Horizon Wind Energy has suspended development of the Simpson Ridge wind farm in Carbon County because of Wyoming's rigid position on protecting key sage grouse habitat. Houston-based Horizon is not scrapping the project, but is placing it on hold indefinitely, project manager Nate Sandvig said Friday.

Should the lesser prairie chicken become listed as threatened or endangered - and it's close now - there would be significant restrictions on companies hoping to plant towering turbines across a five-state region believed to have some of the nation's best wind energy potential. "We've never seen the likes of this," said Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife biologist Heather Whitlaw, who is part of conservation efforts with the other states and believes the bird could be listed within two years. "Anybody who puts anything on our landscape would be evaluated in one form or another."

They used to mine coal in the abandoned town of Carbon. Now this patch of southern Wyoming is a battleground in the debate over what many hope will be the clean energy source of the future: wind power. At the heart of the dispute are plans to build a network of wind farms in the American West that conservationists fear could disrupt threatened habitat such as sage brush, a dwindling piece of the region's fragile ecosystem.

Project manager Nate Sandvig said Friday the company has decided not to submit a permit application to the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council based on the state's recent decision not to allow wind energy development in key sage grouse habitats. ... Earlier this month, Gov. Dave Freudenthal's chief of staff, Ryan Lance, said the decision not to allow wind energy in sage grouse core areas came after consulting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

A proposal by an Eastern Washington utility consortium to build the state's first coastal wind farm by 2011 has run smack up against the habitat requirements of a threatened seabird. Energy Northwest, based in the Tri-Cities, has signed a lease with the Washington Department of Natural Resources to build a wind farm on 3,359 acres of state trust land near Naselle, in Pacific County.

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett must approve the Stockyard Hill Wind Farm, under national laws, before it can go ahead. The project has gone to the Federal Government because it has been found likely to have significant environmental impact. It now must be assessed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

RSPB Scotland has today lodged a formal objection to the Viking wind farm proposal on Shetland. After scrutinising in detail the developer's application, assessments have revealed there would be significant and unacceptable adverse impacts on many bird species should the development proceed as currently proposed.

RSPB Scotland has lodged an objection to plans for Scotland's largest community wind farm, on Shetland. The Viking Energy project, for 150 turbines, is a joint venture between Scottish and Southern Energy and the island community. ...Populations of birds, including the golden plover, could be threatened by some of the turbines, RSPB Scotland said.

A decision to block wind energy development from key sage grouse habitats in Wyoming could effectively nullify a significant portion of the state's wind energy resource. But exactly how much is unclear. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering listing the sage grouse as a threatened and endangered species. Half of the bird's remaining prime habitat in the West lies within Wyoming's borders.

Wind farms in Italy threaten to wipe out the Golden Eagle, farmers` organisation Coldiretti and national environmental organisations said Wednesday. A conference against wind power in Rome heard that huge numbers of birds are already being killed when they collide with the spokes of wind towers in Italy.

The Central Highlands could soon be home to the state's biggest wind farm but the endangered wedge- tailed eagle may stop the multimillion-dollar development before it begins. ...But the project faces one major hurdle that has stopped similar developments in the past. N. P. Power had identified that wedge-tailed eagles and white- bellied sea eagles inhabit the region, with two nests existing on the wind farm site.

Cheyenne Wind developers have asked the Department of the Interior to review Wyoming's sage grouse protection policy in light of the state's recent hard-line stance against building wind farms in important habitat areas for the chicken-sized birds. ...Wind developers say they're concerned that Wyoming's position could "abruptly halt wind energy development in Wyoming's sage-grouse 'core areas'.

Tanner Gue knows as well as anyone just how wet it's been this summer in some of North Dakota's prime waterfowl country. That's good for ducks, of course, even if it sometimes complicates life for people trying to study them. A UND graduate student, Gue, 25, is heading up the fieldwork portion of a two-year research project aiming to learn more about the impact of wind farms on the survival of nesting ducks.

A utility company on Friday agreed to a settlement of more than $10 million following the electrocution of dozens of eagles, hawks, owls and other birds in Wyoming. PacifiCorp pleaded guilty to 34 violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Shickich in Casper ordered the utility to pay a $510,000 fine and $900,000 in restitution.

The state's recent decision not to allow wind development in critical sage grouse habitat essentially takes 75 percent of Wyoming's best wind resources off the table, according to one independent wind energy company. In response, wind developers are teaming up with wildlife agencies across nine western states to launch a $10 million, five-year research effort.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it opposes construction of any wind farms in Wyoming's core sage grouse population areas, a position that wind developers say could have a chilling effect on their plans in the state. Brian Kelly, supervisor in the agency's Wyoming field office, made the comments in a letter Tuesday responding to an inquiry from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

The New South Wales Government has given planning approval for a wind farm at Gullen Range, near Goulburn, after putting in place measures to protect the powerful owl and the wedgetail eagle. ...Ms Keneally says the the use of some turbines will have to be restricted when the young owls are learning to fly.

The federal government has charged PacifiCorp and Exxon Mobil Corp. in two unrelated cases with killing scores of migratory birds in Wyoming, according to court documents filed last week in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne. PacifiCorp, which does business in Wyoming as Rocky Mountain Power, is charged in a 34-count criminal information document with the deaths of 38 golden eagles at power poles in six counties from December 2007 to February 2009.

State officials recently reached a decision not to allow wind development -- or even a pilot study -- in Wyoming's sage grouse core areas. It's a potentially huge blow to several wind development projects, including Horizon Wind Energy's Simpson Ridge project and Power Company of Wyoming's Sierra Madre and Chokecherry wind projects -- all in Carbon County. Gov. Dave Freudenthal issued the core areas sage grouse management plan by executive order in August 2008.

A pond in the north of the site has been the home of marsh harriers and bitterns since at least 2005, research by the bird charity as shown. But developer Ridge Wind said it had considered the environmental impact of its development and was sure there would be no damage caused by the windfarm.