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USFWS comments on Pinnacle Wind Power Project
November 6, 2009
by Deborah Carter, USFWS Field Supervisor
US Fish and Wildlife Service, Wet Virginia field office, issued these comments regarding the Pinnacle wind power project proposed for ridgelines in Mineral County, WV. The comments pertain to the Habitat Characterization and Assessment of Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Species for the Pinnacle Wind Farm (BHE Environmental 2009a); the Avian Risk Assessment for the Pinnacle Wind Power Project (Kerlinger 2009); and the Bat Risk Assessment: Pinnacle Wind Farm (BHE Environmental 2009b). Excerpts of the letter are provided below. The full report can be accessed by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page.
NY PSC order prescribes renewable energy deliverability test
October 20, 2009
by NY Public Service Commission
This impacting order by New York's Public Service Commission requires renewable energy developers to quantify and qualify whether their proposed project, if built, will displace other renewable energy and in what amounts. (Case Number 09-E-0497)
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
New York]
This Windaction.org presentation was given at the Indiana State Bar Association's 2009 Fall Utility Law seminar held in Michigan City, Indiana on Oct 16-17, 2009.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
Indiana]
The Animal Welfare Institute, Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy, and others submitted this pretrial brief and supporting reply briefs in their law suit opposing the Beech Ridge wind energy facility to be located in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. These briefs show that the developer, Beech Ridge Energy LLC, discovered the presence of the federally endangered Indiana Bat at the project site but withheld this information from federal and state authorities. With this information hidden from public inspection, the project was granted a siting certificate from the West Virginia Public Service Commission to construct up to 124 wind turbines, each 390 feet tall, along a twenty-three mile stretch of land on forested Allegheny Mountain ridgelines. Construction commence in early 2009 but a subsequent injunction request was filed by the plaintiffs and granted pending the outcome of this law suit. The pre-trial brief and reply briefs by renown bat experts Drs. Lynn Robbins, Michael Gannon and Thomas Kunz can be accessed by clicking on the links below. The introduction to the reply brief is also posted below. The trial is scheduled from October 21 before the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.
This appeal was filed by the Concerned Citizens to Save Roxbury ("CCSR") in response to the August 20, 2009 final order issued by Maine's Department of Environmental Protection granting approval for Record Hill Wind LLC to construct a 22-turbine wind energy facility in Roxbury, Maine. The aggrieved parties further request a public hearing on its appeal on the grounds that credible, conflicting medical and technical information regarding the licensing criterion and it is likely that a public hearing will assist the State in understanding the evidence.
A technical critique of Denmark's wind energy development and operation. A brief summary of the report appears below. The full report can be downloaded by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
Denmark]
In a book released today, Dr. John Etherington - former Reader in Ecology, Thomas Huxley Medallist at the Royal College of Science and former co-editor of the Journal of Ecology - argues that wind farm technology is a wholly counter-productive and undesirable response to the problems of climate change and electricity generation.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
UK]
Wind turbine syndrome: Noise pollution could be blowing in the wind but more evidence is needed
September 1, 2009
by Jess Dancer, EdD in Advance for Audiologists
This report appeared in this month's edition of Advance for Audiologists, a trade magazine for professional audiologists.
Avian and bat fatality rates at old-generation and repowered wind turbines in California
August, 2009
by K. Shawn Smallwood and Brian Karas
This important report, which appeared in the Wildlife Society's Journal of Wildlife Management, details the effect on raptor and bird mortality following repowering a portion of the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area (APWRA) in California (USA). Repowering involves removing older generation towers and replacing them with higher capacity -- and potentially better sited -- units. The abstract to this report appears below. The full report can be accessed by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection scientists have opposed wind energy development in the Delaware Bay, which could cut down an Ocean County firm's plans for 106 wind turbines there.
Delsea Energy continues to push for the project and has applied for the right to measure wind and other bay-related data that could lead to the turbines' construction there.
However, DEP scientists and the Atlantic Flyway Council have raised concerns about the effect the project would have on wildlife. A DEP assistant commissioner wrote last month "that the Delaware Bay is not an appropriate area for development of wind energy."
Scott Brubaker, the DEP's assistant commissioner for land use management, informed Delsea Energy in this Aug. 20 letter "that the Delaware Bay is not an appropriate area for development of wind energy." The full letter with attachments can be accessed by clicking on the link below. Follow-up e-mails between the wind developer and NJ DEP can also be accessed.