September 30, 2010
Oregon

PGE withdraws Rock Creek wind farm petition

Portland Business Journal - by Suzanne Stevens Web editor, www.bizjournals.com 29 September 2010

Portland General Electric has withdrawn a petition related to the Rock Creek Wind Farm in Gilliam County.

PGE (NYSE: POR) filed the petition for a one-time waiver of the Oregon Public Utility Commission competitive bidding guidelines for new energy resources on Sept. 2, reflecting a need to execute a time-sensitive agreement for the acquisition of the development rights assets for the Gilliam County project, which could ultimately encompass 68,000 acres. The rights are owned by Renewable Energy systems Americas Inc.

In a statement, PGE vice president for power operations and resource strategy Jim Lobdell said the company withdrew its petition because “new regulatory developments affecting the entire wind energy industry made it unlikely that we will be able to complete a transaction on the timeline both PGE and RES Americas had expected, so our request for a waiver is no longer necessary.”

Lodbell was referring to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service guidelines that could require wind developers to complete additional surveys and develop plans to avoid or minimize wind farm impact on certain species.

Lodbell added that PGE could pursue development rights assets for the Rock Creek Wind Farm in the future.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/09/30/pge-withdraws-rock-creek-wind-farm-petition/