Mouse Fire in Enxco's Chanarambie Wind Turbine

Enxco filed an "extraordinary event" report with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission today. Mice got into the electrical equipment, caused an electrical arc and lit the turbine on fire. Mice happen - they get into places we would rather they did not. It is interesting to know a mouse can take out a giant industrial turbine. However, consistent with almost all turbine disaster reports, the wind project managers found out about the problem when a local resident called them.

"At approximately 9:00 AM on December 2, 2013 a local farmer notified the Operations Manager that smoke was observed coming from the access door and the nacelle on turbine #35."

Citizens with wind company experience know that developers constantly poo-poo any concerns about safety issues. The consistent, and obviously misleading, marketing message is that 'any time there is ANY operational problem, the SCADA system will automatically shut down the turbine operation and notify the managers'.

Yet, reports of turbine fire, noisy mechanical malfunction, "uncontrolled operation", and "component liberation", repeatedly state that the wind company found out about the wreck because a citizen called them. In other cases, the turbine maintenance staff "found the turbine lying on the ground" when they came to work in the morning.

No automatic shut down. No notice from the supposed turbine monitoring system to the company.

Why is that?

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Minnesota Court of Appeals Rubber Stamps T. Boone's Lost A#@!

Time for the Minnesota Supreme Court? In an opinion rendered today by the Minnesota Court of Appeals, the three judge panel not only supported the June 30, 2011 decision by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, they donned their own cheer-leading skirts, picked up the pom poms and championed T. Boone Pickens' AWA Goodhue project.  The judges were SO enthusiastic they even made up new promotional "facts" never before presented even by the wind developers themselves:


"...modeling studies show that the 10-RD setback would essentially prevent all wind energy projects in Goodhue County—an ideal location for wind development—and, if applied throughout the state, would preclude wind development in the vast majority of Minnesota and thereby drive up the cost of wind power."

Every map ever generated for wind development shows Goodhue County's wind resource to be "fair" at best. "Fair" is not "ideal". 


The question of whether or not the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) decision precludes construction of the AWA Goodhue project, or any other industrial wind project, was not the question before the Court. The question before the Court was whether or not the MPUC had acted properly in accordance with Minnesota law when they trampled Goodhue County's duly adopted land use ordinance. 


The Court also stated that the MPUC has a duty to aid Minnesota's public policy to "promote" industrial wind. "The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission's mission is to create and maintain a regulatory environment that ensures safe, reliable and efficient utility services at fair and reasonable rates". Of course, it's impossible for the MPUC to promote industrial wind and fulfill their Mission at the same time.


The only "substantial evidence" cited by the judges in their "unpublished" opionion, are models presented by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and by the Minnesota Department of Commerce on behalf of AWA Goodhue. 

The same models were used to determine there would be no noise problems in other Minnesota industrial wind projects such as Bent Tree and Elm Creek II- where post construction measurement demonstrated that the projects failed to meet the Minnesota Noise Standard for audible industrial noise. This is the same Minnesota Noise Standard that does not measure unique wind turbine noise, but is the only basis for determining turbine setback from a home.

The same models said projects would not interfere with television reception - that model for signal interference was also proved wrong in the Bent Tree project.

The same models showed no electrical current going to ground - even while the Grand Meadow and Nobles wind projects were burning up underground cables.

AWA Goodhue is the same project and involves the same State employees who stated that there are "Zero bald eagles nesting in the proposed project footprint..." Below is a photo taken last week at one of many nests in and near the proposed AWA Goodhue industrial wind project. The photo shows two of 2012's hatch of American Bald Eagles with either "mom" or "dad". Siting Eagle blogger, Kristi Rosenquist, saw and photographed Juvenile Bald Eagles on or near four of the seven nests she looked at last week. "There may have been eaglets on the other three nests, but the leaf canopy is so dense this time of year that some nests are difficult to see from the public roadways."


T. Boone Pickens said "I've lost my a%& in the [wind] business". He owns the AWA Goodhue project. Citizens of Goodhue County and across American stand to loose a lot more if this project ever moves forward. Citizens will need to decide whether to continue the pursuit for justice.  You can help by making a donation to The Coalition for Sensible Siting.

Adult Bald Eagle with two juveniles 6/22/2012

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Restraining Order in Order to Trespass

Slap suit against a farmer: This appears to be the latest desperate attempt by T. Boone Pickens' controversial AWA Goodhue industrial wind project. Westwood Professional Services' employee Brie Anderson sought a restraining order that would allow her to trespass on land owned by farmer Dan Ryan.

In short, the outcome of the recent hearing in Hennepin County Court is:
1. Dismissed with "extreme prejudice";
2. the judge lecturing Fredrikson & Byron attorney Emily Duke for ten minutes; and,
3. the judge suggesting that AWA Goodhue should pay Dan Ryan's legal fees incurred while attorney Dan Schleck defended Mr. Ryan.

Fabricating charges against Dan Ryan is just the latest in a string of activities aimed at Ryan, other landowners formerly participating in the wind project, and other citizens living in the area of the proposed project.

Westwood contracted with AWA Goodhue to perform avian surveys, among other things, in the proposed industrial wind project  area located in Southeast Minnesota's Goodhue County. Ms. Anderson is only one of three known to have trespassed on Ryan's land while pretending it was "necessary" in order to gather data on Bald and Golden Eagle activity. Sharon "The Bird Chick" trespassed and was asked not to by Ryan. Ron Peterson, also of Westwood, was believed to be riding in the helicopter when it repeatedly buzzed Ryan's cattle yard and nearly touched down in a field across from Ryan's house. The Goodhue County Sheriff's office received 16 citizen complaints about the December 2011 flight and complaints about the other helicopter flights carried out by AWA Goodhue this past winter.

"This looks like a slap suit to hassle an honest farmer trying to keep profiteers off his property" said Minneapolis Star Tribune's Jon Tevlon in his coverage of the outcome of the recent hearing in Hennepin County Court. 

At the February 23, 2012 Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) hearing where Commissioners rejected the AWA Goodhue Avian and Bat Protection Plan (ABPP), organic dairy farmer Paul Reese posed the question as to whether Westwood was ignorant or incompetent. Westwood originally reported "zero bald eagles nesting" in the project area and stated that they observed no eagles flying through the area. After citizens engaged the Minnesota DNR and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to come on a bald eagle nesting tour in April 2011, the MPUC decided to require further study and the ABPP. It turns out that Dan Ryan's property is an 'important eagle use area' for fall migration.

In the last year, USFWS has confirmed ten active eagle nests in the AWA Goodhue industrial wind project area. Citizens have repeatedly stated and shown pictures demonstrating that the nests and eagles can be seen from public roadways. There is no need to trespass or harass citizens with a helicopter to find eagles in Goodhue County.

Learn more about industrial wind at the Coalition for Sensible Siting.

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MN Public Utilities Commission Rejects Wind Plan



Three juvenile bald eagles soaring.



America’s symbol of freedom combined with relentless citizen participation proved to be a potent force at the MN Public Utilities Commission (MPUC).  T. Boone Pickens’ industrial wind project needs MPUC approval of an “Avian and Bat Protection Plan” (ABPP) before starting construction.  Commissioners rejected the Plan at Thursday’s hearing, instructing the wind developer to come back in a year if they have completed the work that the Commissioners ordered last summer.

 Eight citizens testified to the truth.  Armed with photos and maps and soaring on the support of people across the country, citizens told the Commissioners what has happened since they ordered the ABPP eight months ago. Was the American Bald Eagle winging us on our way?  Citizens driving to St. Paul reported eagles soaring over their cars and an eagle watching from a nest subjected to helicopter hazing that the ABPP said is “inactive”.  Another citizen reported four eagles perched next to her house as she watched the MPUC live webcast.   



Spreading "eagle bait" in Goodhue County.



Commissioners did not disguise their disappointment with AWA Goodhue or State staff.  Chairman Dr. David Boyd stated the ABPP “was not what I envisioned”.  Commissioner Betsy Wergin said that things only appeared to be getting worse since she voted against issuing the project’s site permit last June.  The third Commissioner in attendance, J. Dennis O’Brien, called the Incidental Take Permit a “license to kill” and re-affirmed his apparent disgust with Energy Facilities Permitting staff from the MN Department of Commerce for their ongoing undisguised advocacy on behalf of AWA Goodhue, LLC. 



O’Brien’s choice of words differed, but he essentially expressed what citizens and the Coalition for Sensible Siting attorney, Dan Schleck, have long said:  EFP staff are MN tax-payer funded cheerleaders for the wind industry.

Minneapolis/ St. Paul’s channels 4 and 5 led with the story that evening. Rochester Post Bulletin, Star Tribune, Pioneer Press featured the outcome on their front pages.  Conservationists, legislators, electric utility staff, wildlife agency personnel and industrial wind fighters across the county have expressed their agreement with this historic decision.

February 23, 2012 MPUC hearing webcast: AWA Goodhue ABPP deliberations begin at 4:56; citizen testimony begins at 5:40.

(above is update from 2/25/2012; below from 2/23/2012)

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission today rejected AWA Goodhue's  Avian and Bat Protection Plan.  The Plan was a condition of the industrial wind project's site permit.  Citizens provided key testimony about the wildlife in their area.  Photos and testimony supported existing public record that the Plan was inaccurate and misleading.  The Commissioners had clearly done their homework and asked tough but fair questions of the wind developer.  They were not swayed by representatives of this T. Boone Pickens owned project.  The truth won out.  Goodhue County Minnesota is in the Mississippi migratory flyway.  AWA Goodhue failed to perform pre-construction surveys required.  The Commissioners did not accept it. 

Citizens are thankful for the thoughtful deliberation of the Commissioners.  Citizens also thank MN DNR staff for their tireless efforts to document and disseminate the truth. The DNR staff was truly dedicated.  The citizens who testified were supported by friends and neighbors around the State.  It was a great day.

Here are stories on today's historic hearing:

Minneapolis based CBS news.

MN KSTP Channel 5.

Star Tribune

St. Paul Pioneer Press


Rochester Post Bulletin (login required for full story)

Commission Denies Approval of Bird and Bat Protection Plan for Goodhue Wind Project

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US Fish and Wildlife Service Speaks

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the MN Department of Natural Resources (DNR) weighed in on the AWA Goodhue industrial wind project's "Avian and Bat Protection Plan" (ABPP).  Previously dubbed "the New Pickens Plan" by this blog, USFWS and DNR zeroed in an its many shortfalls. Both agencys' comments were posted to the MN Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) website two days ago.  These official agencies validated factual reports from concerned citizens and voiced by the Coalition for Sensible Siting.

The new Pickens Plan was already exposed for its Rapid Response Roadkill Removal and Promiscuous Ice Fishing.

Concerned citizens have posted their own responses to the Avian and Bat Protection Deception Plan and more will be posted at the MPUC electronic dockets soon.  The MPUC announced yesterday that they will decide whether or not to approve AWA Goodhue's Avian and Bat Protection Plan at their February 2, 2011 meeting in St. Paul.  A "yes" decision would put AWA Goodhue one step closer to constructing 50 industrial wind turbines directly in vital Bald Eagle nesting, migrating, roosting and feeding areas of Goodhue County Minnesota.

The Eagle Siting blog says "no".  It is not a plan to protect; it is a plan to move forward no-matter-what the facts are.  The MPUC should say "no" to this ABPP.  Citizens should not allow use of their tax and electrical rate money as a weapon to kill our nation's symbol of freedom.

Go to the Coalition for Sensible Siting to find out how you can help.

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Permit to Kill Bald Eagles?

While citizens were sleeping, mercenary biologists working for faux environmentalists like T. Boone Pickens (Pickens Plan) have crafted environmental assessments of proposed wind turbine sites. The goal: maximize profits by siting as many turbines as possible by writing deceptive environmental assessments to hide the damage turbines must do to get the job done.   The Coalition for Sensible Siting found this sprint for federal 1603 cash has gutted US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and State protections. Lobbyists waving the “Global Warming” banner swarmed Capitol Hill and begged permission to destroy eagles, bats, passerines, and the lives of countless citizens under the guise of “saving the planet”.   The result?  Debilitating health impacts on thousands of citizens, decimation of golden eagle populations across the country, grave concerns about extinction of bats, and hundreds of thousands of passerines killed annually... and we’re not even to the halfway mark for proposed wind energy installation. 

The AWA Goodhue Avian and Bat Protection Plan prepared for AWA Goodhue of Dallas, TX was recently posted to the Minnesota Public Utility Commission (MPUC) public document docket.  It’s not difficult to see that it is a sham Plan.  Lay it side by side and compare it to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) documentation on how to obtain an Incidental Take Permit for bald and golden eagles.  

(CAUTION: the new Pickens Plan contradicts itself and contradicts the previous avian survey. Reading the Plan is likely to cause you to feel dizzy and confused by the “new” information provided by Pickens’ consultant Westwood.   Please remain seated for the duration of the comparison to avoid injury from dizziness and nausea.) 

AWA Goodhue's lead up to the 'Avian and Bat Protection Plan':

1. Fail to perform studies recommended by USFWS
2. State there are no bald eagles in the "footprint" of the proposed wind project
3. Get proved wrong by local citizens
4. Insist bald eagles are only present due to citizens"baiting" eagles using dead things
5. Try (unsuccessfully) to get farmers in trouble with the MN Board of Animal Health
6. Harass citizens and eagles using a low flying helicoptor

After reading the USFWS material and the AWA Goodhue proposal it quickly becomes evident that the mitigation strategies proposed by Pickens, under the direction of the Certified Wildlife Biologists with Westwood [un?]Professional Services calls for: starving the eagles out of the project footprint by removing habitat that supports their prey, removing all habitat eagles rely upon for roosting, perching and sheltering during harsh Minnesota winters so eagles will leave, harassing the birds with helicopters for behavior modification, and disrupting breeding and nesting habitats by using construction equipment within 1/2 mile of the nest sites.   None of the eagles that have been calling this area home for the past decades will survive this onslaught - which is apparently Pickens’ desired outcome.

Concerned citizens and USFWS officials have had numerous discussions about the USFWS recommendations for siting industrial wind turbines near active bald eagle nests with AWA Goodhue. This developer has routinely insisted that there is no siting recommendation related to active bald eagle nests and has insisted that the 2 mile distance explained by citizens is fantasy.   An email exchange with the USFWS was recently posted to the MPUC docket making it very clear that the Service recommends a two mile setback from active nests.

The Coalition for Sensible Siting is curious to see what excuse the developer will come up with now that they can no longer say, “We didn’t know....”  If AWA Goodhue is not successful in driving the birds from the project area, there seems no doubt Pickens’ wind farm will kill and maim bald eagles as the birds try to forage and hunt in fragmented habitat divided by 7 ton blades with tips spinning between 140 and 200 miles per hour.  

The birds that travel the Mississippi Migratory Flyway depend upon maintenance of these critical habitats to support them as they move from the Arctic Circle to as far away as Patagonia.  The cumulative effects of allowing this level of predation upon the land will be severe as other wind energy developers follow the precedent set by Minnesota’s ill-advised Public Utilities Commission ensuring birds and bats transecting the US are killed by the hundreds of thousands. 

The MPUC determined that T. Boone Pickens’ AWA Goodhue wind project is “Not Needed” to meet Minnesota’s renewable energy mandate.  And yet, the developer’s proposed "mitigation strategies" would lead one to believe that placing 400 foot wind turbines in Goodhue County Minnesota is critical infrastructure and so, while unfortunate, it is necessary to collapse one of the healthiest ecosystems in SE Minnesota. Clearly, such a claim is fantasy to dazzle the MPUC into allowing turbine construction to move forward.

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Xcel meets with citizens on AWA Goodhue project

T. Boone Pickens’ AWA Goodhue wind project negotiated a 20 year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Xcel, Minnesota’s largest electrical utility. After relentless pleas by local citizens, Xcel has agreed to send Jim Alders and Rick Evans to meet with citizens about what is now considered one of the most controversial wind energy projects in the nation. Representatives of AWA Goodhue have demonstrated an ongoing pattern of misrepresentation, distortion and outright lies on almost all aspects of the project. Citizens are eager to hear from Xcel what their plans are for a wind project that apparently intends to be in violation of the federal Migratory Bird Treaty and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

The project was also granted Community Based Energy Development (C-BED) status by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) in April 2010. Since the project is owned 100% by Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens and 0% by Minnesotans, AWA Goodhue also appears to fail C-BED law requirements. The MPUC granted the PPA with Xcel with the highest electrical rate for any wind project ever approved in Minnesota. AWA Goodhue’s Cole Robertson testified at the March 2011 contested case hearing in front of ALJ Kathleen Sheehy, that the PPA requires production by December 31, 2011.

Robertson testified that failure to meet the deadline could subject AWA Goodhue to liquidated damages and that Xcel could opt out of their PPA. Since Pickens has not yet broken ground, there is no chance of electrical production in three days. Federal and Minnesota wind energy laws were formulated by faux environmental lobbyists and crony capitalists, including T. Boone Pickens. Not invited nor represented were citizens who pay the taxes and electrical bills and bear the burden of the resulting turbines and electrical transmission lines. We’ll report on ‘Xcel meets the citizens of Goodhue County’ tomorrow on this blog.

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