That is feeding the machine. You don't think that's wrong? You must be just another enemy of the working
bat and bird
/sad
I'm not sure about in the US, but here in New Zealand, what would happen is that because of the scale of the potential adverse environmental effects, and because of the scale of the project, the decision would (probably) be made to process the consent as a notified consent (assuming consent is granted in the first case). This means that the power company would be required to advertise at the site, and in the local papers to some minimum standard (i'm not familiar with the standard, my job is at the other end of the process, making sure people stick to the resource consents they've been granted). Submissions would be accepted from affected parties, either in favour of, against, or neutral to the consent, these positions may be conditional, or unconditional (eg: "I'm opposed to the granting of this consent, period". Or "I'm opposed to the granting of the consent, unless they do this, this and that, at which point I might reconsider my position").
If the consent is unopposed, it moves onto the next step (as can happen, I think, if people wish to simply lodge a 'formal objection' but don't wish to be heard). The next step consists of the consent being written by the council. A draft is sent to the applicant, I think some negotiation is possible, and the consent is finalized.
Once the consent is finalized, (I think) if the applicant does not agree with the council imposed conditions, or (I think) if an agreement can't be reached, then the applicant has the right to appeal the consent decision to the
environment court. However, the danger in that for the applicant is that the courts word is (usually) final, and the Environment court judge may see fit to impose stricter conditions than the council was seeking to impose, and precedents set in one part of the country by the environment court are not neccessarily applicable in another. If a point of law can be found, then the
High Court is available. Here, precedents can be set, and these precdents can be raised in the enviroment court to try and sway the judge. Failing that, there's the
Court of Appeal and finally the
Supreme Court (our replacement for the recently abandoned privy council).
If the resource consent is opposed, and the submitters wish to be heard, then a council hearing will take place, which will consider the submissions heard, in combination with expert evidence/testimony, and from there, what amounts to a comprimise is saught (again, assuming the counsellors decide to grant the resource consent in the first place). From there, the legal pathways outlined above can also be followed.
So, in the case of Gustav, with his concerns about bats and birds, Gustav might put forward a submission opposed to the establishment of a wind farm in a particular place, choose to be heard, and may testify regarding the impact of wind farms on birds and bats, he may even produce expert evidence when he is heard. If Gustav considers the consents that are granted to be insufficient to protect the populations of bats and birds that he is concerned about, and a better agreement can not be reached, then he might decide to appeal the decision through the legal system (and so on).
The down side of all of this is that, for example, there have been retailers in NZ that have 'mis-used' the process through what amount to vexatious submissions ("We're concerned about the impact your supermarket will have on traffic flows, no, really, we don't think what you've considered is adequate") in an attempt to get resource consents declined or over turned, in what amounts to anti-competitive practice.
As I said though, I only have a general understanding of the process, because I work at the other end of it - I make sure, for example, that discharge volumes and effluent quality from municipal WWTPs meet the standards laid out in the resource consents for their discharges.