Green Power vs. Endangered Species Act

It's schadenfreude for me when leftists tangle with leftists. In this case, it's the utopian animal-lovers mixing it up with the alternative-energy idealists.

Green power, green jobs, renewable energy collide with the Endangered Species Act in a proposed wind farm in Southwest Washington. The project calling for between 48-60 megawatts of power is proposed for 3,359 acres of Washington Department of Natural Resources land northwest of Naselle, Washington. The site, named Radar Ridge, would help utilities in Pacific, Grays Harbor, Clallam and Mason counties meet the requirements of Initiative 397. I-397 mandates that a designated portion of a utility’s power comes from renewable energy sources.

Enter the Marbled Murrelet. The proposed wind farm is in the path Murrelets could use between its feeding grounds in the ocean and nesting areas inland. The Marbled Murrelet has been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1992.

It's worth noting that the wind farm vs. birds scenario is not new. It's been played out numerous times in various locations. Typically, the resolution is for the electric company not to operate the wind farm during bird migrations. It allows for a population of the birds to be protected but, unfortunately, the electric company has to accept the loss of generating capacity during that period.

In any event, since the political left (read: Democrats) largely consists of a diverse collection of special interest groups who have personal definitions of utopia, in-house conflicts will likely continue. Frankly, I'm looking forward to the day the legalize-marijuana crowd is engaged by anti-smoking activists.