TEXAS WIND WARS GO TO COURT

Another showdown is coming in Texas.

The dispute over installations on Texas’ Gulf Coast is going back to court. (See WIND ENERGY PROJECT SITING WORKSHOP: THE CHALLENGES OF SUCCESS and RANGE WAR OVER WIND HEATS UP). The King Ranch does not want wind installations to be built on the neighboring Kenedy Ranch. The principles of private property being what they are in Texas, all the King Ranch’s oil and gas industry wealth cannot have its way with what the Kenedy folks build on their own land. Environmental laws are one of the few angles the King Ranch folks can exercise to obstruct progress.

Wind energy’s unprecedented growth in response to U.S. needs for renewable, emissions-free energy has brought it face-to-face with many such challenges. The industry meets opposition frankly, improves and keeps growing.

The King Ranch has reportedly provided funding to the Coastal Habitat Alliance (CHA), a local ad-hoc environmental group. CHA will do, it seems, whatever it can to stop the project. At the end of last year, CHA presented studies , allegedly King Ranch-funded, showing the wind energy installation will do unavoidable harm to local wildlife habitat and threatens birds migrating through the region.

A representative of project-builder Babcock & Brown pointed out that the court rejected a previous effort to stop this installation through such legal action and added that four years of environmental studies are unequivocal in showing there will be no harm from the installation.

The story begins here: The wind installations will go on the Kenedy Ranch (the red) surrounded by the King Ranch (the green). (click to enlarge)

Kathy Boydston of Texas Parks and Wildlife recently told NewEnergyNews that while there are some concerns about the Kenedy Ranch installation, it is not clear how serious they are. She added that the CHA study is entirely inadequate to demonstrate how serious the concerns are and could not possibly show the extent to which the developers are addressing the concerns because the CHA study merely picks and chooses items from other reports to reach its conclusions. “They didn’t actually go and do on-the-ground surveys, ” Boydston said.

Opposing factions are now entrenched. The hired guns are coming out for another showdown, this one in district court. It would be refreshing to see some concrete evidence from CHA of the supposed harm this wind energy installation will do.

As to CHA’s aesthetic objections, it seems impossible to address them in court. What’s preferable: The devastation of mountaintop removal coal mining or the quiet manmade elegance of turning turbines on a rural landscape?

Academic experts studied the area pretty thoroughly in 2005 and approved the wind installations. (click to enlarge)

Foes of S. Texas wind plan ask judge to halt work
John MacCormack, March 19, 2008 (San Antonio Express-News via Houston Chronicle)

WHO
Ad-hoc environmental organization Coastal Habitat Alliance (CHA) (Jim Blackburn, attorney); Project builders Babcock & Brown and PPM Energy; U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel

From PPM's study

WHAT
CHA, representing opponents of two Babcock & Brown/PPM Energy wind installations totaling 1200 megawatts, have filed a district court motion to get construction on the project halted.

WHEN
CHA says it will immediately take further obstructive legal action in the hope of bringing progress at the installation quickly to a halt.

From the PPM study (click to enlarge)

WHERE
- The Penascal and Southern wind farms in question are on the Kenedy Ranch, adjacent to the King Ranch.
- Babcock & Brown is based in Australia.
- PPM is a division of Spanish energy giant Iberdrola.

WHY
- CHA members include the King Ranch, the American Bird Conservancy, the Lower Laguna Madre Foundation and the Coastal Bend Audubon Society.
- The 1200 megawatts wind installations will cover about 1% of the open Kenedy Ranch prairie in two locations.
- CHA’s objection is based largely on the fact that the installation lies in avian migratory paths. There are also aesthetic objections to the turbine installations.
- Construction presently is on access roads and turbine pads.

Oh and by the way... (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- CHA motion to halt: "The wind farms threaten a particularly precious, vulnerable area surrounding the Laguna Madre…If (construction) is allowed to continue, this will cause one of the most serious environmental disasters ever to occur on the Texas Coast."
- Jim Blackburn, CHA attorney: "Essentially, we are filing this to get it on the record, and I expect we'll come back and file for a temporary restraining order later this week, asking for an immediate hearing to stop everything…"
- Matthew Dallas, Babcock & Brown: “We voluntarily conducted four years of environmental studies that showed unequivocally that there would be no material impact on any species of bird or its habitat.”