By Cathy Proctor – Reporter, Denver Business Journal
Updated
The largest wind farm project in North America, backed by
Denver billionaire
Philip Anschutz
, on Tuesday landed the approval of U.S. Interior Secretary
Ken Salazar
for construction of the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind
Energy project in Wyoming.
“It’s a meaningful milestone to have a Record of
Decision for the project,” said
Kara Choquette
, spokeswoman for the Denver-based Power Company of Wyoming
LLC, which is building the wind farm.
The $6 billion wind farm, proposed in 2008, is expected to have
1,000 turbines capable of generating between 2,000 and 3,000
megawatts of power, enough to meet the needs of nearly 1
million homes, according to the company.
“Wyoming has some of the best wind energy resources in
the world, and there’s no doubt that this project has the
potential to be a landmark example for the nation,”
Salazar — a former U.S. senator from Colorado —
said in a statement.
“President Obama challenged us in his State of the Union
address to authorize 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy on
our public lands by the end of the year — enough to meet
the needs of more than 3 million homes — and today [with
the approval of the Anschutz wind project] we are making good
on that promise,” he added.
Additional permits are still required, including a state-issued
permit from the Wyoming Industrial Siting Division. The company
plans to apply for that permit in November, Choquette said.
But the project has received a conditional use permit from
Carbon County, where the wind farm will be located. The Bureau
of Land Management (BLM) also must approve permits for siting
wind turbines, she said.
“The analogy is that we have the approval to build the
subdivision, but we need the permits to build the
houses,” she said.
But if all goes well, construction could start a year from now
— in the late summer or early fall of 2013, she said.
The wind farm is on portions of 320,000 acres of a working
cattle ranch owned and operated by Anschutz’s
Overland Trail Cattle Co. LLC. The wind farm will be
constructed on land that’s roughly half private land
and half federal land, according to the Power Company of
Wyoming.
A separate $3 billion powerline project also backed by
Anschutz, designed to carry the wind farm’s power
from central Wyoming to Las Vegas, is undergoing
environmental reviews by the BLM.
A draft study of the environmental impacts of the line is
expected to be released in the spring of 2013, with a final
decision expected in 2014, Choquette said.
The 725-mile transmission line is expected to take three
years to build, according to the company.
Salazar’s approval of the wind farm followed years of
data collection on wildlife habitat and movement.
“We have collected more scientific data in a broader
area and to a finer degree than anyone else has ever
done,” said
Bill Miller
, president and CEO of Power Company of Wyoming, in a
statement.
“We know where turbines should and should not go. Our
plan to microsite all turbines will assure potential
impacts on wildlife are far lower than outlined in the
general project-wide EIS (Environmental Impact Statement),
while also materially increasing the country’s clean
energy supplies,” Miller said.
Building the wind farm is expected to take five years
— with turbine installation occurring in year three
of the timetable, Choquette said.
Up to 400 construction jobs are anticipated in the first
two construction years, with up to 1,200 jobs in subsequent
seasons as the wind turbines are installed, according to
the company.
Once fully operational, the project will create at least
114 direct operations jobs — making the wind farm one
of Carbon County’s largest private employers —
and will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in state
and local tax revenue.
“Combining renewable energy development with traditional
ranching operations puts this land to its highest and best use,
while also supporting important new jobs and economic
growth,” Miller said in the statement.
Long-term surface disturbance across the Overland Trail Ranch is
expected to be less than 2,000 acres, which is less than 1 percent
of the ranch, according to the Final EIS analysis.
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Big Anschutz wind farm gets Salazar’s OK and Pete Bennett gets arrested by friends of Ken Salazar of WilmerHale
Mid-Atlantic Arena Litigation Actors, Investors, Players, Cities and the dead witness
Mid-Atlantic Arena Litigation and Bennett v. Southern Pacific lost in 1989 for one clear reason - they killed a 21 year old witness
VIRGINIA BEACH
The developer that planned to build an arena near the Oceanfront is suing Virginia Beach for $140 million, claiming that the city damaged its reputation by pulling out of the project.
Mid-Atlantic Arena filed the lawsuit in Virginia Beach Circuit Court on Tuesday.
The City Council voted 9-1 two months ago to call off the deal if Mid-Atlantic did not honor its agreement to get financing in place by a Nov. 7 deadline. The city has said the company failed to close on a $150 million loan or prove it had $70 million in investment money.
In the lawsuit, Mid-Atlantic argued that it delivered the loan documents on time and that the contract did not require the developer to have the $70 million in the bank. It also said that it had deposited “tens of millions in equity” into an escrow account.
“The city pulled the rug out from under the developer, causing a substantial waste of time, money, goodwill and other resources,” according to the suit.
“Making matters worse, the city immediately embarked on a public relations campaign to wrongfully blame the developer for the arena’s demise in a blatant effort to control the narrative in the media and divert the public’s attention from the city’s wrongful conduct.”
Since the city voided the deal, the lawsuit says, several of the equity partners have demanded and received refunds of their contributions, which had been placed in an escrow account. The lawsuit named Anschutz Entertainment Group, Stephen Ballard of S.B. Ballard Construction Co. and an unnamed university as investors.
It said AEG had “agreed to invest tens of millions of dollars in the project and to have a profit-sharing interest.” AEG planned to operate the facility that Ballard’s company would have built.
On top of that, those who put down deposits on premium seats have asked for refunds, according to the suit.
“Mid-Atlantic Arena LLC greatly desired to bring an arena to Virginia Beach, not a lawsuit; but since that is now impossible, we have no choice but to ask the courts to help us recover our significant investment, as well as lost future revenue, and rebuild our standing,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
