Rural resident Shelley Nygaard sent her message to T. Boone through Mark Ward, the head of his industrial wind division. Ms. Nygaard is one of many citizens who have been fighting the proposed AWA Goodhue project in Goodhue County Minnesota which Mr. Pickens's Mesa Power purchased in December 2009.
"T. Boone can walk away but these people [living here] can't. We are all still here trying to repair the damage done by a badly planned wind project. ...T. Boone may have lost his ___ on wind. He also lost the respect of many citizens."
Goodhue County residents are familiar with Mark Ward through his frequent visits to lobby County Commissioners, and to testify at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. Despite over a half-million dollars spent lobbying Minnesota officials in the last two years, T. Boone Pickens's AWA Goodhue project is the most controversial project ever proposed in Minnesota and one of the most controversial in the nation.
In February 2012, T. Boone applied for the first-in-the-nation "Incidental Take Permit" to be allowed to kill bald eagles. US Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing the application information. Among other things, the Service will need to determine whether the project is "moderate" or "high" risk to eagles.
The project is lacking a number of other necessities including: Township road agreements, property for a sub-station, easements for transmission, pipeline setback agreements, telecommunications agreement, financing, and approval of an "Avian and Bat Protection Plan".
AWA's most recent filing of fall and winter bald and golden eagles survey data found no "promiscuous ice-fishing". Of course, they found no new nests and no important eagle use areas either. The Service recently confirmed several "new" eagle nests in the same area. Who knows for certain what the avian and human residents of the area are up to?
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