Pit River Tribe prevails as California Energy Commission definitively rejects Fountain Wind Project
The state agency denied energy giant Repsol the required certification to develop a wind energy project on Pit River holy lands. It’s the third time the project has been denied. The first two denials occurred locally, in Shasta County.
A definitive ruling on the Fountain Wind Project occurred today at the state level as the California Energy Commission officially rejected an almost decade-long attempt to build a wind turbine facility in a densely-wooded part of rural Shasta County.
Officials with the state commission said today that the Fountain Wind project — which was brought forward by Spain-based energy giant Repsol — would have created an unprecedented 47 significant environmental and cultural impacts if the project was built.
“This is the largest number of impacts in our history,” the California Energy Commission Executive Director Drew Bohan said. He and other staff issued recommendations to commission members over recent months advising them to deny the project. Today, commissioners did — while emphasizing an ongoing commitment to clean renewable energy, specifically wind projects.
“This is just the responsible thing to do,” Commissioner Andrew McAllister said, before casting his vote. Commissioner Nancy Skinner concurred, while adding: “it’s never an easy thing to deny a project, especially a renewable energy project, knowing our goals.”
Repsol had proposed an approximate 48 wind turbines be built on forested land east of Round Mountain, an area of immense religious and cultural significance to the Pit River Tribe. A review by the state found that Fountain Wind would wreak significant damage on the Pit River Tribe’s cultural heritage as it relates to the land where the plant would be constructed. The report also outlined concerns about wildfire risk, among other environmental issues.
The Tribe has engaged in years of opposition to the project along with a broad nonpartisan coalition of elected officials, as well as nearby residents, ranchers, and environmentalists. More than a dozen members of the Pit River Tribe, which includes eleven bands living across ancestral land that is now part of four North State counties, traveled hours through stormy weather to speak in person during the Sacramento meeting today, with many others joining in online. Public testimony against the project lasted for about two hours.
Awi Gustafson, an elected cultural representative for the Issawi band of the Pit River Tribe, said his people have already been impacted by the effects of the nearby Hatchet Ridge Wind project and emphasized his strong belief that the Fountain Wind project would work against environmental sustainability, not towards it.
“We are nothing without the land,” Gustafson said. “You cannot sustain land you have already destroyed. We are the ones sustaining the land. We are the ones protecting it, and we are doing what needs to be done for the safety of our future. Desecration of sacred lands for energy is continued discrimination to those who have inhabited the land since time immemorial.”
According to CEC documents, while the project will directly impact Shasta’s land and water, there is no guarantee that power generated from the site will serve local users, including members of the Pit River Tribe, some of whom continue to have inconsistent access to electricity. The use of Tribal land to serve the needs of Californians in other parts of the state has a long and fraught history, as seen by Pit River resistance to companies like PG&E.
Repsol has framed Fountain Wind as an economic boon to Shasta County that would be consistent with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s goal of weaning California off fossil fuel dependency. Shasta County had already rejected the project’s approval twice, before it was taken up for reconsideration by the state as a result of a new California law passed in 2023.
Officials from Shasta County, including CEO David Rickert and Supervisor Chris Kelstrom as well as former Shasta Planning Commission members, also spoke in person to oppose the project. Former commissioner Steve Kerns said when the project was first proposed he asked a Tribal friend to explain the significance of the land the project would impact.
“And he explained over three hours,” Kerns said, “and it dawned on me that we Anglos also have lands that are very important to us. Consider Gettysburg … or Bunker Hill … those places are sacred to our culture … we would not allow a windmill farm to be built on any of those places … and that’s the same for the Pit River Tribe.”
Before the vote, Derek Rieman, Chief Development Officer for the North American branch of Repsol, urged the Commission to approve the project, saying the company has invested nearly a decade in efforts to site Fountain Wind in Shasta and emphasizing the many billions that Repsol has, and will, invest in energy projects across the United States.
Several other members of the public also spoke in support of the project, expressing concern about federal opposition to wind projects nationwide under President Donald Trump and emphasizing that positive outcomes for California wind projects are important to meet state renewable energy goals.
Commissioners addressed those concerns, saying denial of the Fountain Wind project should not be construed as pushback more generally on wind energy in California and emphasizing that today’s decision was based on the particular impacts of the Fountain Wind project.
Do you have information or a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
Through December 31, NewsMatch is matching donations dollar-for-dollar up to $18,000, giving us the chance to double that amount for local journalism in Shasta County. Don't wait — the time to give is now!
Support Scout, and multiply your gift
Authors
Comments (13)
Leave a comment
Related Articles
A group of community members are hoping to start a new medical school in Shasta. Here’s what we know
Redding Vice Mayor Dr. Paul Dhanuka and Simpson University President Dr. Norm Hall are some of the leading figures behind the plan.
With more rain ahead, Redding officials explain flooding, urge caution
This weekend, the city’s stormwater infrastructure became clogged with debris due to the speed and volume of rain, officials said, leading to serious flooding in parts of Redding.
The Redding Public Market opened about a month ago. Here’s how it’s going
The CEO of the development company that owns the market said the venue, which is serving around 2,000 people a day, is revitalizing downtown.
Hopefully, this will put an end to it.
What a confluence. I asked a guy handing out anti-Fountain Project literature before a supervisor’s meeting a couple of years ago if there was a place where wind-generated power would be appropriate. He wasn’t expecting the question. After a minute or so, he said no, wind generation was a hoax. With mixed thinking about the project, this is a win for the tribe. The First Nations of N. Ca, and for that matter, the US, were subjected to well-documented genocide, and then apartheid, by the white culture. In Northern California, the tribes were hit fast; they hardly understood what happened, and the Fountain Project could be seen as defecating on their sacred lands and culture. Here in Shasta Co, many of the politicians, not all, who oppose the project are well-documented Trumpers, and like him are anti-environmentalist and anti-alternative power …. period, and the lying oily fascist drinks oil for breakfast, ask Venezuela. Besides, as one Republican Rep. once quoted, windmills, “would slow down the Earth’s rotation and make the temperature go up…” Crye, Kelstorm, and Jones have used the project as a, See, I told you!” A sickness called the war on science. But it’s a win for the Tribes.
SUGGESTION:
– Embedding a Google map of the area mentioned in this article, including if possible a YouTube video directly related to this matter.
Nevertheless, a very interesting piece of writing indeed.
Ok. So i guess my original comment wasnt in line with the message SS is promoting. Calling out people as Anglos and claiming to be the true stewards of the land is lazy and shows a lack of understanding of human migration. The Pit conquored someone before them. Now they are protecting their interests which is human nature. Beyond that, talking about the spiritual connection is no more sound then the generations of the rest of us who were born here and buried our grandparents here also. Every time i read an article that glamorizes the carve outs and reparations ill hold my nose. It makes you feel better to write up a bunch of baseless platitudes but dont expect anyone with half a brain who drives past casinos to buy what youre selling.
NC: I will continue to encourage you to learn about the Natives killed on land we now know as Shasta by white settlers at the behest of the California government. And of the difference between the few hundred years white settlers have lived here and the long-term stewardship of this land by Indigenous people. These are facts, not my opinion. How you feel about those facts is of course up to you.
Me living my entire life on this land is equal to any other person’s stake upon it and your belief in an inherent, cosmic native stewardship is just as ridiculous as anything pushed out by Bethel and the Catholics. There is human nature and human migration. Who do you think the Pit replaced? Good for all the groups left standing that they have found a way to work the system, but dont lecture me on divine rights. Ridiculous.
NC: Please don’t attribute your idea of religious beliefs to me. There was no lecture on divine rights. My comments were rooted in history and science.
You said there is a “difference between the few hundred years white settlers have lived here and the long-term stewardship of this land by Indigenous people.” There is so much here wrong in this comment that youd never understand the response. Go ahead an continue to conflate all native people as a static moment.
I wholly support the CEC decision but Steve Kerns should speak only for himself. I for one think that Bunker Hill or Gettysberg would be a splendid place for some windmills. Those places are as sacred as any other place is as the entire planet is.
How does a burial ground in use for millenia where tribal people prayed and willfully brought their dead en masse, have any analog to a military battle ground/mass grave of soldiers that just happened to succeeded in offing each other in a particular place that was open enough for clear shots and wheeled artillary?
There is none.
If the current regime gets its way there will soon be plenty of NEW battlegrounds and mass burials to palder and feel all warm and fuzzy over, and just think, we might be able to visit actual friends, neighbors and relatives!
George Carlin offered some sage advice to all the Civil War lovers/ reinactors:
“Use Live Ammo”
If someone wanted to build a windpark over the cemetery i was interned in i would gladly allow my bones to be dug up. Make some fertilizer or glue or something useful while you are at it.
That said i 101% support the Pit River Tribe. Centuries of Lying Presidents signing their meaningless signature on treaties that mean nothing while whittling down territories and displacing generations of Native people to plunder natural resources.
Fat Takers…Look it up.
What is left of Tribal Lands needs to be left for them and them only to care for. Period.
For that matter, sign all National Parks back over to Tribal ownership, the current regime has proved incapable of keeping them running anyway.
Back to Spain with Repsol, don’t let the door…..
Any place for windmills is a stupid idea. They have been proven as economically unsustainable from a macro perspective, without government subsidies. Placing them in places of historical significance is a ridiculous idea. I hope you were being sarcastic. Your post then goes on to support the Pit River Indians, seems to me your post is conflicted.
Great coverage, real journalism here, thank you!
After years of trying to ensure this project never became a reality, it’s such a relief to celebrate this outcome. Many thanks to Paul Hellman, Adam Fiesler, Matt McOmber and Allen Cox, all former employees of Shasta County, for their tenacious and talented work to have this project rejected.
And many Thank Yous to Patric Jones, Kevin Crye, Cris Kelstrum who voted
no on the project also.