A lawsuit seeks to block interconnection of what could become Wyoming’s largest wind farm, alleging an inadequate environmental review of the interconnection plan. 

The 504-MW Rail Tie Wind Project being developed by Repsol Renewables would have negative effects on local eagle populations and on the wide-open vistas in the area, the plaintiffs argue. 

They fault the Western Area Power Administration for this and are asking the court to set aside WAPA’s Record of Decision, Final Environmental Impact Statement and Historic Properties Treatment Plan. 

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Wyoming on Dec. 23 against WAPA and Jennifer Granholm in her role as head of the U.S. Department of Energy, WAPA’s parent agency. As of Jan. 7, there was no indication in the federal court system’s public records portal of any reply by WAPA or DOE. 

The project would occupy 26,000 acres south of Laramie, near the Colorado border, and would interconnect with WAPA’s Ault-Craig 345-kV transmission line. 

WAPA published an environmental impact statement in late 2021, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and issued its record of decision in mid-2022. 

On Oct. 28, 2024, WAPA issued a seven-point mitigation action plan that called for measures including a one-mile buffer zone around known eagle nests, preparation of an eagle conservation plan and funding for historic preservation efforts in the area, which has a connection to construction of the original transcontinental railroad. 

Two months later, attorneys for the plaintiffs — who are two neighbors of the site; a retired wildlife biologist who has placed satellite tags on 152 golden eagles for research purposes; a conservation nonprofit; and a professional archaeologists’ association — filed their suit in federal court in Wyoming. 

They assert and allege that: 

• • Rail Tie would be larger than any wind farm now operating in Wyoming. 

• • Construction would entail 60 miles of new roads, 109 stream crossings and 84 to 149 wind turbines standing 500 to 675 feet tall. 

• • By WAPA’s own admission, operation would present a “significant” threat to raptors including federally protected bald and golden eagles. 

• • The impact statement acknowledges that the size and number of turbines used in the project is unknown, so the analysis is based on “guesswork adorned with rhetorical misdirection.” 

• • WAPA “shrugs off any serious consideration of those effects” by deferring analysis to reports that will not be completed until many years after the NEPA process is completed, if at all. 

• • WAPA considered only two options — denying the interconnection request or approving it in its entirety. 

• • The next-closest 345-kV line is approximately 20 miles from Rail Tie’s sprawling footprint; connecting to that rather than to WAPA’s Ault-Craig line would cost at least $21.5 million and skew the economics of a project already expected to cost more than $500 million. 

The plaintiffs are asking the court to enjoin WAPA from authorizing interconnection of Rail Tie until the agency has complied with all of its obligations under federal law. 

The Rail Tie project website indicates the developer has been through review at the county, state and federal levels; has secured all major permits needed; is focused on final engineering and reconstruction activities; is finalizing an offtaker for the electricity the project would produce; and expects to start construction this spring. 

If it is completed as planned, Rail Tie would continue a striking transition in the nation’s leading coal-producing state: Since 2015, Wyoming’s coal production is down by nearly 40% while its wind power production has more than doubled, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. 

Southeast Wyoming — including Albany County, where Rail Tie would be built — has among the strongest wind resources in the nation, with swaths rated “excellent,” “outstanding” and “superb” under the Department of Energy’s WindExchange rating system.