Casper Wyoming Star-Tribune, 7/4/10

By: Jeff Gearino

GREEN RIVER -- Like it or not, wind energy is booming in Wyoming, in part because it's the windiest state in the nation without a shoreline.

The industry is looking at adding at least another 3,000 wind turbines over the next decade, many of them slated for the Cowboy State's southern tier, including Anschutz Corp.'s massive Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind farms planned for Carbon County.

Some of the planned wind farms -- and their accompanying connector and transmission line projects that enable the electricity to be moved out of state -- could affect the state's scenic values, federal officials expect.

But just exactly what do residents believe those scenic values are?

To prepare for a planning review of the resource management plans that guide wind energy and other development on public lands, the Bureau of Land Management's Rock Springs and Rawlins field offices are hosting a series of open houses to collect information for a "visual inventory" of southern Wyoming.....

.....The inventory is being conducted with the assistance of OTAK Inc., a third-party contractor, Wertz said.....

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