But turbines would scare off the deer, elk …

Grand vision of green Lincoln County runs into hunter opposition

Sam Morris

MidAmerican Energy wind turbines dot the landscape near Charles City, Iowa. Similar turbines proposed for Lincoln County are opposed by elk and deer hunters.

By Lisa Mascaro (contact)

Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Washington — Before Nevada can become the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy, it will have to come to peace with the hunters in Lincoln County.

Reader poll

Reid summit in green spotlight

Coal Power Plant Debate

Lots of answers, all of them wrong (6-29-2008)
A coal-fired discussion (5-4-2008)
Senate energy bill has provisions for Nevada (6-29-2005)

In that rural stretch north of Las Vegas, county commissioners oppose plans to blanket four mountaintops with enough tall wind energy turbines to power 250,000 homes.

Nothing against a wind farm, the elected officials say, they just don’t want windmills atop prime elk and deer habitat where families have come for generations to hunt on federal lands.

The dispute is opening a new front in the cultural and environmental wars in the West.

Should Nevada’s federal lands be preserved for outdoorsmen — that odd coalition of hunters and hikers that helped protect so much of the nation’s public lands from development a generation ago?

Or should the sunny desert floor and windy mountain ridges that have long been home to mining and logging host a new industrial use — a green one that can help the country chart a new energy future?

In Lincoln County, population 4,000, the answer so far has been the former.

When a wind developer first suggested putting a couple of hundred turbines atop Wilson and Table mountains several years ago, hardly anyone spoke in favor at a public hearing.

County Commission Chairwoman Ronda Hornbeck said existing dirt roads and trails to the mountaintops would have to be widened to carry the giant turbines on tractor-trailers.

Even if the elk and deer did stick around, she doubted the power company would allow hunters to fire their rifles so close to the turbines.

The region is known for excellent hunting, she said. “It’s who we are in Nevada. It would be such a loss to have that whole top of those two mountaintops taken away and put these 250-foot towers up there.”

So enthusiastic was the county in its opposition that it persuaded other counties to join. In the spring, the Nevada Association of Counties unanimously passed a resolution reaffirming counties’ rights to oppose wind energy development on public lands that will “negatively impact the environment, economy and quality of life in their counties.”

Developers think hunters and windmills can co-exist. They submitted a development proposal last week to the Bureau of Land Management, launching what will be a two-year environmental review.

Developers also say a wind farm offers economic development potential for Lincoln, where some officials support a proposed coal plant near the southern edge as a jobs engine, and point to wind farms in Texas where cattle graze at the foot of turbines and wildlife continues to flourish.

Sharing land with hunters might not be ideal, but it can work, said Charley Parnell, a spokesman for Edison Mission Group, a subsidiary of Edison International, which is jointly pursuing the project with Nevada Wind, a local company. The construction roads would be temporary, he adds.

Andy Kirk, a UNLV history professor who studies the West, sees in Lincoln County the emergence of a new tension within the environmental community that will become more widespread across the West in coming years.

“What’s happening in Nevada is just a heightened version of what is happening and will happen all over America: You’ve got a new environmental ethic that is at times in conflict with an older environmental ethic, which presents a real conundrum,” Kirk says.

“Nobody’s quite figured out how they’re all going to go together.”

Discussion: 10 comments so far…

By uddeboda

8/16/08 at 8:14 a.m.

Suggest removal

Wind turbines are not the problem, its the hunters who are scaring the elk and deer, making those nasty noises with their fire sticks
By Sunlizard

8/16/08 at 9:05 a.m.

Suggest removal

Yes, this is a problem. Alternative energy needs to be localized near cities. Rural Nevada should not be sacrificed for industrial green energy. There is enough space in Las Vegas for all the solar energy we need. The Springs Preserve has a canopy over the parking lot with enough solar panels to power the whole place.

Don't be fooled by that T-Bone Pickens idiot. He is in it for the money. He does not care about the environment or anything. Remember, T-Bone Pickens funded the whole Swift Boat attack on John Kerry in 2004.

Hi whole wind farm plan in Texas sits on top of the biggest aquifer in the area. He intends to sell that water to big urban areas. His plan is a scam and windmills all over our last open space are an assault on the Earth
By jfnance32

8/16/08 at 9:09 a.m.

Suggest removal

Here is a good article on wind power from the NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/busine...

Wind is not a 24/7 genator of power. That means for each potential of megawatt of wind then one will need a backup of megawatt from a reliable source like coal, nuclear or natural gas.

You will still need to spend money on capital cost and labor to build and run coal, nuclear or natural gas plants.

Wind could save money in fuel cost by not running the reliable sources of coal, nuclear and natural gas.

That only makes sense to do during periods of peak demand.

In Nevada that is during the summer months.

Solar makes 100x more sense than wind in the southern states, like Nevada.

Peak power in Alaska is during the winter months. Wind makes more sense in Alaska than solar.

Storing energy is every expensive. It at least will double the cost of per megawatt from wind and solar.
By NyeCountyLocal

8/16/08 at 9:40 a.m.

Suggest removal

I don't think we should plaster our public lands with wind or solar, hurting local economies, just so cities can continue to run highly wasteful lifestyles. SunLizard has a good point-- localize alternative energy like the Springs Preserve is doing in their solar parking lot, and CONSERVE more. Industrial wind farms that disturb wildlife and habitat in Nevada are not green.
By neiman1

8/16/08 at 10:33 a.m.

Suggest removal

Stop the turbines. We need Environmental Impact Reports and some lawsuits before we can allow this encroachment of nature. We have halted all Solar on BLM property with suits for at least 3 years if ever with the same approach. No oil, NO coal, NO wind, No solar, No nuclear. Let's ask Russia if we can buy some energy from them, they have a new pipeline in Georgia. Tell Harry we want American Resources for American Jobs NOW.. Open the market and get government out of the way. Contact harry

email link
http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm...

Las Vegas
Lloyd D. George Building
333 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Suite 8016
Las Vegas, NV 89101
Phone: 702-388-5020 / Fax: 702-388-5030
By Sunlizard

8/16/08 at 11:13 a.m.

Suggest removal

Neiman is an extreme-o. But the letter to Reid is a good idea. Tell Reid to keep alternative energy on rooftops and close to urban areas. The whole conservaion philosophy is enviro in origin. It only makes sense to conserve wildlife if you really support green energy!

Wait a minute! Generating your own energy on your roof means that you won't have to buy it from T-bone Pickens or any of Senator Reid's contributers! So we can have energy independence as long as we can buy it from T-Bone! I guess soon it will be illegal to generate your own energy. All of these conservative nature haters just wanna be someone's b**ch I guess...
By esquared

8/16/08 at 11:36 a.m.

Suggest removal

And they are. They most certainly are. Except GOD. A self-deity is it's own b**ch. Lonely, but oh so self-fulfilling.
By jfnance32

8/16/08 at 12:33 p.m.

Suggest removal

Sunliz...go buy a $50,000 PV unit.
By Sunlizard

8/16/08 at 12:54 p.m.

Suggest removal

Give me 45,000 and I will, JF. The cost is high because do-it yourself does not make $$$ for the big boys. wake up.Get you head outta Neil Cuvuto's butt...
By jfnance32

8/16/08 at 2:06 p.m.

Suggest removal

That sounds right.

The Democrats will rob the neighbor or the neighbor's children (tax breaks pay by fellow taxpayers) so that a dufus can get a bogus PV system that is a huge watse of money.

http://www.ucei.berkeley.edu/PDF/csemwp1...

A study from a leftist university shows that PV systems and tax incentives for PV systems are a large watse of money.