Forty years after Santa Barbara County oil platforms sloshed oily goo onto America’s front page, the area has returned to the forefront of environmentalism with the approval of the county’s first renewable energy plant.
The Lompoc Wind Energy Project won’t be built at tourist-draped Santa Barbara Harbor—victim of 1969’s world famous oil spill, which birthed the environmental movement—but on an obscure ridge south of Lompoc.
“We had 37 testimonies here today,” Commissioner Joe Valencia summarized on Sept. 30. His district is where most of the project will be built.
“Thirty-four [speakers] were in favor, three were opposed,” he said. “It will give us power for 50,000 homes. My community is suffering in this economy. The negatives are minor compared to the benefits.”
The vote to approve the 82 megawatt undertaking by Acciona, a Spanish conglomerate, came in at 5-0 from the County Planning Commission in the Santa Maria meeting.
Acciona project manager Harley McDonald was jubilant.
“We are so pleased that the county has voted unanimously to support the first wind power plant in Santa Barbara County,” she said, emphasizing “unanimous.”
“That was what we were hoping for,” McDonald continued.
County planning staff had recommended a positive vote.
Acciona holds leases with seven ranches at the far end of San Miguelito Road, five miles south of Lompoc. Fifty-ton towers will stand 260 feet high—nearly 400 feet, counting rotors—but they will be visible only from Jalama Beach and Miguelito County parks, apart from distant views from Vandenberg Village and La Purisima Mission State Park.
The late-September testimony was remarkable not only for its near-unanimity, but for the varied sources from which it came. Businessmen, agriculture groups, and environmentalists from all parts of the county—and historically often at one another’s throats—sang the project’s praises more or less in harmony.
Bob Hatch of the Santa Maria Chamber of Commerce led off, followed by Leroy Scolari (one of the ranchers who has leased land to Acciona), Jerry Conner of the Santa Maria Sierra Club, Day Yeager of the Solvang Planning Commission, etc.
During a year’s delay since publishing of the preliminary Environmental Impact Report, Acciona agreed to a smaller project: 65 turbines instead of 80, and with a less visible transmission line to a Lompoc substation. Acciona even made the apparently unprecedented agreement to restrict or even shut down turbines if asked by the county because of bird kill.
Still, while stating their support for the project, the local Audubon Society and the Environmental Defense Center nevertheless called for four tougher conditions. On one of them, they posted a partial victory.
County planners had proposed a two-year period for monitoring bird kill, but the EDC pushed for 10. Consultant Marie Campbell, testifying for Acciona, said that studies this spring counted only 227 migrating birds, nearly the lowest of any wind farm site in the state, and that the major north-south flyway lay 20 miles to the east. The commission compromised on four years of monitoring.
Lompoc auto dealer George Bedford, who lives near the site, was one of a handful of opponents. He feared that noise from the facility could unnerve especially sensitive people.
The measure can still be appealed to the Board of Supervisors, though 5-0 votes are rarely overturned.
Construction will begin next year with operation scheduled for 2010. Some 200 jobs will be provided during construction, with 10 fulltime during operation. Acciona several years ago signed a contract with PG&E. The firm began work on the project seven years ago with the first meteorological towers going up in 2004, and application for a Conditional Use Permit filed in June 2006.
Acciona is one of the world’s leaders in renewable power. Its North America affiliate has built and operates Nevada Solar One, a 64-MW solar energy plant in Boulder City, as well as several wind energy plants in the Midwest.
Wind farms have long existed in California, at Altamont, Tehachapi, and Palm Springs. In fact, another wind company, Clipper Windpower, hopes to follow in Acciona’s Santa Barbara County wake. The firm has posted meteorological towers on hilltops near those approved last week.
Contact freelancer John McReynolds through the executive editor at rmiller@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 9-16, 2008.