In 2020, the county approved a wind energy project that was supposed to be constructed by the end of that year. In 2023, the company responsible for the project, BayWa, still doesn’t have its ducks quacking all in one row.
In fact, BayWa is begging the county to give it the go-ahead before all its ducks are in a row. So what happened to the mantra that the company’s then vice president of development, Daniel Duke, told the Sun in January 2020? He said if the project wasn’t operational by the end of the year, the company would lose a federal tax credit that made the project financially viable.
“We can’t wait six months, we can’t wait three months, we have to get this thing done,” he told the Sun in 2020. “Otherwise there won’t be a project.”
He was confident at the time that the federal and state permits the project needed would be approved soon. Turns out BayWa only recently applied for one of those permits. Weird, I guess that means the federal permit wasn’t in the process in 2020. Why?
Well, nobody knows—actually, nobody is going to say.
New company CEO Gordon MacDougall told the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission on July 12 that he wasn’t going to throw any individual under the bus, but “maybe the reason it’s not been done is one of the reasons I’m standing here, as a different face and a different leader of our business.”
Hmm. Sounds like the project is maybe two years too late and that’s the reason you’re standing there? Was it Duke’s fault? Did the project lose its federal tax credit?
In March 2023, the company started the application process with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a golden eagle take permit, something the Santa Barbara Audubon Society raised concerns about in 2019 and 2020. The spinning blades of those 29 turbines outside of Lompoc that are waiting for the green light to turn on will compete for airspace with the majestic bird, maybe. It hasn’t really been determined yet.
But receiving that permit was an original requirement for the project. Should it hold the project up now? Commissioners seem to be leaning toward a big, fat, and resounding no!
Well, I guess the wind energy project isn’t an oil project that would spew greenhouse gases into our already warming planet’s atmosphere, so environmental concerns about birds can’t hold it up, right? Right.
“Every time we shorten, delay, deny wind energy projects and so forth, the longer we continue with some of the nuclear power and other options that some citizens don’t like,” Commissioner John Parke said. “Whether [BayWa] were diligent or not, let’s not hurt everybody else in the county and the state by denying this fix.”
The “fix” means the project can turn itself on at the end of summer as planned, take permit for golden eagles or not. You know when a wind project in this canyon was first suggested? In 2010.
It’s been 13 years of trying to get this specific sort of renewable energy project turning in Santa Barbara County, in one of the only areas where it’s feasible. Maybe it’s time to just let the project fly. Ducks quacking, birds flying—or not.
The canary is sorry, not sorry, about fellow feathered friends who have to compete with giant turbines. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 20-30, 2023.
