Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Monday, April 23, 2012 | 12:38 p.m.
CARSON CITY - More studies by the federal government on the future of the sage grouse have prompted NV Energy to pull out of developing a major wind energy project touted to supply 100,000 homes.
NV Energy was working with RES America Development to build the China Mountain Wind Project with anywhere from 170 to 200 wind turbines in Elko County and Idaho.
NV Energy says it has spent $6 million on the project.
The project would be developed on about 25,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management property, and 10,000 acres belonging to private parties and the Idaho Department of Lands.
But the BLM notified the companies in March it has deferred work on its environmental impact statement. It said the project encompassed 42 percent of the sage grouse population in the western United States.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined it wants to re-evaluate the status of the bird by 2015. The BLM says it will complete its analysis in 2014.
A draft environmental impact statement by the BLM released in April 2011 said the project "could have more than minor adverse effects to sage grouse due to the importance of the involved habitat" and population issues in the area of south-central Idaho and Northern Nevada.
The BLM said, "We believe it wiser to defer continued work on the project so that it can be considered in the context of, and informed by, the analyses and decisions in the Idaho Resource Management Plan resources."
NV Energy then decided to terminate its part in the project and has notified the state Public Utilities Commission.
The Las Vegas based utility has signed a stipulation with the staff of the PUC and the Bureau of Consumer Protection to bow out of the project. The agreement says it is not a determination that NV Energy "prudently or responsibly administered the project."
The PUC staff and the consumer bureau say they retain the right to examine and challenge the money invested in the project if NV Energy tries to collect it in a future rate increase. The company says it spent $6 million on the project.
The stipulation is expected to be presented to the PUC on Wednesday.
Nevada reported last month it reached the mandate set by the state Legislature in supplying renewal energy to its customers. The company said it hit 16.7 percent when the obligation was 15 percent in the past year.
Nobody thought to consider the plight of dinosaurs when they started drilling for oil........
NV Energy will find a way to collect that money from us, one way or another. It would be interesting to see how much federal funding has gone into this research, I'll bet that's an expensive bird.
Yet another doomed project due to the liberal hysteria and their sick agenda sucking off businesses. Screw the bird, they'll move elsewhere.
The liberal hysteria along with their regulations and the permit process are the very reason America is heading into the straight into toilet bowl. I am glad that I am older and I won't be around when the younger generation rise up and take back what these nutcases have done to America, it's going to be ugly and I hope very rewarding for them.
Perhaps humans need to abandon the planet to make room for the sage grouse.
Insanity. The Sage Grouse are probably laughing their rear ends off at the stupid humans.
Maybe the folks that will lose their jobs, or folks that won't get jobs, can hunt and eat the Sage.
When "man" kills off other species it impacts the ecological balance which, in turn, throws off the ability of other species to survive. SOME consideration is in order--we're already overrun with "humans" while wildlife suffers.
It probably was a green colored bird with a pictures of Hamliton, Jackson and Franklin on them.
Wind and solar are dogs and they cost a lot of money especially with coal and natural gas so cheap.
Roslenda you first.
GROUSE are crappy fliers.......... next topic.
Kudos to NV Energy for their decision.
And to "its2hot (Tim Wiggin)": all this was one environmental group trumping another. Wind energy is nothing more than a political power agenda in combination with crony capitalism -- as it provides no PROVEN consequential benefits. We, the People (as ratepayers and taxpayers) are truly being sWINDled.