Tortoises Block Wind Towers -- November 5,2015

Wow.

Federal judge tosses out BLM's approval of Nevada's largest wind project. E&E Publishing is reporting:

A federal judge in Nevada has thrown out the Obama administration's approval of what was projected to be the Silver State's largest wind power project, ruling that the Interior Department did not properly evaluate potential impacts to golden eagles and Mojave Desert tortoises.

U.S. District Judge Miranda Du's seven-page order issued late Friday is a sharp rebuke of the final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the 200-megawatt Searchlight Wind Energy Project conducted by the Bureau of Land Management and a biological opinion conducted by the Fish and Wildlife Service. Former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed a record of decision formally approving the project in March 2013.

Legal experts say this is the first time a court has formally ruled invalid a final EIS, biological opinion and record of decision for a renewable energy project.

The order is based on a lawsuit filed in April 2013 in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada in Las Vegas by two groups -- Basin and Range Watch and Friends of Searchlight Desert and Mountains -- and three residents who live near the proposed wind project against Salazar, BLM and FWS.

Check out E&E Publishing at wiki.

So many story lines, but perhaps the two most important story lines:

• as the Obama administration winds down, bureaucrats and judges are less afraid of the president
• there is internal squabbling among the various government agencies over how to protect the environment; four years ago the eagles and tortoises were losing; today they seem to be winning more than they are losing