In many ways, Harold is typical not just of his generation in Harney County, but of the men and women who make up the back bone of that very special region. Harold worked until he died.  He had a small hoist installed on the back of his truck so that even in his nineties he could lift things in and out of it. He started a new venture within the last few years to grow potatoes. He didn’t hear well but he didn’t miss much, either.

Harold served on the Board of the Harney Electric Cooperative for decades and missed a small handful of meetings in that time. He was conscientious and committed to his family and the community.

One could not help but be impressed by Harold’s energy and presence. He will be missed by us. We extend our condolences to the Otley family and the Diamond community at his passing.

Obituary from the Burns Times Herald.

In it, Jayson Jacoby offers the perspective of someone who travels to the Steens “as often as I can manage” and obviously loves the place. But he can imagine wind turbines there, too, because “What we need, I believe, is the courage to concede that compromises are necessary.”

Mr. Jacoby also sees the project in perspective:

“But set against a scene like the Steens they (turbines) are rendered mere playthings, steel toys in a gigantic playground of basalt and sage and sky.”

He has obviously looked at maps and thought about how the project will impact the landscape:

“I’d be incensed too if anybody proposed lining the Steens Loop Road with turbines, or stringing a picket line of towers across the alpine tundra of the summit rim or through the Alvord Desert.

“But no one has suggested doing that.

“So far the wind farm sites are all north of the Loop Road, which also means they’re north of the highest — and in my estimation the prettiest — part of the 50-mile-long fault-block mountain.

“Which is not to say the wind farms will be invisible, or even inconspicuous.

“It’s pretty difficult to hide dozens of 415-foot towers, even in country that sprawls as magnificently as the Steens.

“Trouble is, it’s also a challenge to make electricity from wind in a place that’s not, you know, windy.”

He adds a welcome note:

“I doubt, at any rate, that Columbia Energy Partners chose the north slopes of the Steens because they wanted to annoy as many people as possible.”

Mr. Jacoby writes about compromises and the need to realistically consider what it takes to make renewable energy work.

“If weaning ourselves from petroleum and coal requires that we build wind turbines — and I think we must — then we ought to build them where the wind blows hard and long.

“I go to the Steens country as often as I can manage, and I intend to keep doing so.

“Someday, perhaps, I’ll climb the gentle western slopes toward the distinctive notch in Kiger Gorge’s glacial headwall, driving a rig that burns electrons instead of unleaded.

“That will be a fine day, and a fine feeling to know I’m doing nothing to foul the pure air of the high places.

“I will look to the north and maybe I will see the vanes of a turbine, turning lazily, doing their good work.

“Wind farms are important, in that way.

“But set against a scene like the Steens they are rendered mere playthings, steel toys in a gigantic playground of basalt and sage and sky.

“A place that is no one’s backyard.

“And everyone’s.

Although no one at Columbia Energy Partners has ever spoken with Mr. Jacoby, we share his love of the Steens, and his belief that responsibly developed renewable energy projects have a place there.

No. No, it’s not. For several reasons.

First and foremost, there simply are not many acres of land with sufficient wind resource. In fact, much of the best land (from a wind resource standpoint) is federally owned and designated as Wilderness or Wilderness Study Area (WSA). Those lands cannot be developed, period.

The map here has an overlay of publicly-available wind resource data and land ownership. Note how few acres show “developable” wind – it’s a total of about 95,000 acres. In a county of 10,000 square miles!

No, southeastern Oregon is NOT going to be the next Gorge, though a few good projects will be built where it is legal and appropriate to harvest these essential winter season winds to compliment the spring and summer winds in the Columbia River Gorge.

So here we are, listing in the Oregon wind, which rips hard through the Steens, especially in the winter months when Columbia Gorge winds diminish.

That’s a pretty good balancing act between wind venues.

They also note – after carefully examining visual simulations prepared for the EIS on our transmission line – turbines “dwarfed by the scale of the place and hardly so visible as many on display elsewhere in Oregon.”

The editors give us credit for our willingness to permit future projects in the area through the state permit process, which we are prepared to do, especially if groups who’ve so far opposed the project are willing to work with us on a “win-win” resolution to move forward.

Back to “balance…” The editors struck a hopeful tone, which we share:

So here we are, listing in the Oregon wind, which rips hard through the Steens, especially in the winter months when Columbia Gorge winds diminish.

That’s a pretty good balancing act between wind venues.

We hope for a like balance as we move forward. Siting, environmental and economic impacts — those subjects should make for the broadest possible conversations, seeing as so much of the land concerns us all.

The Oregonian has shown an openness to the project which we hope others will heed and follow.

Of course, there will be ZERO turbines in the High Steens or any part of the Wilderness. The editors apparently felt they could drum up interest with that headline and photo. Happily, they realized their mistake when we called them on it. They apparently agreed that it is reasonable that when a newspaper says “here,” they mean “here.” Once we discussed it, the editors agreed to change the paper substantially for the later editions that were delivered to Portland area subscribers.

But people outside the Portland area, or those who bought the “bulldog” in stores or coin boxes, saw the erroneous version and it did have an impact. Here’s an example we found on one web site that was posted after The Oregonian story ran.

Even we got a laugh out of this, kind of…

We love the Steens as much as anyone. We believe strongly that our projects there, on private property, outside of any federal or restricted land, will supply a vital link in the Northwest’ renewable energy mix with winter-peaking wind power and help rebuild a community eager to join the green economy.

Click here to view what the turbines will really look like. You’ll need to use the zoom tool in the pdf link to see the turbines in many of the viewpoints.

We appreciate The Oregonian’s willingness to correct the error. A retraction will appear in The Sunday Oregonian on Valentine’s Day, February 14th.

The Steens Act also explicitly preserved private property rights. Our projects are planned for private property on the northern slopes of Steens Mountain, not in the wilderness, not on public land.

Most of the project will not be visible from the commonly-accessed places the hardy souls who drive up Steens Mountain go. The “high Steens” mostly block views from the wilderness of the private lands where the turbines will be located. Not completely. Some turbines will be visible from Frenchglenn (about 15 miles away).

… or from Kiger Gorge viewpoint, also in the distance looking at the East Ridge project.

… and even from the Steens Overlook.

View a map with viewpoint locations and additional photos.

What impact the turbines will have on some views is in the eye of the beholder. This issue is being carefully considered in the ongoing Environmental Impact Study being conducted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for an easement across BLM lands outside the Steens Mountain wilderness or other restricted areas.

Early editions of the Sunday February 7th Oregonian showed an iconic photo of the Steens Mountain Wilderness (the High Steens, shown from the east) with the caption: “Picture a hundred turbines here.” But there will be NO turbines in the area the photo showed, NO turbines will be visible from the place that photo was taken and there will be NO turbines in the wilderness or any public lands.

Thankfully, the Oregonian agreed to correct the error and run a photo that more accurately reflects the project area.

We say hooray to that. The effects of the down economy are still felt acutely around Oregon.

A friend from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) provided some stark statistics from Oregon locals. Unemployment among IBEW members was 33% in the Portland area (Local 48); 47% percent in central Oregon (Local 280) and 47% in southern Oregon (Local 659). Unemployment that high among those skilled workers is a sure sign that recovery still has a ways to go.

CEP and IBEW have worked together on projects and policy for years. We’d like to work together again on putting IBEW members to work on the Greater Echanis wind projects and help to bring these fabulous resources on line soon.

When President Barack Obama addresses the nation Wednesday night, he will drag to the lectern rock-heavy bags from a trying first year: an economy at the edge of collapse, stepped up war deployments and metastatic joblessness. All of it big, all of it morphing with each passing week, all of it occurring at stratospherically expensive levels as Oregonians struggle to pay their rent or mortgage and feed the family.

His announcement Monday that he would …  aim his best efforts at removing economic pain from the middle class is good news to us, indeed. Exactly how he will do that is just emerging, and we hope to hear in his State of the Union address that measures designed to make life easier for middle-income workers will be swift and without corollary damage to the untargeted.

-Oregonian, January 25, 2010

In Harney County Oregon, where our Greater Echanis wind projects are located, the pain of this recession is acute. Here’s what one person wrote in a letter to the Editor of the January 20^th Burns Times Herald:

“A voice needs to be heard! A helping hand needs to be extended to the hardworking men and women who break their backs every day just to try and survive! Proud Americans are struggling to make ends meet. One paycheck doesn’t make it to the next. (…) The people sitting in their big comfy chairs on Capitol Hill need to take a step down and spend a month in the shoes of a struggling middle class citizen. Maybe then they will understand how hard it is to make it from paycheck to paycheck. Maybe they will see the real hardships people are facing every day.”

-          Letter to the editor of Burns Times Herald, January 20, 2010

CEP hopes the President will renew his pledge to rebuild America’s economy on the strength of renewable energy projects and infrastructure, which produce jobs in fragile communities like Harney County that cannot be exported, produce many other long term benefits and will help reverse global climate change. Our Greater Echanis Projects are ready to be part of that effort – now!

Some environmentalists have argued that emissions from the Boardman plant are such that it should be shut down as early as next year, or at least by 2014. Whether Boardman’s emissions merit that action, a rash one in our view, has yet to be proven to the appropriate regulators, but it is certain that shutting down the plant in 2011 or 2014 would throw customers of the state’s largest electric utility into a world of uncertainty.- Oregonian, Jan. 19, 2010.

Maybe, but probably not so much. PGE will not put their customers in jeopardy in terms of reliable supply. And the whole process, which requires Oregon Public Utility Commission consideration and approval, is likely to end up with a good result. A compromise result, to be sure, but anyone concerned about global climate change should be encouraged by this step.

Whatever resource PGE taps for power to replace power from Boardman, having electrons from our Greater Echanis projects on the grid will help decrease the likelihood that all of that replacement power comes from fossil fuels alone. If you look at the comparative production profile of our wind projects and those in the Columbia River Gorge area, you see that “blending” these diverse resources provides a remarkably uniform, renewable resource. That’s what the region needs to replace coal and reduce our dependence on fossil and imported fuels. The Greater Echanis wind projects are a vital part of making that goal a reality!

In the editorial, the New York Times sided four-square with Secretary Salazar to end the wrangling over the long-suffering Cape Wind project off Nantucket Sound. ‘Make a decision,’ the editors as much as charged, ‘and get building!’

I can’t help but read this editorial about a wind project off Cape Cod as a distant (but closely-related) cousin of our Echanis projects on Steens Mountain.

Our company has met with stakeholders concerned about our project numerous times over the past year. Listening to their concerns and adopting many of their ideas and suggestions, we have developed a package of seven major items we’re prepared to offer as concessions and mitigation IF they will agree not to sue after the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for our transmission line and future project stage permits are issued. They can and certainly will be free to participate fully in those very thorough and public processes, but they must agree to live with the results (as will we) rather than sue to delay the inevitable in hopes of stopping the project on an economic basis.

The last sentence of the New York Times editorial reads as follows:

“We hope the administration can persuade the various sides to quickly reach a compromise that preserves the core of the project. If not, Mr. Salazar can and should decide on his own to allow Cape Wind to proceed.”

We at Columbia Energy Partners hope the various stakeholders will work with us to resolve their concerns in a binding agreement that will benefit all sides and allow this vitally important project to proceed.