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Wind developers describe mitigation practices, say projects can coexist with agriculture and wildlife
Summary
Industry witnesses told Mississippi senators that existing voluntary Wind Energy Guidelines, FAA reviews and multi-year wildlife studies guide siting and mitigation; developers cited the Delta Wind Project as an example and urged against a legislative moratorium.
Stu Webster, senior director of permanent environmental policy for Triple O Power, and Rourke Peterson, senior director of project development for Steelhead Americas (Vestas), told the Mississippi Senate Energy and the Senate Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks committees that decades of industry research and established voluntary guidelines provide a pathway to site wind projects with attention to wildlife and airspace safety.
Webster described the 2012 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wind Energy Guidelines (WEGs) as a widely followed, voluntary framework that helps developers and wildlife agencies coordinate “early and often” through preconstruction studies, feedback loops and post-construction monitoring. He said the “weight of evidence indicates negligible effects on waterfowl by wind energy either directly by collision or indirectly by avoidance or displacement behavior.”
Peterson said Steelhead’s Delta Wind Project — Mississippi’s first operational project — completed multiple preconstruction studies including two years of avian and eagle-use surveys, raptor nest studies, bat surveys and wetland and cultural assessments. He told the committees that both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks reviewed the studies and “neither agency identified significant wildlife concerns.” Peterson said the project also received FAA and Department of Defense determinations of no hazard and a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Mississippi Public Service Commission.
The witnesses discussed operational and safety practices. Webster noted that per federal rules, structures taller than 200 feet are evaluated by the FAA, and that industry practice sometimes exceeds regulatory requirements: “To address this concern, companies like Triple O Power submit our MET Tower locations regardless of the lack of requirement to the FAA.”
Developers and several senators discussed decommissioning and foundation depth. Webster said foundations vary with soil conditions but offered a general figure of roughly 12 feet deep and 30 feet in diameter for some projects while acknowledging geologic variability can require deeper borings; Steelhead said foundations were elevated by a foot or two in low-lying rice country to create an artificial gradient.
On policy, Peterson asked legislators not to impose a moratorium, saying in testimony: “we ask that the legislature do not consider any moratorium for wind energy development in the state.” Webster and Peterson both supported tailored, site-specific studies and early agency consultation rather than a blanket pause.
Ending note: Developers said they are willing to cooperate on regional studies with agencies and landowners to resolve Delta-region uncertainties, and they described established monitoring and mitigation steps they use in project development and operations.
