John Prescott has called for councils to be given more responsibility for the UK meeting its renewable energy targets as figures were released yesterday showing that three quarters of proposed wind farm capacity has failed to win local planning approval. Mr Prescott told delegates at the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) conference in Liverpool that councils were "failing to meet their obligations" in terms of renewables".

A Prince Edward County man is going to court over Ontario's new setback rules for industrial wind farms. Lawyer Eric Gillespie, acting on behalf of client Ian Hanna, a resident of Big Island, has launched the first legal challenge to the Ontario government's Green Energy Act which requires wind turbines be located a minimum 550 metres from homes.

Nova Scotians may face higher electricity costs in the short term as the province moves toward cleaner and renewable energy, says the man in charge of overseeing Nova Scotia's renewable energy strategy. Dalhousie University's David Wheeler said Monday it is inevitable Nova Scotia Power customers will face a jump in prices ..."If we end up with a global carbon energy tax, then producing energy from coal is going to be very expensive for Nova Scotia consumers," Mr. Wheeler told reporters.

Ian Hanna said his application for judicial review, being called the first of its kind, is his latest appeal to the government after petitions failed to stop plans for five turbines about 900 metres away from his property on Big Island in the Bay of Quinte. The community of about 100 homes will be overwhelmed by the turbines, he charged. "My parents taught us when we were growing up that we should stand up for what we thought is good and right and whether that's for my family or for my neighbours, I intend to do that," he said.

John Prescott, the former Deputy Prime Minister, will today launch a ferocious attack on the "landowners and nimbys" who he says are holding up the installation of wind farms across Britain and thus hindering the fight against climate change. In unashamed class-warrior style, Mr Prescott lashes out at opponents of windpower who successfully block planning applications for wind turbines because they may spoil their "chocolate box view".

If nothing else, the opposition is organized. While members of the U.S. Senate struggle to find the right language for the American Clean Energy and Security Act and the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, the opposition to both measures has grown larger and more vocal. ...In fact many industry leaders say the bills would kill jobs and wreck the economy. Across the country trade associations have lined up to stop the Waxman-Markey bill.

"The Green Energy Act, 2009 and its regulations clearly do not appear to meet the requirements of law in the province of Ontario," said lawyer Eric Gillespie today in a news conference at Queen's Park. On behalf of his client Ian Hanna, Gillespie explained that a court application was filed earlier today for judicial review of the Green Energy Act, 2009 based on the Precautionary Principle as it applies to industrial wind turbine installations.

Government plans to generate 30 per cent of UK electricity from renewable sources by 2020 are doomed to failure, according to the chief executive of one of the world's biggest utility companies. Wulf Bernotat, chief executive of E.ON, said that British politicians needed to stop misleading the public about what was achievable. He said that British plans to build 33 gigawatts of offshore wind power, up from 0.6 gigawatts at present, was impossible, given the necessary investment and relatively short timeframe.

Texas cares little for environmental niceties. Its governor, Rick Perry, bashes the Environmental Protection Agency at every opportunity, and recently branded the climate bill that passed the House of Representatives a "legislative monstrosity." Yet the oil-and-gas state has nonetheless emerged as the nation's top producer of a commodity prized by environmentalists: wind power. Eager developers are covering its desolate western mesas with giant turbines. The world's largest wind farm began operations in Texas this month, and the state now has close to three times as much wind capacity as Iowa, the second-ranked state.

Wind turbinesReuters A government grant program is helping the wind industry's recovery effort. Wind energy representatives are crediting the federal government's stimulus package for restarting their hobbled industry. ...The capital markets are still weak, the developers say. And another government program has yet to get off the ground: The Department of Energy is supposed to issue loan guarantees for renewable energy projects, but just one has been issued.

Maine's pursuit of renewable energy got a stiff tailwind from two directions Thursday. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that a consortium led by the University of Maine has been awarded as much as $8 million to develop technology to harness winds and deploy two floating, offshore turbines in the Gulf of Maine. Also Thursday, Gov. John Baldacci's office announced it would help start up the first half of a Kibby Mountain wind power project.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state's governor, has supported controversial proposals by the California's energy commission to impose strict energy consumption limits on TVs with screens that are more than 40 inches wide. The commission claims that California's estimated 35 million televisions and related gadgets account for about 10 per cent of household energy consumption in the state.

Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Murdoch is calling for a province-wide moratorium on wind turbine projects and is introducing a resolution at Queen's Park later this month. Through his resolution, which he expects to be debated on Oct. 29, Mr. Murdoch will call on the province and its chief medical doctor to state whether or not wind turbines cause health problems for people who live near them. Mr. Murdoch said the government has a responsibility as well as a mandate to investigate such claims.

Wind farm opponents plan to gather at Queen's Park this month to pressure provincial politicians to support MPP Bill Murdoch's bid to halt further turbine projects until Ontario investigates alleged health effects. "This might be our chance to make a statement," Georgian Bluffs resident Wendy McKee told a crowd during a community meeting on wind turbines and health. She said she will try to reserve a bus to transport concerned Grey-Bruce residents to Toronto for the Oct. 29 vote.

Recently, Innisfil council sent a letter to the provincial government, expressing concerns over the regulations. The letter encouraged the province to accept recommendations from the town's Innisfil Alternative Energy Ad Hoc Committee, which call for changes to setbacks for renewable energy projects, clean-up requirements and other aspects of the Act. The Act also gives jurisdiction over project approvals to the province, said Jackson.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a pair of renewable-energy bills late Sunday, saying that an alternative plan he is pursuing to boost the state's percentage of renewable power sold to 33% is preferable. ...Unlike the vetoed legislation, the new rules won't limit the amount of renewable power California utilities can buy from out-of-state facilities that are too far away to deliver the electricity in real time. Mr. Schwarzenegger agreed ...that restricting out-of-state renewable energy purchases would make it nearly impossible for utilities to meet the 2020 deadline.

The price of certificates fell more than 15 per cent last week to $28, its lowest in almost three years, extending a steady slide since reaching a peak of $51 in May and taking the fall since the renewable energy target legislation was passed in August to 30 per cent. Certificates, each representing 1MW hour of renewable energy produced ...But the market is being swamped by certificates generated by domestic solar hot water and heat pump systems, and some industry analysts say if this continues it could last for several years and may cause the delay or cancellation of wind power and other renewable projects because the price signal will simply not be strong enough to make the projects viable.

For Ontario to blow $1 billion over seven years not delivering on electronic health (eHealth) records, as Auditor General Jim McCarter documented last week, is frightening. But here's something just as scary. Everything that went wrong with eHealth can just as easily go wrong with Premier Dalton McGuinty's similarly half-baked plan to make us a "renewable" energy giant. Right down to the fact the same cabinet minister in charge when most of the damage was done at eHealth, is now in charge of renewable energy.

The Department of Public Service agreed Thursday to support Entergy’s plan to spin off Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant into a new subsidiary called Enexus. In July, the DPS urged the Vermont Public Service Board not to issue a certificate of public good unless certain conditions were met. Those conditions included the status of the plant’s condenser and its back-up power transformer, the decommissioning fund, on-site spent fuel handling costs and a power purchase agreement.

Green energy is the only option for ending Ontario's reliance on coal plants, a spokeswoman for Energy and Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman said yesterday. While there may be unanswered health questions related to industrial wind turbines, there's no doubt about health risks associated with coal burning power plants, Smitherman's press secretary Amy Tang said. "We have to remember why we entered into renewable energy in the first place, which was our commitment to get off coal," she said.