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Wind Power News: Americas
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational effort to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Judge rules against tribes in lawsuit with ‘largest clean energy project U.S. history’
A federal judge yesterday ruled against The Tohono O’odham Nation, the San Carlos Apache Tribe and environmentalists in a lawsuit to halt work on a $10 billion transmission line being built through an area of cultural significance to the tribes. The SunZia Southwest Transmission Project will carry wind-generated electricity from New Mexico to California. The 520-mile-long powerline is the biggest U.S. electricity infrastructure undertaking since the Hoover Dam and is being lauded as “the largest clean energy project in U.S. . . . Complete story »
Offshore wind farms are detrimental to whales
Since 2016, more than 200 humpback whales have died and been stranded on beaches along the East Coast, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA). In fact, NOAA is so concerned about the sheer number of dead humpback whales in this region that it has labeled the situation an “unusual mortality event.” Likewise, NOAA has declared an “unusual mortality event” regarding the mysterious mass deaths of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale along the East Coast. As NOAA . . . Complete story »
Measuring the sound of silence
In an area where the tallest structures are grain elevators, industrial wind turbines are more than simply a disturbance to the rural skyline. They are transformative. Modern turbines are 600 to 650 feet tall. They change a rural landscape into an urban one. As one neighbor put it, “If I wanted to look at tall buildings and blinking lights I’d move to the city.” Modern wind turbines are taller than the Space Needle, twice the height of downtown Spokane’s Bank . . . Complete story »
Maine House, protecting sand dunes, rejects plan to build offshore wind terminal on Sears Island
The Maine House of Representatives voted Tuesday to protect sand dunes on Sears Island where the Mills administration has proposed to build an offshore wind terminal. In an 80-65 vote, the House rejected legislation that would have authorized the Department of Environmental Protection to grant a permit to build the terminal on an area of Sears Island that includes a coastal sand dune system. If the legislation fails, it is unclear how severely the decision would delay the buildout of . . . Complete story »
Residents raise concerns about Pontotoc County wind farm
Pontotoc County Commissioners held a meeting in Ada on Friday morning, allowing county taxpayers to voice their concerns with a wind farm that is set to begin construction near Roff this summer. “This will become the county where metal buildings have more rights than the people.” The plans from energy company Avangrid will bring 33, 600-foot tall wind turbines to the Roff, Oklahoma area. Most residents in the area do not want to see these turbines installed. “When I moved . . . Complete story »
Potential impact of wind farms on monarch butterflies understudied, experts say
The prospect of thousands of offshore wind turbines spinning in the waters between New York and New Jersey may have unintended consequences for threatened monarch butterflies that migrate from Long Island beaches each fall, scientists and conservationists say. A recent draft environmental impact study of the impact of offshore wind turbines in the New York Bight – the ocean waters off New York and New Jersey – made only brief and passing mention of the Monarchs, which congregate on South Shore beaches . . . Complete story »
Meet the expert on turbine eagle deaths the wind energy industry turned on
Back in the late 1990s, ecologist Shawn Smallwood didn’t think much about connecting avian and bat deaths with the whooshing blades of wind turbines. It was a concept foreign to him. But then a long-distance jogging partner he worked with at the University of California-Davis asked him to tag along in a “fatality search” with dogs to sniff out dead bird and bat carcasses caused by the thousands of turbines that dot the picturesque Altamont Pass, a low-lying mountainous region . . . Complete story »
Oregon seafood industry calls on Gov. Tina Kotek to halt offshore wind energy development
Some of the most powerful and consistent winds in the world are located off the southwest Oregon coast, according to the Oregon Department of Energy. A coalition of independent fishing boat operators, seafood companies and industry groups is calling on Gov. Tina Kotek to ask the federal government to stop a planned auction for floating wind energy projects off the Oregon Coast. In a letter to Kotek on Tuesday, the more than 100 signatories said she should stop the U.S. . . . Complete story »
Resolution might halt commercial wind energy
Last week the Henry County Board of Supervisors held two courtesy readings of a resolution establishing a temporary moratorium on rezoning land to an Alternative Overlay District for commercial wind energy use. The resolution, which supervisors stated was written by the county attorney, would establish a temporary moratorium on the rezoning of any land to the Alternative Overlay District through March 2, 2025, unless extended or shortened by the Board of Supervisors. According to the resolution this is to allow . . . Complete story »
Developers pitch new offshore wind projects off Vineyard coast
Four offshore wind energy developers eyeing the water south of the Vineyard submitted new proposals to Massachusetts and other neighboring states last week in an effort to get new wind farms in the ocean within the next several years. The new wave of projects could come as early as 2029, though the developers also had timelines running into 2031 and beyond. None of the companies plan to have any operations on Martha’s Vineyard, leaving Vineyard Wind as the only project . . . Complete story »
