A high-profile wind energy project proposed in California’s far north, with 48 turbines – some rising 600 feet – and the capacity to power 80,000 homes, was supposed to be a sure thing.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s climate-friendly Legislature passed a landmark 2022 law that gave the state the authority to approve renewable power projects, instead of local governments, to ensure that California has enough power to meet its clean-energy targets.

But on Friday, the California Energy Commission, which had taken jurisdiction over the Fountain Wind Project in Shasta County, rejected the venture after years of local pushback.

Despite the value of the wind power, the commission’s five-member governing board, voting unanimously, agreed with the county’s critics that the benefits of the proposal did not outweigh environmental, safety and, perhaps most significantly, tribal impacts.

“It’s never easy to deny a project, especially a renewable energy project, knowing our goals,” said Nancy Skinner, a voting commissioner. But, she added, the state law designed to bring more clean power to California’s grid doesn’t guarantee that every project gets approved.

The Fountain Wind Project would have been constructed across 2,855 acres on a mountainous ridge, near the small community of Burney. According to the commission’s assessment, it would have brought inevitable forest destruction, problems for birds and bats, navigation obstacles for firefighting aircraft and degradation of historical tribal lands.

“We identified 47 significant unmitigable impacts,” said Drew Bohan, executive director of the California Energy Commission, who helped prepare the 1,200-page project assessment. “This is the largest number of impacts in our history.”

Assembly Bill 205 was passed three years ago to help developers of wind and solar projects overcome local opposition to their proposals by applying to the California Energy Commission for streamlined authorization. The legislation seeks to help the state meet its goal of generating all its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045.

In Shasta County, the Fountain Wind Project had already been denied by the county when the developer, Houston-based ConnectGen, which has since been acquired by Spain-based Repsol, turned to the state for approval after the passage of AB 205. The project was the first to be taken up by the California Energy Commission under the new law.

The change in jurisdiction irked locals who accused the company of inappropriately taking a “second bite at the apple.” The county proceeded to sue the California Energy Commission for taking away its authority under the new law.  That suit was put on hold until after the commission’s vote.

Protest of the project and its handling brought together a diverse and ultimately convincing coalition of Shasta County residents, which included North State Republicans, environmentalists and local tribes.

“These lands are sacred to us,” said Yatch Bamford, chairman of the Pit River Tribe, whose ancestral territory spans much of the far reaches of Northern California. “We understand more than anyone the urgency of addressing climate change … (but) California can achieve its clean-energy future while acknowledging the rights and concerns of indigenous people.”

A smaller wind farm already runs across the adjacent Hatchet Ridge.

Dozens of tribal members spoke out against the Fountain Wind Project at Friday’s hearing in Sacramento.

Bohan, the California Energy Commission’s executive director, underscored that the agency’s aversion to the proposal was not a “repudiation” of wind development.

“I want to note that the federal administration is openly hostile to wind energy,” he said. “The CEC is not.”

This article originally published at A California law was supposed to fast-track renewable energy. The state just shot down a key test case.