The developers of a proposed wind farm on Green Mountain will conduct their first public meeting of 2009 tonight at the Wind Lea Banquet and Conference Center. The public meeting of the US WindForce Pinnacle Wind Farm Advisory Panel is set to start at 6 p.m. The meeting, which continues the monthly updates held since last spring, will focus on setting the agenda for future advisory meetings through the coming year.

Lawyers for the $300 million Beech Ridge Energy project in Greenbrier County say they were blind-sided when anti-windfarm advocates recently filed documents with the state Public Service Commission suggesting a "proposed settlement agreement" was in the works to decrease the number of giant, electric-producing turbines by nearly 50 percent. ...Feinberg accused MCRE of "attempting to mislead the commission" that a settlement was near at hand.

The developers of the proposed Pinnacle Wind Farm near Keyser will not submit the project to the West Virginia Public Service Commission until sometime in February. Stepping back from the recent timeline that called for an early-December submission, officials with US WindForce said the project has been delayed by the numerous details that must be addressed in any such application.

Two companies are proposing to convert wind into energy in Tazewell County through the development of 60 large-scale windmills along the crest of East River Mountain. The two unidentified companies are proposing to build as many as 60 windmills that would be 400 feet tall along the ridges of East River Mountain in Bluefield, Va., David Anderson, the Eastern District member of the Tazewell County Board of Supervisors, said.

A group of Mineral and Grant county residents who own property in the vicinity of the Nancy Hanks Memorial have asked the Mineral County Commission to petition Gov. Joe Manchin for a moratorium on the construction of any additional wind turbines in the state. Harriett Hartman, Bill and Leigh Burt, Joe McKenney, Frank Roleff and Greg Trainor all appealed to the commissioners Tuesday to do what they can to stop the construction of a wind farm along New Creek Mountain and the tip of the Saddle.

A group concerned about proposed wind energy development on Saddle Mountain says placing turbines there could alter the landscape of an area now recognized as the birthplace of Nancy Hanks Lincoln.

The Public Service Commission recently approved the 65-turbine wind farm on the Laurel Mountain Ridge between Randolph and Barbour counties. ..."They have to be maintained and they have to be taken down and money has to be provided for that," said Commissioner Elbon. "You know how we ended up with all the strip mines all over West Virginia. The state had to pay to have those things taken care of. This won't happen with the windmills."

As U.S. WindForce prepares to present its application to the West Virginia Public Service Commission, Dave Friend, vice president for sales and marketing, said the company is looking to do more with the community. "We've been working at the community level for a while," Friend said. "We formed a community advisory panel, which has a cross section from the Keyser, New Creek and Elk Garden area. The goal was to involve the community in our planning process."

Arthur and Pamela Dodds are upset with the West Virginia Public Service Commission's approval of the wind turbine facility along the Laurel Mountain ridgeline in Barbour and Randolph Counties. "I was very disappointed that the wind turbine complex had been approved. I feel there was an improper balancing of the information that the opposition gave," says Pamela Dodds, a Barbour County resident.

The West Virginia Public Service Commission approved AES Laurel Mountain's certificate on Wednesday to construct a $250 million wind turbine electric generating facility of up to 65 wind turbines on an eight-mile stretch of the Laurel Mountain ridgeline between Barbour and Randolph counties. ...Scores of area residents have spoken out against the project saying it would mar the mountainous scenery and interfere with wildlife. Art and Pam Dodds said members of the Laurel Mountain Preservation Association are very disappointed in the decision of the WVPSC to grant the siting certificate.

West Virginia has OK'd a proposed $250 million wind farm along the Laurel Mountain ridgeline. The state Public Service Commission says AES Laurel Mountain has to establish a decommissioning fund, obtain additional permits and satisfy other conditions contained in the order approving construction that was issued Friday.

e West Virginia Public Service Commission is expected to reach a decision today on whether to grant AES' siting permit to construct up to 65 wind turbines on the Laurel Mountain ridge between Barbour and Randolph counties. ...The PSC has been considering all of the written evidence and testimony in order to arrive at a decision in the case. Today is the final day in the statutorily imposed 300-day process for the PSC to make a decision.

US WindForce officials met Monday night to outline plans for a charitable fund the company plans to launch as part of its 23-turbine Pinnacle wind farm, but the meeting turned to the merits of the project itself, as residents rose to register their opposition. "I'm totally against putting 23 turbines on Green Mountain, for obvious reasons," said Keyser resident Mike Wilson. Wilson said the turbines, which will rise 418 feet above the crest of Green Mountain, just west of Keyser, will detract from the natural experience campers savor at Jennings-Randolph Lake's award-winning campground, "2 miles by air" from the turbines.

US Windforce has been hosting monthly meetings of the Community Advisory Panel since spring, when the company began its public outreach for the wind farm. Towering 418 feet, the turbines will rise along the crest of Green Mountain, from just north of the Pinnacle radio tower site, all the way to where the mountain drops down to the Potomac River near Keyser. ...The main topic of discussion Monday night will be the community benefit fund, which US WindForce plans to seed with annual donations of $20,000 for the life of the project, if the wind farm is approved.

According to Blanchard, McBride told DHR, "I can tell you right now, you're going to see them [the turbines]." Agency officials explained to McBride the DHR is not trying to stop his project, but they do need this information to evaluate it. "Mac couldn't seem to understand that," Blanchard said. "Mac is a developer, and he naturally wants the path of least resistance. He kept talking about how much it's going to cost." Blanchard said DHR officials told McBride the State Corporation Commission's order granting HNWD a permit stipulates the company is to work with DHR on these issues. "They told him what they needed," Blanchard said.

The question of how Invenergy would "decommission," or tear down, its $300 million Beech Ridge Energy wind farm came into question during Wednesday's state Public Service Commission compliance hearing A plan for decommissioning all of Beech Ridge Energy's 124 wind turbines slated for north-central Greenbrier County was one of 18 preconstruction conditions mandated by the PSC. Beech Ridge hired the Nebraska-based civil engineering firm HDR to prepare a "decommission report".

With final approval of a siting permit less than a week away, anti-windfarm activists are firing yet another round of legal salvos in their bid to stop the construction of 124 wind turbines slated for north-central Greenbrier County. State Public Service Commission hearings begin next Wednesday to determine if Beech Ridge Energy, owned by the Chicago-based company Invenergy, has complied with dozens of preconstruction terms that the PSC ordered when a conditional building permit was approved in 2007. ...Dave Buhrman said the Washington law firm Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal has been hired to sue Beech Ridge over potential violations of the Endangered Species Act if construction goes forward.

Members of the US WindForce Community Advisory Panel met this week to review wildlife reports and other updates from the proposed Pinnacle wind power project planned for Northeast West Virginia. The Pinnacle project seeks to erect 23 turbines atop Green Mountain, running from the northern end of the Allegheny Wildlife Management Area, northward about 3 miles to the end of the ridgeline near the Potomac River. In development since 2003, the project is approaching the end of the planning stage, with WindForce officials planning to submit the application to the West Virginia Public Service Commission by December.

In newspaper advertisements, ApCo says customers who sign up are "investing in a future of energy that's both clean and green." ...But ApCo has already agreed to buy the green power. ApCo contracted for 75 megawatts of energy from the Camp Grove Wind Farm in central Illinois and 100 megawatts from the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm in western Indiana. ApCo already buys power from Summersville Hydro in West Virginia, and has plans to buy from the Beech Ridge Wind Energy project in Greenbrier County when it is finished. So what's the benefit if ApCo customers sign up, given that the company's already buying the green power?