Bob Nelson of Save Burney’s Skyline said that they found hope in the news of Babcock & Brown Limited’s (Babcock & Brown) financial troubles.
They make AIG look like Boy Scouts. I mean, these guys are tough players, Nelson said.
The Save Burney group wanted the turbines planned for the ridge west of Burney to be more out of sight, and joined in local American Indians concerns that blades on the 418-foot-tall windmills will kill bald eagles and other birds.
Babcock & Brown Senior Developer George Hardie said that the international branch’s North American energy group was being sold off from the Australian parent company, as were various other worldwide business units, to repay creditors.
RES America Developments Inc.’s Vice President of Development Scott Piscitello said that his company sold the turbine project to Babcock & Brown more than a year ago, but his company will finish developing the job.
One thing that the wind industry does not lack is people with money, looking to get into the wind business, Piscitello said.
Mark LeBeau, co-chair of the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites called the bankruptcy announcement great news.
We believe this provides the (Shasta) County Board of Supervisors more time to review the decision of last year’s board, and to hopefully change their decision, LeBeau said.
In November, 2008 the supervisors declined opponents appeal against the wind project’s approval. LeBeau said that he hoped the board considered new evidence his group had presented regarding the lethal nature of windmills for the golden and bald eagles, based on studies of the Altamont Pass region’s thousands of turbines.
Even if a new financier funds Hatchet Ridge, LeBeau said that opposition to the project will continue.
This is the largest public works project of this type in the county since the building of Shasta Dam, so it’s a huge project, LeBeau said. It’s going to have a devastating effect on the environment.
