WV wind farm bows to bats, as issue arises in MD
A West Virginia wind farm developer has agreed to scale back its project and other conditions to settle a lawsuit alleging the rotating blades pose a threat to endangered bats. The same issue now appears to be emerging - or re-emerging - over a wind farm proposed in western Maryland.
In a deal announced Wednesday, Beech Ridge Energy LLC of Rockville said it is now free to resume construction on its wind farm in Greenbrier County, W.Va., though the total number of turbines would be reduced from 124 to around 100. There already are 40 built along the ridge.
In December, U.S. District Judge Roger Titus in Greenbelt had halted construction on the project, saying it posed risks to federally endangered Indiana bats.
Beech Ridge, an affiliate of Invenergy Wind LLC in Chicago, said it will seek "incidental take permits" from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as ordered by Judge Titus, to mitigate any harm its turbines may do to the rare bats. In the meantime, the company agreed to operate the turbines round-the-clock only during the bats' hibernation period in winter, and to run them just in daylight the rest of the year.
The Animal Welfare Institute and other groups that had filed a lawsuit over the project's impact on the bats agreed not to oppose the take permits. The company dropped its plan to appeal Judge Titus' rulling. To read the settlement, go here. (Photo above is of another West Virginia wind farm, for illustration purposes only.)
Meanwhile, opponents of wind farms in western Maryland have raised the same issue, though they have yet to go to court over it.
In an "open letter" to Garrett County's commissioners, Oakland lawyer Kimberly Connaughton and two other residents say a national expert on bats presented testimony several years ago that Indiana bats were present near a wind farm proposed on Backbone Mountain near the West Virginia border. Other wildlife experts have testified about the presence there of other species deemed rare, threatened or endangered in Maryland, she points out.
That testimony came out several years ago when the Public Service Commission was reviewing a wind farm proposed by Synergics Wind Energy of Annapolis. The legislature subsequently stripped the commission of its authority to review the environmental impacts of wind facilities of 70 megawatts' capacity or smaller. The commission approved the project in November, though opponents complained the panel had been handcuffed at the behest of the politically connected head of the wind firm, Wayne Rogers, who is former chairman of the state Democratic party.
Though state law now limits the state's oversight of the project, the Oakland lawyer writes that the county is barred by one of its own ordinances from issuing a building permit if the project would harm any federally protected species. Local law also requires landowners and developers to work with state and federal agencies to minimize harm to rare, threatened and endangered species, she adds.
She calls on the county not to grant any permits for the wind farm until the developer gets a "taking" permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and to ask the agency for a formal review of the project.
Frank Maisano, a spokesman for Synergics, said the company already had shifted the location of some of its 20 planned turbines to preserve habitat for species considered rare in Maryland. He contended that there wasn't any habitat used by federally protected Indiana bats near the proposed wind farm. And he asserted that the wind farm enjoys broad support among government and business leaders in the area.
Connaughton said by telephone that she and her husband, Stephan Moylan, live within a short drive of Backbone Mountain. They and Eric Trippy, the third letter signer, formed a group opposing wind farms there several years ago. She said that "we are discussing our legal options" should the county reject their request.
John Bambacus, a former state senator and mayor from Frostburg opposed to the ridgetop wind farms, made a similar request earlier. He said last week that county officials have yet to respond. In the meantime, he is pressing western Maryland legislators for an attorney general's opinion on whether the state Department of Natural Resources still has authority to intervene in wind projects to protect state-listed rare plants and animals from potential harm.
(2006 Baltimore Sun photo by John Makeley)
Comments
This story only scratches the surface of this incredible environmental boondoggle. That the reporter would quote Frank Maisano--a wind industry PR flak who formerly made a living touting coal and whose expertise about energy and the environment is limited to how to inflate a press release--as a credible source for how safe his employer's project would be for wildlife, should give readers some indication of the under-reporting involved.
As an intervenor in the PSC Synergics hearing, as someone who is paid by no one in this case, and as an individual who has carefully studied the state endangered species involved, it is clear that the wind company HAS NOT made the area safe for the rare, threatened, and endangered species endemic to the area.
Why not ask the wildlife experts directly, particularly Dr. Gwen Brewer of DNR's Power Plant Research Program, who testified under oath that the Synergics project should not proceed because of too many unanswered questions about its impact on vulnerable wildlife? She was not alone.
This is why Wayne Rogers, a fundraiser for the Democratic Party and Synergics" CEO, went to his friends Mike Miller, the Senate President, and Cas Taylor, former Speaker of the House and prominent wind lobbyist, asking for their help in passing a bill exempting his project from any environmental review.
The Sun had full knowledge of this sleaze--and refused to do any reporting about it. Two years ago, The Washington Post at least had some coverage. Letters to the Sun's editor are often censored by a gatekeeper who continually refuses to publish comments critical of the wind industry, which is easily shown to be one of the dumbest modern energy initiatives imaginable.
That this wind project couldn't dent a grape in the scheme of things makes it even more of an environmental outrage.
Jon Boone
TW: FYI, The Sun actually reported on the Rogers-backed wind legislation in March 2007, a few months before the WaPo story you reference, though it didn't get as deeply into the politics involved.
Posted by: Jon Boone | February 2, 2010 11:40 AM
OK, Jon - I guess you'd prefer that we blow those mountantops to smithereens and dump the rubble in the stream valleys, so we can burn coal instead? Which is going to do more harm to bat habitat? Let's look at the larger picture and think about the most environmentally-friendly ways of producing energy.
Posted by: Virginian | February 2, 2010 2:22 PM
Dear Virginia
The issue is not about ‘blowing up mountains’. Mountain top mining (mining = destruction) removal is low cost for high profits.
Industrial wind projects represent high costs with little benifits.
Remove federal, state and local tax-free goodies and wind projects disappear. Why because wind is subsidized, feel and look good, political projects. The individual and the community pay the price. It appears to be green. Not so.
Yes, mountain top removal destroys quality of lives. It disrupts community economic, and social structures. It destroys community cultural and historical landscapes.
Mr. Boone hits the nail dead center, this wind project or any commercial wind project would not put a dent in grape in the scheme of things makes it even more of an environmental outrage.
WV Congressman Allan B Mollohan, and fellow West Virginia Democrat Rep. Nick Rahall, asked the General Accounting Office in 2004 to study wind farms. In September, the GAO concluded that the federal government offers minimal oversight in approving wind power farms, leaving decision-making at the state and local levels. The report also found that those regulators lack expertise in weighing the impact of such developments on birds and bats.
Congressman Mollohan and Rahall are quite sensitive about the impacts of mountaintop removal, and they are concerned of loosing the cultural and historical landscapes. Migratory wildlife is threatened.
In 2005, Mollohan compared the situation of wind power in West Virginia to the beginnings of the growth of the coal industry. “With regard to wind energy, the prospects are that West Virginia will be relegated to something of a colonial status,” he said, “with its resources being exploited by and for the benefit of outsiders, and with West Virginians being left with a legacy of environmental damage.
Frank Maisano is a paid wind project promoter.He spins the truth and tricks local officials and communities into thinking and believing industrial wind turbines are the greatest thing since slice bread.
He is already tricking you into believing that industrial wind is the solution. Remember wind represents high costs with low benefits.
Frank J. O'Hara
Keyser, W.Va.
Posted by: Allegheny Front Alliance | February 4, 2010 9:22 PM