LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Stripe

Donate via Paypal

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Supremes approve Greenbrier wind farm 

The West Virginia Supreme Court has upheld a decision by the West Virginia Public Service Commission that approved construction and operation of a 124 turbine wind farm on in Greenbrier County.

The operator, Beech Ridge Energy, LLC proposed to construct 124 wind turbines sized at 1.5 Megawatts, mounted on 262 foot tubular steel towers, in addition to 150 pole structures for the transmission line with a total project cost of $300 million. The turbines will span approximately 23 miles along various rural ridgetops located in western and northwestern Greenbrier County. The turbines will be located on a 100,000 acre tract owned by MeadWestvaco Corporation.

Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy , a nonprofit group, and Alicia A. and Jeffrey C. Eisenbeiss, two local property owners, had appealed from the decision of the Public Service Commission approving the project.

The appellants had contended that the application for approval did not contain all the information required by the Public Service Commission’s siting regulations. The appellants had also contended that, while the siting regulations require that information be evaluated before the application is considered, the Public Service Commission allowed some information to be submitted after the project had already been approved. The information to be submitted post-approval included evidence of any required environmental permits, the final endangered species study, and the historical and archeological significance study with any required mitigation plans.

The Public Service Commission has a duty to appraise and balance the interests of the public, the general interests of the state and local economy, and the interests of the applicant. The appellants believed that the Public Service Commission could not possibly have done this balancing when Beech Ridge had never submitted the information necessary to do this balancing.

Although the decision is some twenty one pages long, it is based on a single principle: on matters requiring balancing or any sort of technical application of a statute, close cases are decided in favor of the agency. In this case, that reasoning applied in two ways.

First, the Supreme Court believed that it was within the discretion of the Public Service Commission to determine whether Beech Ridge had submitted the necessary information. The Public Service Commission had a great volume of information before it. The Supreme Court decided that the Public Service Commission’s conclusion that the information submitted was sufficient had some sort of reasonable basis. Thus, the Supreme Court would not overturn it.

Second, the Supreme Court believed that the Public Service Commission had struck a balance between the interests of the public, the economy, and the applicant. While the balance may or may not have been the one the Supreme Court would have struck, the Public Service Commission did have substantial information before it. Beech Ridge had submitted information on employment at the facility and tax revenue to be generated. In this case, as in all review of agency decisions, the Supreme Court was reluctant to second guess judgments of an agency that appeared to be supported by some evidence.

Note: The West Virginia Highlands Conservancy was an intervenor before the Commission but did not participate in the appeal.

West Virginia Highlands Voice

1 July 2008

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)
Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI M TG TS G Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook Wind Watch on Linked In

Wind Watch on Mastodon Wind Watch on Truth Social

Wind Watch on Gab Wind Watch on Bluesky