July 16, 2007
West Virginia
West Virginia
Liberty Gap Wind Force has decided not to ask the state Public Service Commission to reconsider its decision to deny a siting application for a wind turbine facility on Jack Mountain.
Liberty Gap attorney Anthony P. Tokarz informed PSC Executive Secretary Sandra Squire on Thursday that the company would not file a petition for reconsideration. Tokarz did not make any other comment.
Developers Have Options
Frank Maisano, spokesman for a coalition of wind developers in West Virginia, said Liberty Gap still has two alternatives: to appeal to the state Supreme Court within 30 days or to refile the application.
“That is still an option,” Maisano said of the second choice.
In December 2005, Dela- ware-based Liberty Gap requested a siting certificate from the PSC to permit the construction and operation of a wholesale electric generating facility comprising up to 50 wind turbines.
The proposal also called for a related 138-kilovolt-transmission support line about 17 miles long. Liberty Gap said the line would be built on 100-foot rights of way across private land to Allegheny Power System’s North Franklin Substation.
Liberty Gap has leased approximately 6,000 acres on Jack Mountain where the wind turbine generators would have been mounted on tubular steel towers, featuring three-bladed rotors with a height of 320 to 413 feet. The turbines would stretch about 6 miles across the top of the ridge.
Robbie Sites, president of Friends of Beautiful Pendleton County, which opposed the facility, said the group is “extremely pleased” to learn of Liberty Gap’s decision to not ask for a reconsideration.
Friends’ attorney Justin St. Clair said he “was thrilled to death” for Pendleton County and “took his hat off to everyone who worked so hard” in opposing the wind farm.
“The PSC did the right thing,” he said. “This case is a good example that citizens can have an impact in Charleston.”
By Joan Ashley
16 July 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/07/16/liberty-gap-foregoes-wind-farm-review-request/