Well, not so fast.  Seems “Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman, said the presumed hazard determination is the first step in a give-and-take process between the FAA and the developer that could alter the height and location of the turbines. Even a final FAA determination that a project is a hazard to aviation doesn’t mean it won’t be built because the FAA has no legal authority to stop any development, Ms. Brown said. But such a determination can make it hard for a development to get insurance coverage.”

Yep! – “the FAA has no legal authority to stop any development”

So how does this Gamesa group get so much clout?  “Gamesa was invited to the state by Gov. Ed Rendell in 2004 as part of a green jobs initiative. The company manufactures turbines in Ebensburg, Cambria County.”  Well, I’ll be darned!

Did I mention that Gamesa is based in Spain?  Oh, no matter … they can still dip into the deep well of taxpayer subsidies.

Is this the first issue to surface at Shaffer Mountain?  Nope!  Check out this post at Shaffer Mountain blog:

DEP denies GAMESA’S permit on Shaffer Mountain — FOR THIRD TIME!

“For the third time in just over a year DEP has refused to issue Gamesa a permit to begin its destruction of Shaffer Mountaiun, It’s two Exceptional Value Streams, an identified endangered Indiana bat maternity colony and roosting sites, miles of roadless mountaintop forest, rare upland wetlands and a world renowned raptor migration corridor on the Allegheny front. Read DEP’s denial letter here. Gamesa has made 3 refilings of information to try to meet DEP’s standards but is unable to do so. Instead Gamesa has filed silmilar information each time hoping thet DEP, with its new Secretary John Hanger, a former wind industry lobbyist, will rubber stamp the permit. DEP refuses to do so — not yet at least.

The DEP letter identifies many areas of concern that Gamesa has failed to address. Some of these areas of concern — pure water resource degredation and endgangered species killing, are unable to be addressed. They will occur absolutely and with certainty if Gamesa builds this huge industrial wind power plant as proposed on Shaffer Mountain. These issues will keep Gamesa out of this — one of Pennsylnvanias last and best Biological Diversity area of Exceptional Significance.”

Here’s the DEP letter for your convenience.  Of course, they will probably be ignored as well.  It will be up to folks like Mr. Buchan to try to get a few dollars together, hire a lawyer and force the LLCs to do what they should do willingly.  With toothless agencies flailing about, the citizens themselves are often required to pick up the fight.

Pennsylvania is not alone.  No state in the Appalachians seems to have a handle on this renewable energy juggernaut.  Weakened regulators controlled or ignored by misguided legislators, who themselves are persuaded by the heavily funded lobbyists to give preference to the taxpayer subsidized renewable energy industry, is not my idea of the ideal formula necessary to produce a good outcome for the citizens.  As Jon Boone put it so well when asked about the industrial wind’s “adaptive management” strategy to mitigate environmental concerns, “who is really going to shut down a plant that costs hundreds of millions of dollars? No one. And who is even going to monitor bird or bat mortality? On private lands? In remote mountain habitat? Why, ah, the wind developer…. People who believe this twaddle about “responsible enforcement” remain clueless about these realities. As I’ve said many times, recommending siting guidelines for wind is akin to giving a second story burglary ring a ladder and an alibi.”  Seems to me that one day, someone will be needing an alibi!