The largerst US wind farm to date, a 1,000 turbine installation south of Rawlins, Wyoming has been approved by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. When signing
the record of decision on October 9th the Secretary said the project fulfills the goal set by the President of 10,000 renewable megawatts on public land before the end of the year. The project uses about equal amounts of public land and private land owned by The Overland Trail Cattle Co and will be built by the Anschutz Corporation based in Denver. About 300 construction jobs and 100 operational jobs will be involved. The BLM's final EIS was released in July after four years of data-gathering and analysis, and the government emphasized that the project avoids critical sage-grouse habitat. The sage grouse is disappearing from the High Plains primarily because of
livestock grazing has replaced native species of
grasses and sage. Conservationists are attempting to get the bird listed as an endangered species, but a decision from the US Fish & Wildlife Service until 2015.
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| courtesy: USF&W |
Alternative fuels are not necessarily green fuels if they are not produced with consideration of their inevitable impacts on Earth's natural resources. Wyoming environmentalists have criticized the Sierra Madre-Chokecherry Wind Farm for siting on prime sage grouse and golden eagle habitats. An activist responding to the decision in favor of construction pointed out that Miller Hill was once designated a
Sage Grouse Core Areabut that designation was changed to exclude the Hill through pressure from Anschutz Corp. The wind farm is expected to kill 46 to 64 golden eagles a year according to BLM estimates. The sage grouse is on the edge of extinction in northeast Wyoming due to gas field development that has had a whopping 30,000 wells and associated infrastructure constructed in just a few years. According to the BLM Powder River field office the sage grouse
will never fully recover from the energy development.
Anschutz's wholly owned subsidiary, Power Company of Wyoming, says each of the thousand turbines will be precisely placed to avoid impacting birds using the scientific data collected to a finer degree than has ever been done before for an energy project. Considering most energy projects are underway with very little or no environmental analysis, the quality of Anshcutz's studies will be determined in real time. The BLM has gone on record promising more eagle mitigation strategies will be recommended to fulfill requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act
Anschutz's wholly owned subsidiary, Power Company of Wyoming, says each of the thousand turbines will be precisely placed to avoid impacting birds using the scientific data collected to a finer degree than has ever been done before for an energy project. Considering most energy projects are underway with very little or no environmental analysis, the quality of Anshcutz's studies will be determined in real time. The BLM has gone on record promising more eagle mitigation strategies will be recommended to fulfill requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act