Group Fights Wind Energy at Steens

The Oregon Natural Desert Association and other conservation groups have asked the state’s energy regulators to put the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area off-limits to wind farms and other energy development.

And if the state agrees, it would block Oregon from giving the OK to at least two projects that have been discussed for the area, although its impact on a third project in the scenic southern Oregon location is unknown.

“Like many other conservation organizations, we fully support renewable energy development,” said Liz Nysson, climate change coordinator with the Bend-based Oregon Natural Desert Association. “However, we feel like it has to be done responsibly and it has to be done in places where it’s the least impactful.”

The Bend-based Oregon Natural Desert Association, along with the Audubon Society of Portland and Defenders of Wildlife, have submitted a petition to Oregon’s Energy Facility Siting Council, asking the council to add the 428,000-acre Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area to the list of state protected areas.

But a wind farm developer in the area said adding the Cooperative Management and Protection area to the state’s list would interfere with private property rights.

The list currently includes national parks like Crater Lake, national monuments including Newberry National Volcanic Monument, national and state wildlife refuges, state parks, scenic waterways and more. There, the state can’t approve the construction of power plants, said Diana Enright, spokeswoman for the Department of Energy, although in some cases transmission lines or pipelines are allowed.

The state is currently taking comments on the petition until May 28, and will hold a public hearing on the issue at its next meeting, tentatively scheduled for June 11 in Burns.

Industrial wind farms should be banned from the Steens Cooperative Management and Protection Area, Nysson said, because the Steens Act states that development on both public and private lands within the area is not consistent with the act’s intent.

“It explicitly includes private lands within the Cooperative Management and Protection Area,” Nysson said.

And large-scale wind farms leave a footprint on the environment, she said, that could damage wildlife habitat and impact migrating birds.

“This area has some of the best natural resources in the state, it has wonderful wildlife habitat,” Nysson said. “The special designation that was afforded this area by Congress shows the value that has already been placed on it ... and the intent to keep this place protected.”

Columbia Energy Partners has proposed three projects for the area around Steens Mountain, said Chris Crowley, president of the company.

One proposed wind farm — the Echanis Wind Project — would be on private land outside of the Cooperative Management and Protection Area, and has been approved by Harney County. The Bureau of Land Management is currently developing an environmental study to look at the impacts of a proposed power line across BLM land, but it’s unclear what impact the petition would have on the project.

Columbia Energy had also submitted applications to Harney County for two other wind farms — the West Ridge and the East Ridge wind projects — which are inside the Cooperative Management and Protection Area.

The company withdrew the applications to Harney County in response to the Oregon Natural Desert Association’s requests, Crowley said. Instead, it planned to have the projects approved by Oregon’s Energy Facility Siting Council instead of the county — but if the petition is approved, that would not be allowed.

“For two years, they’ve been telling us to go to (the Energy Facility Siting Council), now they’re saying to (the council) ‘Put these properties out of bounds, before they even apply,’” Crowley said. “We’re not too happy about that.”

He said the company believes that adding the Steens area to the state’s protected area list would interfere with the rights of private property owners to lease out land to wind farms.

“It’s our strongly held view that the Steens Act protects private property rights,” Crowley said. “That was part of the compromise.”