7.27.2010

Former Lane Powell Attorney Fights for Wind Energy Project

Former Lane Powell attorney Jon Norling, who serves as in-house counsel for Columbia Energy Partners of Vancouver, was quoted in a July 19 Oregonian article on the proposed transmission line to serve the approved Echanis Wind Farm project and two more proposed windfarms in Harney County on the north end of Steens Mountain in southeastern Oregon.  The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) recently found that the visual impact is minimal for these wind energy projects.  Controversy surrounds the projects because skeptics believe 200 wind turbines, some towering 415 feet above the juniper and sagebrush, would detract from the grandeur of the 9,733-foot fault-block mountain and its wildlife. Lane Powell Shareholder John Pinkstaff assisted Columbia Energy in obtaining the approval of the Echanis project.