Lawsuit: BLM ignored residents in approving Wyo. power line

Environmentalists and a retired government biologist say a project designed to carry wind-generated power across the West is "fatally flawed."
 
A Wyoming conservation group and a retired federal government biologist have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Bureau of Land Management's approval of a transmission line designed to advance wind power in the state.

At issue is the Rock Creek Wind gen-tie transmission line on BLM land in southeast Wyoming, which is designed to connect the proposed commercial-scale Rock Creek Wind project to the Gateway South and Gateway West multistate transmission lines that can carry wind-generated electricity across the West.

But the Albany County Conservancy and Michael Lockhart, a county resident and retired Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, claim in the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming that BLM's environmental assessment of the project "is fatally flawed for numerous reasons," and the bureau's subsequent decision to approve the power line violates federal laws.

The complaint, which names Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning and the manager of BLM's Rawlins Field Office as defendants, accuses BLM of ignoring local stakeholders.

"BLM chose instead to conduct its review of the Project in secret — without any public notice or input whatsoever — despite explicit and repeated requests from the public to participate in the [National Environmental Policy Act] process," it says.

The complaint says that BLM did not adequately analyze how the 100 or so wind turbines associated with Chicago-based Invenergy LLC's Rock Creek Wind project "will impact the local environment and economy."

It adds, "This is concerning because the Rock Creek Wind Facility is just one of many large-scale, commercial wind farms the federal government has foisted on Albany and Carbon County residents without even attempting to examine the magnitude of harm that such an unprecedented concentration of turbines will have on Wyoming in either the short or long term."

The complaint says the cumulative impacts of the gen-tie line and the wind farm merited BLM conducting a much more time-consuming and expensive environmental impact statement.

BLM declined to comment on the lawsuit. The bureau typically does not comment publicly on matters related to ongoing litigation.

The lawsuit challenging the Rock Creek gen-tie line is the latest pushback from local government leaders, and in this case a conservation group, against a large-scale project that would either produce clean, renewable energy, or allow for that electricity to reach the power grid.

Such scenarios have been playing out in Nevada, where BLM is considering more than a dozen large-scale solar power projects on the state's southern end, near and around Las Vegas.

The Rock Creek Wind project is one of the largest proposed onshore wind farms, and would have the capacity to produce 590 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power 195,000 homes.

The Biden administration is working to meet a goal outlined in the Energy Act of 2020 to permit 25,000 MW of onshore renewable energy projects by 2025. The use of federal lands to expand development of commercial-scale wind, solar and geothermal power is a key component of the administration's efforts to address climate warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions generated by fossil fuels.

But some have complained the federal government is moving too fast.

The Albany County Conservancy says this is happening in southeast Wyoming.

"Renewable energy facilities aren’t green if they are poorly sited such that they kill and degrade critically important habitats for protected and declining wildlife in this Rocky Mountain/transitional grassland basin region so important to both resident and migratory species," said Anne Brande, the founder and executive director of the Albany County Conservancy.

Lockhart said the region at issue "is one of the most important areas for golden eagles in North America."

He also noted there are other imperiled and sensitive species in the region, including the greater sage grouse, mountain plover, black-footed ferret and northern leopard frog.

"All these species are of enormous social and economic importance to Wyoming and the nation," he said.

Brande noted the Rock Creek Wind project sits about 5 miles from the Bamforth National Wildlife Refuge.

"The Bureau of Land Management is trying to sneak through approval of these federal rights-of-way without environmental review, enabling a massive cumulative assault on declining wildlife and habitat from both existing and numerous proposed wind projects," she said.