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"Fragmentation of forests via wind turbine erection can impact interior nesting birds in a[n] adverse manner. The size and number of wind power developments in the future are also of concern with respect to habitat loss and fragmentation. This may become the primary ecological consideration in future wind power developments in these habitats."
"A question that remains open is risk to birds that migrate at night at very low altitudes. Virtually no studies have been conducted, in any area, of night migration at altitudes below 200-250 feet. Hence, the potential for risk to nocturnal migrants flying at these altitudes is not known. Most previous studies using radar and ceilometer strongly suggest that only a small percentage of nocturnal migrants fly below 250 feet above ground, but those techniques usually have limited abilities to detect low-flying birds and to discriminate birds at different altitudes. Until technology allows researchers to quantify the low-altitude migration, risk cannot be assessed." —Paul Kerlinger, avian consultant for industrial windpower, 2002, 2000. |
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Download 392 k |
In the summer of 2004, Synergics Wind Energy, LLC, filed an application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) from the Maryland Public Service Commission to construct a 40 MW wind facility in the mountains of western Maryland, since amended to request a 47.5 MW plant. In the fall of 2004, Jon Boone requested and was granted an intervenors status with the proceeding, joining a number of other parties to include the state's Department of Natural Resources and other intervenors such as the state's Sierra Club and the Audubon Naturalist Society. For more than a year, the applicant and the various intervenors have introduced direct testimony and expert witnesses, which culminated in an evidentiary hearing in September, 2005. The relevant documentation can be seen on the Maryland Public Service Commission website by typing in Case No. 9008.
Jon Boone has made available here all of his documents related to this proceeding—a distillation of his testimony (which includes his July 25 direct
testimony, his August 16 supplemental testimony, and his September 9 surrebuttal testimony), all of which was formally introduced as evidence in the proceeding on September 16. After the evidentiary hearing on September 22, he submitted a post hearing brief on November 23 and, on December 5, a post hearing reply brief.
During the proceeding, Jon Boone submitted responses to four sets of data requests—three from Synergics and one from the Department of Natural Resources. These are presented here because they provide information about sources and procedures in this kind of regulatory hearing that might be helpful to those embarking on a similar effort.
Altogether these documents constitute his public record in this PSC process. The hearing examiner in the case is not expected to make a ruling until 2006.
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Download 2.4 mb |
Here is a compressed listing of the Attachments, which range from A-Q, noted in the Direct PSC Testimony. They include such useful material as US Wind Capacity Factor Charts, a Map of US Wind Potential, the imposing Shawano County, Wisconsin Wind Ordinance, a photograph of wind clearcuts, a summary of Lincoln Township's record of property devaluations due to wind technology, a map showing Maryland's wind potential by region, among many others.
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Download 76 k |
This responds to the appeals of three other intervenors in this case.
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Download 44 kb |
Comments before the MDPSC regarding the Criterion Wind application. April 23, 2008.
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