OAKLAND, CA -- Attorney General (AG) Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced an agreement to upgrade the quarter-century-old wind turbines in Altamont Pass to make them more efficient and less deadly to migratory birds. According to the AG "this landmark settlement mandates the replacement of outmoded wind turbines with newer models that are more efficient, generate more power and are less harmful to eagles, falcons and other birds."
The Altamont Pass Wind Resources Area in Alameda and Contra Costa counties is the site of the world's first wind turbines. According to the AG, these units, constructed more than three decades ago, are now outdated, inefficient and deadly to thousands of birds each year.
Today's settlement is between environmental groups, the state, and NextEra Energy Resources, the largest turbine operator at the site. Under the agreement, NextEra will upgrade all its older-model turbines. Scientific data shows that newer, larger turbines are more efficient and kill far fewer birds.
In September 2005, Alameda County renewed permits for the turbines, but several various parasitic bureaucracies including several Audubon Society chapters and Californians for Renewable Energy (CARE), a local environmental group, challenged the permits in a lawsuit under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Under the agreement, NextEra will replace some 2,400 turbines over the next four years and will shut down all its existing turbines no later than 2015. The company also has agreed to erect the new turbines in environmentally friendly locations.
NextEra agreed to pay $2.5 million in mitigation fees, half to the state's parasitic bureaucracies Energy Commission's Public Integrated Energy Research Program and half to East Bay Regional Park District and the Livermore Area Regional Park District for raptor habitat creation.
But wait, there is more - just wait until Brown takes over from the Governator
No comments:
Post a Comment