Drake professor teaches wind energy law

DES MOINES, Iowa - Students at Drake University are learning the laws of nature -- at least those that pertain to the wind.

Drake University law professor Neil Hamilton just finished teaching the school's first class in wind law to eight law school students and three attorneys. The students are taking their final exams this week and Drake plans to make the class permanent.

The class looks at the legal workings of wind energy, addressing land-use regulations, easements and leases, utility regulation and energy and environmental policies.

Hamilton's class is one of three across the country. The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Oregon in Eugene also teach wind law courses.

"With turbine farms going up all over Iowa, it's the next logical step," said Hamilton, director of Drake's Agriculture Law Center.

One student, John Hibschman of Logan, Utah, said he thinks the field will be wide open for wind law practitioners.

"Wind energy isn't as well-developed in Utah as here," Hibschman said. "But you can tell it's coming. I hope to be able to specialize in a practice."

Iowa ranks first in the country in the percentage of wind generation with 5.5 percent of electricity coming from wind turbines, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

While wind energy has a gentle, environmentally safe image, it has its share of conflict.

Some farmers in Buena Vista and Cherokee counties, in northwest Iowa, were angry when the owner of a 10-year-old wind farm built on their land cut their annual payments of $2,100 by two-thirds.

"We had no idea they could do it," said retired farmer Ronovan Meyer of Alta, who signed a lease with what was then an Enron subsidiary to allow a wind turbine on his 160-acre farm.

The lease signed by Meyer and about 30 other farmers called for payments of about 6 percent of the value of the power produced. The new terms cut those payments to 2 percent with landowners being guaranteed at least $750 per year.

"It was disappointing, but the amount of money is so small that it probably wouldn't be worth it to sue," Meyer said. "We may go through arbitration, though."

Hamilton said most wind farm leases don't have royalty clauses for electricity production. He said they tend to pay up to $4,000 a year to lease land with no royalties. That's different from many agreements for oil and gas production.

"You can claim your land rights, but how can you claim the wind?" Hamilton said.

Hamilton said he doubts wind energy will be an economic boon for rural Iowa.

"What you're seeing is income amounting to 1 or 2 percent of the total electric output from a turbine that goes back to the landowner," Hamilton said.

He said wind energy law may really take off if and when Congress passes a carbon emissions control system.

He said owners of green energy systems, such as wind farms, could profit from the sale of their energy credits to the owners of fossil-fueled power plants.

"There may be some windfalls there," Hamilton said.