Utilities pull out of controversial wind project

[XemaSab]

Four public-utility districts in Southwest Washington have pulled the plug on a proposal to build Washington's first coastal wind farm in the heart of the state's most valuable nesting habitat for the threatened marbled murrelet.

The Radar Ridge Wind Project was first proposed in 2007 by Energy Northwest, a Tri-Cities energy consortium, for state forest trust land near Willapa Bay in Pacific County.

The utility proposed erecting up to 45 wind turbines across 3,000 acres on a promontory once used as a radar installation. Four participating utilities from Grays Harbor, Pacific, Mason and Clallam counties provided most of the original financing for the proposed 80-megawatt project.

Radar Ridge was controversial from the beginning.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016793605_windproject18.html

[pscot]

1. Here's a copy of the radar study

I'm curious to know what you think of it. Is there enough here to justify killing the project? It seems a little thin to me, but I slept through statistics. There doesn't seem to be much evidence that the birds fly over that ridgeline. I will cop to being favorably predisposed toward wind turbines. If we take wind off the table we'll never get out of the mess we've made for ourselves.

http://www.energy-northwest.com/radarridge/learn/final_2009_radar_ridge_mamu_study_results_report_09-04-09_v6.pdf