Wind Wise Radio Looks at Minnesota — Vermont — California

Minnesota — Vermont — California Sun. 6/10/2012 7pm ET

Conflict in Minnesota—Accusations of eagle baiting and harrassment have been thrown around and ended up in court and the news.  We will be speaking with Mary Hartman and Kristi Rosenquist about the latest with the AWA Goodhue wind project.

Just this week, Westwood, the “wildlife biologists” hired to study the bat and bird populations for the Goodhue project celebrated their 9th year of attendance at the huge, national WindPower convention.  According to their website you could visit them at booth #7225 and “have a drink!”

These are the same fine folks whose original “study” found zero eagle presence in the site area.  After the good citizens in the impacted area submitted photographic evidence to the public utility commission, the commission sent Westwood back to the drawing board.  They are now working with the Fish and Wildlife Service to get a take permit to kill some of these “non-existent” eagles.  All this is causing Westwood’s  ”SeniorEnvironmental Scientist”, Rob Bouta, to whine about how, “The days of wind projects breezing through wildlife approvals are over…”  Yep, those sweet times are gone — thank God!

Landowners are pulling out of leases, towns are refusing road permits, T. Boone Pickens is moaning about “losing his A$$” on national TV, and little old ladies are being sued by the developers because they won’t submit to the wind developer’s wants.

A tongue-in-cheek proposal for a wind “park” in the waters of Vermont’s Lake Champlain has provoked a flurry of media attention and discussion.

We will get the latest on the responses to Champlain Wind from it’s creator, Annette Smith.

In Southern California, the fast-tracked give away of public lands for the Ocotillo Express wind development has attracted at least three lawsuits.

The Ocotillo project is destroying habitat and bulldozing significant native American cultural sites.  A 5-day vigil was held by tribe members. We will speak with our contributor, Miriam Raftery, the editor of East County Magazine about the latest efforts to stop this senseless destruction. An open letter to President Obama to meet with tribal leaders has been ignored.  The tribes have invited the public to attend another educational event on June 23rd.  Meanwhile the destruction continues.