Good post, Centurion. The LEPC does shun wind turbines, but it traditionally shuns all tall forms (trees and phone poles, for instance) because its chief predators (raptors) can perch there. Treeless short grass prairie is preferred habitat.
I know some people who performed LEPC surveys in OK and NM. Both told me nearly all the survey sites were on or contiguous to PRIVATE land. So to list this bird would entail private property confiscation on a huge scale. This is tyrannical abuse in my book.
But watch out: the greater sage-grouse is next. That war is already underway.
When I burn my pasture, the Red Tailed Hawks come from miles around, lunch is served. The field mice don’t stand a chance without cover, and the LPC fully understand this. What they don’t understand is that the wind turbine is their friend, killing lots of raptors as offering to the Green god.
The ESA is the weapon of mass destruction for those who believe that their radical views trump the rights of others. It is rule by fiat, now fully enabled by a Leftist Administration and a radical bureaucracy.