by Mark Del Franco on Thursday 13 January 2011
Maryland’s first two wind projects are facing mounting pressure from environmental groups that insist the developers are endangering the Indiana bat, a creature listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Save Western Maryland and the Maryland Conservation Council are urging Constellation Energy and Synergics to obtain incidental take permits (ITP) from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the environmental groups are planning to sue in federal court to make the developers comply.
Save Western Maryland has brought suit against Constellation Energy in a U.S. District Court in Maryland, claiming that turbines on the 70 MW site in Garrett County, Md., will injure or kill Indiana bats.
Claims of turbines doing harm to Indiana bats made national headlines last year. Some environmental groups forced Chicago-based developer Invenergy to halt construction on a West Virginia wind farm because it failed to obtain an ITP. Invenergy later settled the case and subsequently secured its permit.
