Wind Energy Companies Advised To Abandon High-Risk Sites For Whooping Cranes

Today, on behalf of the non-profit organization North Texas Heritage Association, our firm sent two demand letters urging APEX Clean Energy and EDF Renewables to consider abandoning proposed high-risk locations for industrial wind energy facilities that would be sited as a major obstacle in the airspace directly above the whooping crane migration corridor centerline—i.e., the most sensitive location for flight collision risks based on decades of whooping crane observation and telemetry data. The whooping crane is one of North America’s most imperiled species with only 505 members remaining in a single migrating population. The letters—which can be viewed here and here—urge consideration of lower-risk sites or, at minimum, compliance with federal environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, and National Historic Preservation Act. Our firm has long been involved in efforts to conserve the whooping crane, including a pending lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s approval of a massive transmission line in Nebraska in the heart of the whooping crane migration corridor that failed to require any minimization or mitigation measures to avoid killing or harming members of the species.