Fountain Wind

Have an opinion on Fountain Wind? Want to learn what’s happening with a possible state approval? State representatives will be in Anderson today.

Shasta County’s Acting County Counsel says the state agency does not have jurisdiction to consider approving the Fountain Wind Project after it was already denied twice at the local level. We share more.

In 2021, Shasta County officials definitively rejected the Fountain Wind mega-energy project, twice. But now a new California law may allow Texas-based ConnectGen to build the mammoth wind turbine project anyway, despite local decisions based on years of complex environmental studies, hours of testimonies, and in-depth Tribal consultations. Fountain Wind is poised to become a first test of how much the state is willing to bypass local and Tribal governments to meet its clean energy goals.

From Indigenous sacred site protectors and former hippies to Trump supporters and conservative Christians, an eclectic Intermountain community collaborated last year to resist the proposed $300 million Fountain Wind energy project. Several key organizers talked to Shasta Scout about what the coalition’s story means for the future of the region and alternate energy.

ConnectGen is appealing a June denial of the controversial energy project by the Shasta County Planning Commission. They say their newly proposed modifications will reduce the scope of the project and provide “enhanced benefits” to the Pit River Tribe, which continues to oppose the project.

Local tribes regularly advocate for environmental protection and restoration. So why are local Native peoples’ cultures and religions continually threatened by green projects?