Liberty Gap Will Come Back . . . unfortunately

On June 22, 2007, when the WV Public Service Commission denied Liberty Gap Wind Force's application to construct a wind turbine project on Jack Mountain in Pendleton County, all the citizens, property owners and friends of the county who treasure its unindustrialized scenic beauty, exhaled a collective sigh of relief.

When public notice of Liberty Gap's intentions first appeared in the Pendleton Times on Nov. 19, 2004, the response was one of muted dismay. That quickly changed when it became known that the county commissioners had agreed secretly to use their power of eminent domain to facilitate Liberty Gap's acquisition of transmission line rights-of-way. The public uproar that ensued led to the creation of Friends of Beautiful Pendleton County (FOBPC), and to its intervention in the proceedings of Liberty Gap's application. Little did we realize what a long, involved, expensive struggle that intervention would become. As a footnote to the initial uproar, one of the county commissioners has since been turned out of office and another will get his turn in the 2008 election cycle.

With our victory, it would be pleasant now to think that the PSC's ruling, by denying a siting certificate for a wind power project, after having previously approved four others, represents a major shift in the PSC's attitude toward industrial wind power projects. It does not, and the PSC made that plain in its ruling.

Friends of Beautiful Pendleton County didn't win the case so much as Liberty Gap lost it by filing a woefully deficient application. FOBPC made the most of those deficiencies and the PSC took notice, ruling against Liberty Gap because lack of information in certain areas made it impossible for the PSC to judge how to balance or weigh the competing interests. The PSC even went so far as to include a recommendation to future applicants on what they need to do to avoid the fate of Liberty Gap.

FOBPC expects that Liberty Gap will try again to site wind turbines on Jack Mountain, following the PSC's recommendations. The deficiencies noted by the PSC: the lack of sufficient evidence regarding the issues of noise, cultural impact, public viewshed and endangered bats can be easily remedied. With the Bald Eagle being recently delisted by the USFWS, it's not out of the realm of possibility that those pesky Indiana bats will be relegated to threatened status and getting an Incidental Taking Permit would be a minor inconvenience for the applicant.

The PSC's Final Order is archived on the PSC Web site and it can also be viewed here. Although the denial of Liberty Gap's application was gratifying, the tenor of the PSC's ruling indicates that West Virginia can expect to see many more filings for many more projects. As long as the general public erroneously believes that wind power can actually do something to reduce CO2 emissions and as long as legislatures, state or federal, are pressured and persuaded to grant huge non-competitive advantages and tax breaks to investors, the assault on our ridgetops will continue. FOBPC is preparing for the next assault.