Wind company wins three more years of Altamont bird deaths
By Ilana DeBare
Hundreds of Golden Gate Bird Alliance members spoke out on behalf of the birds of Altamont Pass – but it wasn’t enough to stop the Alameda County Board of Supervisors from permitting three more years of unnecessary bird killings by a recalcitrant wind power company.
The Supervisors voted 3-2 on Tuesday to let Altamont Winds Inc. wait until 2018 to replace its deadly, 1980s-era turbines with newer models that produce energy far more efficiently while killing far fewer birds.
Supervisors Keith Carson and Wilma Chan cast the dissenting votes on behalf of wildlife and for safer, more efficient wind power. Both had clearly put careful thought and research into their decision. Golden Gate Bird Alliance sends a big thank you to Supervisors Carson and Chan!
But the three other supervisors fell under the sway of AWI owners and their investors.
The Boilermakers and Blacksmiths Union had invested workers’ pension funds in AWI, a non-public company, and apparently feared losing money if AWI were required to follow through on its prior commitments to shut down its old turbines this year. AWI and its union investors claimed they were defending “jobs” – even though repowering would bring hundreds of unionized jobs for skilled tradespeople and laborers, far more than the 40 people currently employed here by the company.
In giving AWI its third “special deal” in ten years, the supervisors chose to ignore the recommendations of Golden Gate Bird Alliance and other Bay Area Audubon chapters, California Audubon, Sierra Club, Save Mount Diablo, the East Bay Regional Parks District, the county’s own East County Board of Zoning Adjustments, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Office of Law Enforcement, and the California Attorney General’s office.
Even the San Francisco Chronicle had come out with a strongly-worded editorial this week headlined, “Alameda County cannot allow wind farm to continue killing birds.”
“We are incredibly disappointed that those three supervisors chose to disregard real scientific evidence, the economic interests of the county, and wildlife in this matter,” said Cindy Margulis, Executive Director of Golden Gate Bird Alliance.
AWI is the second-largest wind power company at Altamont, but the only one that has not made substantial progress toward repowering — even though it has had more time than its competitors to do so. In 2005, rather than join a lawsuit settlement with the other wind companies, AWI cut its own deal with the county to gradually phase out its old turbines. According to that deal, only 15 percent of its old turbines were supposed to be left in 2015. Then in 2013 it asked for an extension to keep 100 percent of its old turbines operating, on the condition that they would all be removed by October 2015.
In this week’s hearing, AWI sought and won yet another extension – an extension until 2018 that scientists estimate will kill 1,900 birds, including 11 to 16 Golden Eagles and 300 to 400 other raptors.
AWI executives tried to hide the severity of their wildlife slaughter by shifting blame for raptor deaths to other causes like rodenticides. Unfortunately their arguments found a receptive ear with Supervisors Nate Miley, Richard Valle and Scott Haggerty.
“What people are saying is Altamont Winds is responsible for avian mortalities,” Miley said. “I find that incredulous.”
The hearing capped GGBA’s biggest political mobilization in several years. Hundreds of GGBA members wrote emails and made phone calls to the supervisors. GGBA board members and volunteers visited the supervisors’ offices in small groups last week to make the case for denying the extension.
Still other members showed up at the hearing. GGBA members testifying before the board included Gary Bard, Tom Bennett, Marj Blackwell, Carolyn Whittle, Pamela Young, Cindy Margulis, GGBA Eco-Education Director Anthony DeCicco, and former Executive Director Mike Lynes.
“I am so proud of our membership,” Margulis said. “Despite this frustrating loss, we spoke up with science, reason, and integrity. Our people literally spoke truth to power. It’s an honor to represent our mission and stand with the calibre of allies that we did.”
In coming weeks, Golden Gate Bird Alliance will confer with its allies about next steps.
Meanwhile, many thanks to every one of you who wrote an email, made a phone call, or came to the hearing!
Special thanks to those who participated in meetings with the supervisors’ offices: Carol Baird, Marj Blackwell, Linda Carloni, Ilana DeBare, Judith Dunham, Leora Feeney, Alan Harper, Rue Mapp, Cindy Margulis, Bob Power, Pamela Young, as well as Sierra Club members Michelle Myers, Jess Dervin-Ackerman, and Dick Schneider.