Group appeals PSC's wind farm decision; Petition targets Green Mountain Pinnacle project

KEYSER, W.Va. - Opponents of a planned Mineral County wind farm have appealed to the West Virginia Public Service Commission to reconsider its decision to allow the project to go forward.

On Jan. 11 the PSC approved a permit allowing developer US Wind Force to move forward with its plans to build up to 23 wind turbines atop Green Mountain in Mineral County.

By Jan. 21, the Allegheny Front Alliance, a group opposing the proposed wind farm - known as the Pinnacle project - filed a petition for reconsideration with the PSC, asking the commissioners to revisit the issue.

The petition addressed several points in the final decision the alliance said were "unsupported by, or otherwise contrary to, the evidence" presented to the PSC on the matter. Those include a PSC finding that the project site is not in an important migration area for predatory birds. That finding was based on the results of a risk assessment completed by consultants hired by US Wind Force, but the alliance said it is inconsistent with expert opinion submitted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The alliance also argued that a PSC finding that the project would not have a direct impact on two cultural resources in Keyser - the Thomas R. Carskadon House and the Mineral County Courthouse - "misrepresented the evidence" given by only considering the impact on those two resources, and not other historic or cultural resources in the region.

US Wind Force filed a response Jan. 29, asking the PSC to deny the reconsideration request because it "only re-hashes the alliance's earlier arguments" which the PSC had already heard and taken into consideration.

"We didn't see anything new in their appeal," said David Friend, vice president of sales and marketing for US Wind Force. "It was the same issues they already brought before the commission."

The PSC can take any length of time to decide on whether or not it will review the decision, said spokeswoman Sarah Robertson.

"There's no statutory time limit for the commission to respond," she said. "And there's any number of factors that could go into their decision whether or not to reconsider the decision."

If the commission declines to reconsider its decision, the alliance would have 30 days to take its case to the courts for an answer. That 30-day window would begin as soon as the commission declines.

Friend said the alliance's petition could delay the construction start date, since his company won't begin construction "until the appeals have cleared."

"It would be a risk," he said. "But we're still working in the background to get our contracts lined up and all the various pieces of the project in place."

In particular, the Pinnacle project is looking to a pending power purchase agreement with the University of Maryland. The university is looking to purchase renewable energy credits from Pinnacle to "green" its energy consumption. Friend said the legal language of the pending agreement is still being sorted out.