Calumet County supervisors jumped the gun on new wind turbine rules this summer even while asking the state Supreme Court to consider whether its old ordinance met legal muster. A denial from Wisconsin's justices will now require the county to put that early work to action. The state Supreme Court on Friday denied Calumet County's petition for review of an appeals court decision that invalidated the county's wind turbine rules. The ordinance dictated setbacks and maximum heights and sound levels for all turbine construction within its zoning jurisdiction.

Wisconsin’s endangered species law (s. 29.604, Wis. Stats.) requires the Department of Natural Resources to notify the public when it proposes to authorize the incidental taking of a state endangered or threatened species.

Business has been slow, so dairy farmer Bernie Kozlovsky could use a little extra cash as much as the next guy. But a developer's offer of $6,000 annually for access to his property has Kozlovsky - and many of his neighbors - conflicted about whether to welcome a wind farm into southern Brown County. The proposal by Chicago-based Invenergy LLC would be Brown County's first major commercial wind farm and would be larger than any currently operating in the state.

[Walter] Wiersma, of Friesland, was one of many people at the standing-room-only hearing who said worries about the health effects, safety and noise from wind turbines in a 17,300-acre area of the towns of Scott and Randolph, should lead the commission to reject the We Energies proposal for Glacier Hills Wind Park. "I'm for green energy," he said, "but I don't want it to hurt my family and friends." The afternoon and evening sessions for the hearing were moved from the Randolph Town Hall to the Friesland Village Hall to accommodate more people.