Huffington Magazine Issue 39 | Page 56

SINKING IN BUREAUCRACY — which means that new clean energy facilities must, at some point, be built. And while it is virtually certain that the turbines will have implications for local bird life, fish populations, boat captains and plane pilots, thousands of pages of state and federal agency analysis, judicial review and subsequent re-analysis have suggested that, all things considered, the project’s virtues outweigh its impacts. That has done very little to speed the permitting process or to dissuade the very real passions of Parker and her supporters. All but one of the legal challenges that the alliance and its allied groups have thus far filed have been rejected by the courts. The one success — challenging the Federal Aviation Administration’s finding that the project would not impede air traffic — forced the agency to revisit its review in 2011. On Aug. 15, 2012, the FAA once again came to the same conclusion: “The proposed construction of the 130 wind turbines, individually and as a group, has no effect on aeronautical operations. Therefore, the FAA concludes that the project, if constructed as proposed, poses no hazard to air navigation.” HUFFINGTON 03.10.13 A challenge to that finding was filed seven days ]\