May 13, 2014 – Power Company of Wyoming LLC has submitted its application to the Wyoming Industrial Siting Division to construct and operate the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project in Carbon County, Wyoming. The application and more information is available from the Wyoming ISD at http://deq.wyoming.gov/isd/application-permits/resources/chokecherry-and-sierra-madre-wind-energy-facility/.
The CCSM Project consists of 1,000 wind turbines capable of generating up to 3,000 MW of clean, renewable wind energy. Under Wyoming law, PCW must obtain a permit from the ISC because the CCSM Project is a commercial project that will generate electricity from wind and consists of more than 30 turbines. The application was submitted pursuant to the Industrial Development Information and Siting Act and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, Rules of the Industrial Siting Council. Per the Act, a permit hearing will be held within 90 days of submission of the application. Following the hearing, the 7-member Industrial Siting Council has 45 days to issue a decision on the application.
“The state’s industrial permitting process is designed to ensure that wind projects such as ours are planned and constructed in a responsible way,” said Roxane Perruso, PCW vice president and general counsel. “Our team has worked diligently to meet the state’s industrial siting requirements, including preparing a housing plan for construction workers, seeking public feedback through multiple open-house meetings, and creating other plans that address every aspect of the project’s life cycle. We’re glad to reach the milestone of filing our application and continuing to move our wind project forward.”
The CCSM Project is sited on the Overland Trail Ranch, which generally consists of a “checkerboard” mix of interspersed private land and federal land managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. Following the preparation of a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement for the CCSM Project, DOI and BLM approved the site for wind energy development in a Record of Decision signed October 9, 2012, in Cheyenne. The BLM is now reviewing site-specific plans of development for the project components in Environmental Assessments tiered to the project-wide EIS. In 2012, the CCSM Project also received a Conditional Use Permit from Carbon County.
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