Under new Bureau of Land Management guidelines, about 20 percent of Wyoming is now off limits to wind energy development.
In an effort to protect the sage grouse, which is being threatened by habitat destruction, new wind projects will not be permitted in the grouse's core habitat - which is about 23 percent of the cowboy state. This region is crucial to the bird's survival.
Certainly we're never happy to see obstacles to wind development. However, as we move forward with the integration of renewable energy, it would serve us well to be responsible about it.
The last thing we want to do is create new problems to replace the old ones.
That being said, if we're going to step up our environmental standards when it comes to wind farm development - we should be doing the same with conventional fossil fuel development.
You can't sit there and tell me that it's not alright to throw up wind farms that could threaten the sage grouse, but it's perfectly acceptable to continue to contaminate our air and our fresh water supplies with coal, oil (especially the tar sands), and in some case natural gas production and consumption.
Just something to think about.
As a side note, the new rules in Wyoming do also limit future developments by the oil and gas industry to one oil pad per square mile. Current rules permit as many as 60 well pads per square mile.
Jeff
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Problem is, people care more about animals than they do other humans.