NextEra subsidiary “convicted” after eagle deaths
April 7th, 2022
A wind energy company has pleaded guilty after killing at least 150 eagles
What’s really odd about this is that most of the projects that I’ve been dealing with in permitting have secured eagle take permits — I thought. In this case, NextEra seems as a policy not to have take permits. HUH?
I am remembering resistance to developers answering questions about eagle take permits, and I think that it comes down to whether USFWS requires them to get one.
Here’s USFWS info on eagle permits here in the Midwest – it appears that there are only three eagle take permits issued for Minnesota wind projects, Red Pine, Getty/Black Oak, and Pleasant Valley/Grand Meadow:
Midwest Region- NEPA Documents for Eagle Permits
This seems to say that there are only FIVE eagle take permits? Here’s the application for one project that I’d worked on:
Black Oak/Getty Wind Farm Eagle Take Permit Application
For the Freeborn Wind project, we entered information about locations of nests and photos of eagles foraging, nests and foraging territory being, supposedly, two criteria examined in siting of wind projects and consideration of need for take permits:
See Freeborn Wind ALJ Recommendation, and search for “eagle” in the Recommendation.
Methinks this will have significant impact, but sentencing a company to probation — but how does that work?
USFWS Response to FOIA Request
April 29th, 2015
Recently, I’ve received USFWS responses to our FOIA Requests regarding the Black Oak and Getty wind projects, and there’s a LOT, and I don’t think that it’s made its way into either the Certificate of Need or Siting dockets at the Public Utilities Commission.
To see the PUC Dockets GO HERE TO PUC SEARCH PAGE and then search for dockets 11-471 (CoN), and 10-1240 and 11-831 (siting).
Here’s what we’ve received — it’s not uploading easily, so there’s some duplication and some may not all be included, and I’ll be working on getting this posted today:
43 CFR Part 2 Subpart F (handling conf info)
BlackOakGettyWindDraftAvianReportInitialCommentMemo110902
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Getty_Black Oak Wind Recent
DNR-CommentsBlackOakWindFarmDraftSitePermit110422
DNR-CommentsGettyWindDraftSitePermit_DraftABPP-120404
Getty Black Oak Acoustic Report – DNR Comments
Getty Windfarm Early Coordination Response (2)
DNR-CommentsBlackOak-GettyPermitAmendment140929
FWS-2015-00281 C_Overland Partial Release2
Black Oak and Getty Wind Farm Draft ABPP – USFWS Review Comment Letter1
Black Oak ECP General Comments Black Oak Getty Model Information
Black Oak Wind Farm – USFWS Response Letter 3-26-2010 (2)
Black Oak Wind Farm – USFWS Response Letter 3-26-2010
Black Oak Wind Farm – USFWS Review Response Letter (2)
Black Oak Wind Farm – USFWS Review Response Letter
Black Oak Wind Farm Eagle Minutes Black Oak Wind Steinhauer Tails 2009
FA 0145 Black Oak-Getty Agenda 8-30-11 (2)
Davis to Jennings Dewild et al Getty Wind 2010 FA 0068
Davis to Smith Geronimo Black Oak 2009 FA 0145
Davis to Steinhauer – Getty Wind Project Site Permit Application IP6866
WS-11-831 Davis to Steinhauer MN Commerce Energy Security
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak and Odell
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak ECP Comments
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Getty eagle minutes
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Getty shapefiles
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Survey points map
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Wind – Catching Up
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Wind – ECP
USFWS Comments – Black Oak and Getty Wind Draft ABPP
Re_ Getty Wind Project Site Permit Application IP6866_WS-11-831
Re_ Geronimo Black Oak Eagle Nest
Re_ Geronimo Black Oak Eagle Ne2
Re_ Geronimo Black Oak Eagle Ne
Re_ Geronimo Black Oak and Getty Wind Farm Bald Eagle Discussion
Re_ FW_ Black Oak Wind Farm-Ste
Re_ DNR Comments on Black Oak _ Getty WInd Bat Acoustic Report1
RE_ DNR Comments on Black Oak _ Getty WInd Bat Acoustic Report
Re_ Black Oak_Paynesville Follow Up
RE_ Black Oak_Getty Wind Projects – Data and Model Exchange3
RE_ Black Oak_Getty Wind Projects – Data and Model Exchange1
RE_ Black Oak_Getty Wind Projects – Data and Model Exchange
Re_ Black Oak_Getty Eagle use survey protocol
RE_ Black Oak_Getty Avian Report — potential meeting change3
RE_ Black Oak_Getty Avian Report — potential meeting change2
RE_ Black Oak_Getty Avian Report — potential meeting change1
RE_ Black Oak_Getty Avian Report — potential meeting change
RE_ Avian Report for Black Oak and Getty Wind Projects
RE_ Accepted_ Avian Report for Black Oak and Getty Wind Projects
PUC Docket Number_ IP-6866_WS-11-831 – Getty Wind Project Comments
PREDICTING EAGLE COLLISION FATALITIES
Letter from Rich Davis, USFWS, re Black Oak Wind Farm Site Permit App Review
Getty Eagle use Getty Avian Maps
Geronimo Black Oak Wildlife Discussion1 Geronimo Black Oak Wildlife Discussion
Geronimo Black Oak and Getty Wind Farm Bald Eagle
FW_ DNR Comments on Black Oak _ Getty WInd Bat Acoustic Report3
FW_ Black Oak Wind Farm-Stearns
DNR Initial Comments Memo – Black Oak_Getty Wind Draft Avian Report
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak and Getty Wind
CollisionFatalityModel_RCodeOverview
CMDataTemplate Black Oak_Getty Wind Avian meeting rescheduled
Black Oak_Getty Agenda for 8-30-11 meeting
Black Oak Wind Farm, Stearns County Black Oak and Getty Bat Study
Black Oak Wind Farm – USFWS Review Response Letter3
Black Oak – Getty Wind ABPP USFWS Comments
Avian Report for Black Oak and Getty Wind Projects
Triggers for AM at Windfarms_June 18_2014 (1)
template for collision risk model_MR_June18
template for collision risk model
Fig1_EaglePreConstructionSurvey
Email17_attachment1 EFP_Memo_ABPP_2-27-12
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – RE_ Black Oak_Getty Wind Farm and ECP Guidance – Meeting Agenda
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – quick R question
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Meeting in January 2014 for Black Oak_Getty Wind Farm
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Fwd_ Cause of Action FOIA (FWS-2014-01383) – Files Uploaded
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – FW_ DNR Comments on Black Oak _ Getty WInd Bat Acoustic Report
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Final Black Oak and Getty Wind Meeting Notes
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Draft Regional Eagle meeting notes, Wednesday, December 3, 2014
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – bogy
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak_Getty Wind Project
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak_Getty Wind Farm and ECP Guidance
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak_Getty Model Runs from July 2
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak_Getty Eagle Conservation Plan
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – BOGY ECP
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Wind Farm data
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Wind Farm and Getty Wind Project Eagle Monitoring Plan
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Wind – ECP
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Wind – Catching Up
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Survey points map
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Getty shapefiles
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Getty eagle minutes
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak ECP Comments
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak and Odell Davis to Steinhauer MN Commerce Energy Securit
Davis to Steinhauer – Getty Wind Project Site Permit Application IP6866 WS-11-831
Davis to Smith Geronimo Black Oak 2009 FA 0145
Davis to Jennings Dewild et al Getty Wind 2010 FA 0068
Meeting_Agenda_Geronimo_BlackOak_20110111 (2)
GOEA vs BAEA for Stearns Getty Tech Rep Memo
Fig1_EaglePreConstructionSurvey
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – RE_ Black Oak_Getty Wind Farm and ECP Guidance – Meeting Agenda
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – quick R question
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Meeting in January 2014 for Black Oak_Getty Wind Farm
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Fwd_ Cause of Action FOIA (FWS-2014-01383) – Files Uploaded
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – FW_ DNR Comments on Black Oak _ Getty WInd Bat Acoustic Report
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Final Black Oak and Getty Wind Meeting Notes
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Draft Regional Eagle meeting notes, Wednesday, December 3, 2014
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – bogy
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak_Getty Wind Project
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak_Getty Wind Farm and ECP Guidance
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak_Getty Model Runs from July 2
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak_Getty Eagle Conservation Plan
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – BOGY ECP DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Wind Farm data
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Wind Farm and Getty Wind Project Eagle Monitoring Plan
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Wind – ECP
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Wind – Catching Up
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Survey points map
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Getty shapefiles
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak Getty eagle minutes
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak ECP Comments
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail – Black Oak and Odell Davis to Steinhauer MN Commerce Energy Securit Davis to Steinhauer – Getty Wind Project Site Permit Application IP6866 WS-11-831
Davis to Smith Geronimo Black Oak 2009 FA 0145
Davis to Jennings Dewild et al Getty Wind 2010 FA 0068
BOGY_BatStudy_Hamer_12172012
Black Oak-Getty Agenda 8-30-11 (2)
USFWS issues Wind Siting Guidelines
March 23rd, 2012
The above is a photo taken by Marie McNamara in the footprint of the proposed but beleaguered AWA Goodhue Wind Project.
Today the US Fish & Wildlife Service issued its Wind Siting Guidelines:
I’ve just started reading…
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!
Jason Lewis and I agree? Not quite…
September 18th, 2011
A little birdie told me there was an op-ed in the STrib that I had to read. Sure enough…
The birdie cocked his shining eye and said:
Ok, how cool is it that I now have my answer to the question “what could Carol and Jason Lewis possibly agree on?”
It’s close but not quite. Not by a long shot… and close doesn’t count. Lewis is not doing anyone any favors with this piece. He’s agitating by deviating away from the problems with this project, and by unreasonably tying it to selected others, both projects and people, he’s misfiring. He may get people worked up, but they’ll miss the boat too.
Look at the way he frames sand mine opposition and AWA Goodhue Wind Project opposition, and his claim that “environmental activists” are stopping the fracking sand mine, but ignoring the on the ground environmental activists who are tracking, (photo)shooting eagles, pulling in USFWS to document the eagles. And he’s framing mine opposition and AWA Goodhue wind opposition as separate universes when there are many opposed to both and for a variety of reasons. He also frames it as a partisan issue when it is not — there’s strong bi-partisan support for wind. There is strong bi-partisan opposition to wind. Has he forgotten that the Green Chameleon was a champion of wind, coal gasification, and transmission? Has he forgotten that Republican House Speaker Steve Sviggum bought in hook, line and sinker and promoted wind generally and C-BED specifically, that the 2005 Energy Omnibus Bill from Hell couldn’t have passed without him, and look at the way it turned out… somehow the plans for the first C-BED wind project out the chute had a turbine and substation on Sviggum’s land??? What, Lewis didn’t forget… he didn’t know? Oh, right… uh-huh… oh, my…
And he ends on this note, which is blatant misrepresentation:
… silica sand mining (primarily used to make glass) has been a fact of life in the upper Mississippi Valley for as long as anyone can remember. In fact, there are sand- and gravel-mining operations in every county in Minnesota, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.
Really!!! And there’s no mention of the Wabasha County silica sand mine moratorium, begun a couple months ago. Statements like that don’t do anything for his credibility, and don’t help us get any closer to a turn-around of the PUC decision.
I do trust my “little birdie” doesn’t really think Jason Lewis is expressing my take on this!!!
Here’s the whole thing, get out the waders:
Right here in Minnesota, a windfall of bad policy
Wind-energy projects are damaging to nature, to taxpayers and to residents, but onward they buzz.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the Energy Information Administration reports that, by comparison, subsidies for coal and natural gas come in at just 44 and 25 cents per megawatt hour, respectively.
It gets worse.
State Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Red Wing, is calling on the PUC to decertify the project as a Community Based Energy Development eligible for the Minnesota’s CBED tariff (read rate hike) in the Power Purchasing Agreement between Xcel Energy and AWA Goodhue — if for no other reason that the word “community” in this case statutorily means based in Minnesota, not Texas.
The Minnesota PUC, like successive Republican and Democratic administrations, seems hellbent on ending local control over wind developments that swallow up thousands of acres, relying instead on the state’s renewable energy standards.
Enacted under the euphemistic title of “next-generation energy” legislation in 2007, the ill-advised mandate means that Minnesota utilities are now busy passing along the costs to ratepayers.
Because generating power from wind is about as reliable as, well, the weather, utilities will still need to pay for steadier sources as backup. As a result, a Beacon Hill Institute study says the average Minnesota household will have paid an extra $1,814 for electricity by the time the standards are fully implemented.
Regardless of the economics, it’s becoming quite obvious that these mammoth wind developments are every bit as damaging to Mother Nature as anything the fossil-fuel industry could dream up.
For the price of intermittent power, nearby homeowners put up with 400-foot towers with flashing lights; high-voltage transmission lines; flickering shadows from 95-foot rotors, along with the potential for dangerous ice shards flying off the blades during winter, and near-constant high- and low-frequency background noise disturbing to the human ear.
Estimates vary as to how many birds are slaughtered each year due to wind power, but it’s certainly in the tens of thousands.
The Washington Post reports that “one of the nation’s largest wind farms, the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area near Livermore, Calif., has killed an average of nearly 2,000 raptors annually, including more than 500 eagles, over four years, according to federal agencies and bird watchers.” Hardly good news for the bald eagle along the Mississippi flyway for migratory birds.
Where’s the Endangered Species Act when you need it?
Meanwhile, hope for a more-sensible energy future remains hostage to a few activists who get their talking points from movies like “Gasland” (environmentalists used to love natural gas until they realized you had to drill for it). Hydraulic fracturing, known pejoratively as “fracking,” has the potential to dramatically alter America’s economic landscape by lowering the costs of domestic energy production.
The Rand Corp. (a nonprofit research organization) says there are 800 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil — three times the reserves of Saudi Arabia — in the United States alone. Remarkably, “if the full potential of domestic oil and gas production could be achieved while also increasing imports from Canadian oil, all of America’s liquid fuels could come from secure North American sources within 15 years,” notes the American Petroleum Institute in a study released last week.
One key component of fracture drilling is silica sand, ubiquitous in the sandstone bluffs throughout southeastern Minnesota. That’s why another Texas company, Windsor Permian, wants to start constructing sand mines and transportation facilities in and around Red Wing for its operations in the lucrative Permian basin. And it plans to do it with no “renewable energy credits” or state CBED tariffs.
It seems that something which is viable needs no subsidy — while all the subsidies in the world won’t make viable that which isn’t.
Alas, the Goodhue County Board adopted a one-year de facto moratorium on the Windsor project earlier this month, despite the fact that silica sand mining (primarily used to make glass) has been a fact of life in the upper Mississippi Valley for as long as anyone can remember. In fact, there are sand- and gravel-mining operations in every county in Minnesota, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.
No matter, because for now our energy future is just blowin’ in the wind.
* * *
Jason Lewis is a nationally syndicated talk-show host based in Minneapolis-St. Paul and is the author of “Power Divided is Power Checked: The Argument for States’ Rights” from Bascom Hill Publishing. He can be heard from 5 to 8 p.m. weekdays on NewsTalk Radio (1130 AM) or online at jasonlewisshow.com.