The Next Boom

Winter 2009 The Next Boom Amid the rush to develop industrial-scale wind farms, the Wyoming Outdoor Council is offering leadership on the ground. See page 3 p4 The Council welcomes Janice Harris to the board p7 Join the Outdoor Council’s Jamie 42 Wolf for a tour in the Big Horn Basin Years Photo courtesy of Chuck Fryberger Films, www.ChuckFryberger.com Message from the Director Wyoming Outdoor Council Laurie Milford, executive director Established in 1967, the Wyoming Outdoor Council is the state’s oldest and largest independent statewide conservation Launching a new program in energy policy organization. Our mission is to protect Wyoming’s environment and quality of life for future generations. Our publications come IN WYOMING, we launched a new program in energy policy. out quarterly and are a benefit of membership. are increasingly Richard Garrett, who joined our staff in Letters to the editor and articles aware that energy July 2008, has taken on the responsibility by members are welcome. development doesn’t of promoting, at the state level, policies that just affect land and remove barriers to energy efficiency and For more information contact: wildlife—that the dam- distributed—meaning locally generated— Wyoming Outdoor Council age caused by a well renewable electricity. He’ll also participate 262 Lincoln St, Lander, WY 82520 or pad doesn’t stop with a scar on the surface. in the planning and oversight of major 121 East Grand Avenue, Suite 204 The development of fossil fuels affects our sources of electricity such as power plants Laramie, WY 82070 health, and our profits, too. Whether it’s and industrial-scale wind farms. He’ll engage wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org contaminated water in Pavillion and Clark, in the regulation of electrical transmission 307-332-7031 (phone), 307-332-6899 (fax) harmful mercury levels in Wyoming trout, lines. Richard will also be our point-person [email protected] or unhealthy amounts of ozone in the air in on carbon capture and sequestration. The Pinedale, the production of energy takes a toll management of pollutants associated with Board of Directors that is largely unaccounted for in the price we making and moving elec-tricity is a prominent Anthony Stevens, Wilson pay for electricity and natural gas. goal of Richard’s work. President Kathy Lichtendahl, Clark According to a new report from the To complement Richard’s efforts to shape Vice President National Research Council commissioned emerging energy policies, we’ve hired Nate Barbara Parsons, Rawlins by Congress in the 2005 Energy Policy Act, Maxon as our energy and public lands fellow. Secretary damage from air pollution resulting from Nate will engage with decision makers on Keith Rittle, Laramie the generation of electricity in 2005 cost the scores of proposed and approved wind Treasurer America’s businesses, governments, and energy and transmission projects throughout Tom Bell, Lander households about $62 billion. This figure Wyoming. He will be working side-by-side Emeritus includes the cost of harmful emissions with our biologist, Sophie Osborn, to Harold Bergman, Laramie such as sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, address industrial-scale wind development Janice Harris, Laramie Tony Hoch, Laramie and particulate matter but does not include and transmission as it plays out in some of Scott Kane, Lander greenhouse gases and the damage caused our most cherished landscapes and most Lee W. Sanning, Laramie by climate change. Even when the costs of valuable habitats. Nate will also work with the Judy Walker, Denver climate change are left out of the equation, communities of Thermopolis, Worland, Cody, we still create about 3.2 cents in expense for Lander, Riverton, Rock Springs, and Green Staff every kilowatt-hour of electricity we produce, River to identify the effects of possible future Laurie Milford according to the study. energy development as the BLM revises Executive Director At my house in Laramie, my family and I long-term management plans for nearly Richard Garrett use on annual average about 12.6 kilowatt- 12,000 square miles of public lands near Energy and Legislative Advocate Bonnie Hofbauer hours of electricity each day. In one year, these communities. Office Manager through our use of electricity alone, we cause And to round out our nimble staff, this Steve Jones more than $14,000 in damage to recreational fall we hired Jamie Wolf as our outreach Watershed Protection Program Attorney opportunities, outdoor vistas, infrastructure, coordinator to help bring to the table the Nathan Maxon agricultural yields, and human health. Until I most important element of our organization: Energy and Public Lands Fellow read the NRC report, I didn’t realize the full our membership. Watch in the coming Lisa Dardy McGee extent of the environmental damage caused months for Jamie’s productions—a series of National Parks and Forests Program Director by my choices as a consumer. Am I going to opportunities to get outdoors (and indoors, Chris Merrill stop watching college football on Saturdays? and informed) with the Outdoor Council. Communications Director Sophie Osborn No, but you can bet I use a power strip, so As we approach the second decade of the Wildlife Biologist, Wildlife Program Manager when I’m not watching TV I can shut off the 21st century, the Wyoming Outdoor Council Bruce Pendery supply of power completely. has renewed a promise it made in 1967 when Staff Attorney and Program Director Governments and businesses, too, may be Tom Bell, Mardie Murie, and other leaders Linda Sisco surprised to learn the monetary value of the founded the organization: to represent the Administrative Assistant damage done by the motors and generators interests of the public in decisions made Gary Wilmot they use, and the amount of money they about Wyoming’s land, air, water, and wildlife. Associate Director could save with efficiency. Jamie Wolf For these and many other reasons, Yours, Outreach Coordinator the Wyoming Outdoor Council this year Laurie 2 I wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org Getting out in front of the next boom BY CHRIS MERRILL YOMING’S NEXT ENERGY BOOM, in As a guest on the PBS show Wyoming The Wyoming Outdoor Council has the form of industrial-scale wind Perspectives earlier this year, Milford said: developed a set of ‘best management Wfarms, might already be here. “We just need to keep in mind that wind practices’ for developers, in order to And the sheer volume of new applications energy, like any industrial development, has encourage wind energy companies to for Wyoming wind projects has taken most the potential to create site-specific problems site farms appropriately—and even to site observers by surprise. There have been about for Wyoming’s wildlife. Our hope is that we individual turbines appropriately—and to 100 applications for potential wind farms on can all work together to make good decisions do other things in order to limit impacts on federal land, alone, since 2002—and most of about where we put these wind turbines.” wildlife. those have come in the past three years. “The pace is staggering,” said Sophie Reasons not to rush What’s at stake Osborn, wildlife biologist with the Council. Although wildlife biologists already know In the wake of the recent oil and gas boom, “And I think a lot of people don’t realize it.” that a poorly placed wind farm can kill large Wyoming’s response to wind energy will Earlier this year, Wyoming Gov. Dave numbers of birds and bats—and scientists are likely determine whether populations of sage- Freudenthal said that the push for wind fairly certain that industrial-scale wind farms grouse finally begin to stabilize, or whether energy development is coming to Wyoming will lead to declines in sage-grouse popula- they and other animals are pushed to the “with a gold rush pace.” And more con- tions (see page 7)—it’s still anybody’s guess brink of extinction and listed, out of necessity, cerning, he said, is that it’s coming with a as to how other animals will respond. as threatened or endangered species. “gold rush mentality.” The wind resources best suited for energy “Seemingly every acre—sage-grouse “We’re now in a position development in Wyoming are found, in core areas, private, state, and federal lands, general, in the central and eastern parts of important viewsheds and otherwise—is to help ensure that we make the state. Wind developers face relatively up for grabs in the interest of ‘green, strides as a nation toward few environmental conflicts in southeastern carbon-neutral technologies’ no matter how Wyoming. However, potential problems are truly ‘brown’ the effects are on the land,” curbing climate change, more likely on the sagebrush steppe habitats Freudenthal warned. without sacrificing Wyo- that dominate south-central Wyoming, In response to these kinds of concerns, where much of the development pressure is the Wyoming Outdoor Council has created a ming’s wildlife and most currently focused. team of staff members whose goal it is to get While many residents traditionally hold out ahead of the next energy boom, and to cherished landscapes.” Wyoming’s forests and mountain ranges in offer meaningful leadership on the ground. —Laurie Milford, executive director higher esteem than they do its high-desert “We’ve worked hard to develop the basins, there is growing appreciation expertise, and the means, to engage “We really don’t know yet how these wind amongst Westerners for the sagebrush effectively with decision makers,” said Laurie farms might affect Wyoming’s big game, for sea, and its importance in supporting vital, Milford, executive director. “And we’re now example,” Osborn said. “Will wind turbines yet increasingly threatened, habitats. The in a position to help ensure that we make change movements and affect pronghorn, sagebrush ecosystem is considered by strides as a nation toward curbing climate elk, or deer? Will turbines displace these scientists as one of the most imperiled in the change, without sacrificing Wyoming’s animals from crucial seasonal ranges? We U.S., with more than 350 plant and animal wildlife and most cherished landscapes.” need good research on the potential impacts species at risk of local or regional extinction.

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