Let’s add one more thing to the list of
potential stumbling blocks for Chokecherry
and Sierra Madre, that ginormous Wyoming wind farm project. It’s a little
guy, weighing in around 2 to 7 pounds – but it could pack a wallop.
The Obama administration last week approved a
Carbon County, Wyo., site as appropriate for development of the wind farm,
which could consists of 1,000 turbines. Environmental groups, however, say the
area is prime habitat for the greater
sage grouse, a ground bird that the federal government calls “an icon of
western sagebrush ecosystems” and that is under consideration for Endangered
Species Act listing.
Project developer Power Company of Wyoming
(PCW), a subsidiary of Anschutz Corporation, said in an email to EarthTechling
that none of the development would take place in state-designated sage grouse
core areas, and that the project “includes full compliance with the terms of
the Governor’s Executive Order regarding development in non-core areas.”
In its approval
announcement, the Department of the Interior said “the project
will avoid Sage-Grouse Core Areas through a conservation plan that
accommodates ongoing ranching and agricultural operations…. Permits to build
the project will be provided on a phased basis, and will be contingent on
implementation of wildlife protection measures.”
Nevertheless, in a press release, the
Wyoming-based group Biodiversity Conversation Alliance denounced the site
approval.
“Choosing this site for green energy was a
terrible mistake,” said Barbara
Parsons, who served on the South Central Sage-grouse working group, formed by
the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in 2004 to develop conservation plans for
the bird in the region where Chokecherry and Sierra Madre is planned. “When one
thousand concrete pads and the connecting roads are built, this prime wildlife
habitat will be permanently erased from the landscape.”
Parsons maintains that in 2008, “bullying and
cajoling and twisting arms” by Anschutz “got the Core Area changed to exclude
the lands where they wanted to build wind turbines.”
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