2016 Land Report 100: Philip Anschutz

No. 22 Philip Anschutz

434,500 acres
Wyoming’s reputation as a low-tax haven is somewhat suspect in certain quarters of downtown Denver, home of The Anschutz Corporation. The company developed its Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project on Anschutz’s Overland Trail Cattle Company in Southern Wyoming’s Carbon County. Projected to be the largest wind farm in North America, the project was well under way when Wyoming became the first and only state in the Union to levy a tax on power generated at wind farms. So much for the nation’s best tax climate for business.
This spring, the BLM issued a draft Finding of No New Significant Impact (FONNSI) on the project. The governmental milestone represents yet another step forward for the massive project, which would ultimately include up to 1,000 wind turbines, cost $5 billion, and generate 3,000 megawatts of clean, renewable energy.