By Scott Streater

Development of wind energy and sage grouse protection are on a collision course in Wyoming, where state officials are worried that a future Endangered Species Act listing for the chicken-like bird could ruin the golden egg laid by the Obama administration’s renewable energy mandates.

Should the Fish and Wildlife Service determine that the greater sage grouse is imperiled and warrants federal protection, Wyoming leaders say, the state will be forced to adopt broad conservation efforts that could not only end its wind power boom, but also sharply curtail oil and gas development and even ranching across the state.

Wind power companies are already developing projects inside “core sage grouse areas” that a Wyoming governor’s task force last year marked as critical to the survival of the bird. One wind farm has been completed inside the core area, two others are under state review, and dozens more are in the development phase, officials say.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Land Management’s application pipeline for wind farms on federal lands is growing fuller by the week. Among the recent arrivals at BLM’s Wyoming office is a 1,000-turbine wind-farm proposal, part of which would occupy a core sage grouse area.

“The bird does well in the existing conditions that are out
here. It’s the new threat from wind energy that has got us so
worried,” said Aaron Clark, special adviser on energy
infrastructure to Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D). “I don’t
think you could justify a [federal endangered species] listing
for that bird in Wyoming without the threat from wind
development.”

The issue has placed the state in an awkward position.

Studies show Wyoming has great potential for wind energy, and President Obama has made development of clean, renewable energy sources a centerpiece of the emerging “green economy.” But if development continues at its present feverish pace, a glut of turbines and transmission lines could ultimately subject the state to environmental penalties.

Clark said the state is trying to direct wind developers to the
eastern part of the state, away from the 14 million acres that
make up the core sage grouse areas of south-central Wyoming.

“It’s a matter of siting,” said Tom Christiansen, sage grouse
program coordinator for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
“If the wind companies insist on going into the core areas,
then we’re going to have problems.”

Limited Oversight

But the state has limited authority on where wind farms are sited.

While the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority must approve large
projects and can dictate where such projects are located,
medium-sized and small wind farms do not fall under its
purview. Instead, they are subject only to modest mitigation
and setback requirements that regulators concede might not be
effective at protecting the birds.

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