A group of four public utilities has cancelled a wind farm development that would have been one of the first and the biggest on the Northwest coast. Correspondent Tom Banse reports.
The Radar Ridge Wind Project would've had as many as 32 turbine towers on state forestland near the southwest Washington coast. The partners in the project quietly scuttled the wind farm last week before a single foundation was dug.
Jack Baker is a vice president at project developer Energy Northwest. He says environmental regulators proposed unacceptable permit conditions to protect a threatened seabird, the marbled murrelet.
"They asked us in their permit recommendations to shut (the turbines) down for six months during daylight hours," Baker says. "Why would you have a wind project if you couldn't run it for six months?"
The consortium of participating utilities has sunk $4 million into planning the wind farm, money that's now down the drain.
Opponents led by the Audubon Society are celebrating the cancellation. The critics argued the coastal wind farm posed an unacceptable risk to the marbled murrelet.
On the Web:
Radar Ridge Wind Project:
http://www.energy-northwest.com/radarridge/
Wind-Wildlife Impacts Literature Database:
http://www.nrel.gov/wind/wild.html
Copyright 2011 Northwest News Network
Copyright 2011 Northwest News Network
