The West Virginia developer can construct 40 turbines but not the 140 they had hoped to build!

Why not all 140?

Because the developer underestimated the clout that the endangered Indiana Bat had with a Federal judge.

That represents a lot of renewable energy that won’t ever make it into the grid.  My thoughts?  I have these two thoughts; first, it may be true that 140 turbines would truly put this imperiled bat at risk or second, it may just be the case that the developer failed to reach out to government regulators early and often enough and provide them with the bat data they needed to make an informed decision.  The MANY articles on this brouhaha can be accessed here.

The bottom line for me is that it is critical for wind developers to hire qualified biologists that can conduct flaw assessments of all their project sites and to meet early on and often with all federal and state regulators.  By so doing developers can find out early-on exactly what they are signing up for regarding avoiding or minimizing risk to birds and bats.