AWA Goodhue pulled from PUC agenda
January 31st, 2012
T. Boone Pickens’ AWA Goodhue AVIAN AND BAT PROTECTION PLAN was to be on the Public Utilities Commission agenda on Thursday. That’s too soon, they just dumped hundreds of pages of info on us, and on the reviewing agencies, week before last:
And here’s the primary documents that caused the ruckus — the ABPP plan from hell and agency comments on it:
USFWS Comments on AWA Goodhue’s Avian and Bat Protection Plan
Given the specificity and many pages of comments, it’d take a bit more than a week to analyze the Comments (WHICH WERE WITHHELD BY COMMERCE FOR A WEEK AND NOT FILED UNTIL JANUARY 19!) and determine whether AWA Goodhue had properly addressed them.
I was floored by their last minute filings, and filed a Motion with the PUC to take it off the agenda:
And not too long after, day or two, the PUC did indeed pull it off the agenda and didn’t reschedule:
AWA Goodhue’s helicopters and ABPP Comments
January 19th, 2012
Double trouble for AWA – taken in the AWA Goodhue wind project footprint:
to be clear, there are lots and lots of bald eagles here, and there are documented golden eagles too. USFWS has said there are no permits available for golden eagles for this project.
ABPP – that’s Avian and Bat Protection Plan:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources have filed comments on the Avian and Bat Protection Plan. These are MUST READ Comments!
And here is the response to my Data Request to the Board of Animal Health asking for copies of AWA Complaints to Board of Animal Health about Eagle Baiting and the reports of their investigations showing no violations found, that there is no basis for enforcement action:
In the AWA Goodhue wind project footprint, T. Boone Pickens is at it again – the helicopters are flying today:
Does that look like 200 feet?? Is it the same one from Brainerd Helicopter Service?
Here they are by the met tower, that’s 197 feet tall, just enough to keep under the lighting requirement, and the helicopter is just above:
Clients got the call from sheriff and utilized their phone tree to spread the word that AWA Goodhue helicopters would be flying today, notice came in at 10:00 a.m. and helicopter sighted at 10:30 a.m. Sheriff did a good job in notifying as soon as notice came in, but come on AWA, how about letting the landowners know reasonably ahead of time, report it when you book the helicopter??? It’s not that hard!
Here it is near a communications tower – the lights are out on that tower, somebody call maintenance!
