable decline in some of Carbon County’s ecosystems. To what degree, Jones could not provide a specific answer because studies would need to be conducted. In fact, she said no wildlife, health, environment or other studies have been conducted since the construction of the projects, so they know very little of these impacts.
Bats, for example, are crucial in maintaining healthy ecosystems through insect control, pollination and seed dispersal. The primary food source for bats are insects and they often control those insects from overpopulating and causing other ecological concerns. All 18 bat species in Wyoming and within Carbon County are insectivores, meaning, their diet is primarily insects – including agricultural pests. The bats aid agricultural areas in consuming these pests, which helps farmers by reducing the need for pesticides and better protection of crops – especially wheat and potatoes, common agriculture products of Platte and Goshen counties.
The absence of bats, which are also seen in Platte and Goshen counties, could lead to an irrevocable change to southeastern Wyoming’s agriculture and require producers to use more pesticides – a practice many Wyoming farmers actively try to avoid due to health concerns.
“Some say we sold our soul to the devil – I know my brother would tell you that if he were standing here now – our spirit is gone,” Jones said.
That spirit of the Mountain West Jones described is something she fears their communities will never recover, even if the projects were decommissioned and removed. “It’s just not something you can ever get back once it’s gone,” Jones stated.
When asked about the overall community impact, Jones said, “What community? You saw Medicine Bow when you drove in – does it look like a bustling town it once used to be?”
Aside from the ability to use the marginal income from the turbines to update historical sites and markers, Medicine Bow and other communities like it in Carbon County have seen little to no – if any – economical boost according to Jones. In fact, the process to obtain the financial payouts is slow and often far below what is promised to the communities.
“At this point, we’ve decided to embrace our new neighbors, because that’s about all we can do now,” Jones said. “For some, it’s easier; for others, it’s a hard pill to swallow – but it’s too late to go backwards now.”
Lingering concerns
When asked about decommissioning, Jones said there are concerns – such as, the fact the companies are only required to dig four feet down to decommission projects and not all the way down to the base of the turbines.
“The regulations state only four feet, and those bases are much deeper than four feet,” Jones said. “In most cases, they are twelve feet or deeper.”
In fact, although the companies are required to keep and store the topsoil for decommission use later, they aren’t required to put the exact topsoil back, nor are they required to put the exact seeding back.
In terms of how this relates to the Chugwater project, that could mean the elusive and increasingly rare Wyoming buffalo grass on the Iowa Flatts risks being permanently removed and never returned.
Buffalo grass, specifically the Wyoming native variety, is a warm-season grass well-suited for Wyoming and is both drought and cold tolerant. It’s predominantly found on the Iowa Flatts in Platte County and sometimes in western Goshen and northern Laramie counties. This luscious grass requires minimal maintenance and doesn’t grow as tall as other native and non-native grasses in the region and is slower to green up after the spring thaw. Its characteristic gray-green color prefers sun and well-drained soils, but makes for the most sustainable grass option in this part of the state – but, it’s slowly dying off and not as far reaching as it once used to be.
Whatever wind project ultimately builds in the area, current legislation and county ordinances do not require energy companies to reseed with Wyoming buffalo grass in the event the company decommissions the site at a later date.
Other concerns center around health-related phenomena in which scientists, medical professionals and archaeologists are currently studying.
Jones also informed Platte and Goshen residents on the trip to seek better details about weather phenomena in the Chugwater area, because some of their concerns still center around adverse weather, such as subzero temperatures. She noted weather seen in Platte County, such as tornadoes, need to be heavily considered when thinking about approving a wind project.
Not an economic driver
“Oh, heavens no,” Jones said when asked if any of the current wind turbine projects have turned out to be the economic drivers they were promised. “We are in year three of this particular project – and we are not seeing any economical driver occurring.”
In fact, several of the Medicine Bow projects were boosted to reinvigorate nearby communities and was supposed to become a hotspot for increased tourism, the likes of which the community has not seen since the post-World War II era. The last tourism boom Medicine Bow experienced was in the early to late 1950s, which was fueled by the postwar economy and increased car travel according to their economic development website. Even the famed Virginian in Medicine Bow no longer draws in crowds of tourists as it once did, primarily because both Interstate-25 (I-25) and Interstate-80 (I-80) are more convenient ways to travel.
“These projects just don’t – and won’t – bring the economic impact some of the companies say they do,” Jones said. “Our communities are not busting at the seams. In fact, we have more people leaving than coming in.”
According to recent and previous state and federal population surveys, Carbon County is among the hardest hit counties in terms of population decrease. From 2010 to 2022, the county’s population decreased by 8.2% according to state records. A key factor cited is the saturation of wind turbines in the area. A secondary concern cited for residents leaving is the lack of jobs and job outsourcing to out-of-state corporations, namely, energy projects not employing locals. The biggest impact is the decommissioning of mines which once fueled Carbon County’s economy.
“We’ve sort of moved from one industry to another – is it a good move? Well, we are still assessing that,” Jones said about the decommissioning of mines and construction of turbine farms. “It’s not the same, certainly. With the mines, the locals were paid well and had sustainable jobs as well as job security – with the turbines, well, you have to be a specialist essentially to work for them.”
She also noted the majority of those who do see a financial gain are often the landowners with large amounts of acreage and very seldom do the smaller acreage landowners see any financial return. Many of the current sites are owned by absentee owners, meaning those who own the land but do not live or do business in the area, Jones said. When asked if consideration is given to nearby residents with smaller parcels of land or people who live inside nearby towns, Jones said rarely are those concerns or desires taken into consideration.
Old community events have not returned and community comradery has continued to decline since the turbines have been constructed, according to Jones. The towns expected to see a rebirth of these events with the proposed income from the projects to drive economic growth, but have yet to see that happen.
Agriculture vs Industrialization
Therefore, the small town of Medicine Bow and surrounding area with a population of just 254 full-time permanent residents (about the same as the town of Chugwater and its surrounding areas) thought the best way forward was to open its land to wind energy production. However, Medicine Bow is not similar in every way to Chugwater, because unlike Platte County, Medicine bow was not so heavily steeped in agriculture and was originally a hub of moving people, things and the mail from the west to east coasts and eventually, down the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, to the south. Carbon County and Medicine Bow’s economies were and still are vastly different from Eastern Wyoming’s heavy emphasis on agriculture.
“When I was growing up, and even still now, whenever anyone talks about agriculture in Wyoming – we all knew that was eastern Wyoming,” Jones explained. “Platte County is going to have to consider its roots, land usage and long-term future – you’re going to have to ask yourselves which is more important: industrialization of dying industries, like we have experienced in Carbon County, or preserving agriculture.”
She added, “In fact, if your county is thinking of approving wind energy and these turbines, you’re going to also have to think about saturation and ideal maximum production output.”
Some counties in Wyoming have ordinances which limit the total number of megawatts allowed to be produced in their county – as well as the total number of available land acreage energy projects are allowed to consume. Some of those ordinances are tied to local industries, such as the total number of agricultural land available for use and others are tied to the property valuation of the county. Two counties limit the total number of wind turbines allowed, and in some cases, the size.
Each county operates slightly differently, however, more than half of Wyoming’s 23 counties have no such ordinances currently on the books. Many counties are learning via crash course through the Industrial Siting Division requirements in the permitting process and some counties are unaware they can request to go second in the process. Meanwhile, a small handful of counties have regulations stating they will go second in the process, which have only since become county ordinances after fumbling through the first process of initial projects, according to Jones.
Platte County has no such ordinances at this time, but has remained on the radar of several wind projects for nearly 20 years. The original project, which did obtain both Industrial Siting Division and county permits, ended up pulling out due to other project concerns. NextEra Energy took over the project in 2016 and recently began announcing its plans to move forward.
Measurements and health
During the tour of the projects and while on-site, members of the Platte County caravan took different decibel measurements of the smaller, mid-size, and larger turbines, similar to the now-proposed NextEra turbines.
The measurements were taken both with the wind blocked off and standing in the wind, at several distances proposed by the current Chugwater project, in addition to other distance variations.
Data of the decibel (dB) measurements recorded near the larger wind-turbines which are similar in size to those proposed by the NextEra project near Chugwater include:
One-fourth mile: decibels were about 90 dB consistently and peaked about 180 dB;
One-half mile: decibels were about 60 dB consistently and peaked at about 95 dB;
Two-thirds mile: decibels were about 40 dB consistently and peaked about 60 dB;
A mile: decibels were about 30-35 dB consistently and peaked about 55 dB;
Decibel readings of the electrical lines consistently read between 80 to 90 dB; and
Decibel readings of the power plant and converter at two miles read between 75 to 90 dB.
Readings directly in the wind, at the same distances aforementioned, were nearly double in most cases.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gives an upper limit of 70 to 80 dB within a 24-hour period to be in the acceptable range without negative long-term hearing loss. For every three decibels over 85 dB, the safe exposure time gets cut in half. For example, at eight hours of exposure to 85 dB it is only considered safe and in acceptable range to experience no more than four hours of exposure at 88 dB. Anything over 85 dB at prolonged times or greater than two hours, is considered dangerous and will lead to long-term hearing loss, according to the EPA.
According to the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC), more than 40 million American adults between 20 to 70 years old were treated for hearing damage and loss due to noise pollution and prolonged exposure to higher decibels in 2024. The agency has extensive studies relating to quality of life, sleep disturbances, “shadow flicker” (organ vibration) effects and infrasound disturbances as it relates to populations in, near and around wind turbine farms. In a 2023 study, the CDC cited incidents of people self-reporting “sound pressure” feelings behind their ears, more akin to being underwater and not like the increased elevation pressure.
In 2014, the National Institute of Health (NIH), produced several studies relating to health effects experienced among residents near wind turbine farms and prolonged exposure. Much of this research is contested by wind turbine companies and often discredited by the companies – many of whom do little to nothing to address these concerns, according to the NIH study.
The study did conclusively report, “Exposure to wind turbines does seem to increase the risk of annoyance and self-reported sleep disturbance in dose-response relationship.” The study also noted the tolerable daytime noise exposure for short spurts of time is within the 35 dB range or lower.
Other reported symptoms to the CDC and NIH include: dizziness, nausea, sensation of ear pressure, tinnitus, hearing loss, sleeping disorders, increased/frequent headaches or migraines, and a slew of other hotly debated symptoms.
Another health concern being investigated is the shedding of fiberglass from the turbine blades. Although most turbine blades have coatings to minimize erosion and fiberglass shedding, it cannot be prevented entirely and can become toxic debris in nearby farmland. At this time, environmental agencies do not seem concerned about this risk, but have limited data and studies available addressing this concern.
In the end…
“All it’s (wind turbine projects) about good for is saving the family farm – nothing else – so you have to balance whether or not having the devil’s money is worth saving the farm when we live with these as neighbors, including the company you chose as a neighbor,” Jones commented at the end of the tour. “Sure, you’ll get a marginal and small economic bump when they come in to construct these projects, but that is short-lived and not as substantial as most claim it will be.”
The Platte Co. Record-Times will continue to report its findings and will have a series of stories in the future as new information becomes available and verified.
“If wind power works anywhere, it would work where there aren’t people,” Stevens told the Platte Co. Record-Times. “As one of the people who would be living among these turbines, I don’t know how they could think this would be OK with us.”
Emphasizing, “I don’t want to see it every day – I don’t want the backdrop for my kids’ childhood to be these towering, humming machines.”
The Town of Chugwater is having a town hall for residents in Platte and Goshen counties who have concerns or unanswered questions on July 10 at 6 p.m. at the Chugwater Community Center. Mayor Josh Hopkins told the Platte Co. Record-Times he wants to hear the concerns of the greater community and act as a conduit to work to get those concerns answered and addressed in conjunction with working with the news staff to keep the community informed. Those wishing to speak or ask questions must sign-up at the meeting.
