Wind farms, for instance, make an estimated $180 million in lease payments a year nationally to landowners, including $8 million in Kansas, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
“State legislatures have seen the benefits, and they see what they risk losing if they don’t have this,” said Jeff Lyng, senior policy adviser for the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University. “Businesses have started. Projects have gone in. People are employed. It’s now a real economy.”