http://www.windaction.org/ facts, analysis, exposure of wind energy's real impacts en-us Windaction hourly 1 http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.windaction.org/articles/21707 Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT Wind turbines belonging to the Cedar Creek Wind Energy Project clutter the historic horizon once 'owned' by the Pawnee Buttes. Some of the wildest, most remote and magnificent landscapes of Colorado and elsewhere in the U.S. are quickly being dismissed as unimportant in the race to build wind power everywhere. http://www.windaction.org/articles/21707 http://www.windaction.org/articles/21709 Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT This sign outside the Cedar Creek wind energy facility forbids the public to walk the land near the Pawnee Buttes in Colorado. After centuries of this land being open to people, this historic area now serves as an industrial power facility. http://www.windaction.org/articles/21709 http://www.windaction.org/articles/17880 Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:15:21 GMT A famous viewshed in Colorado now destroyed by nearly 300 turbines at the Pawnee Grasslands. The Pawnee Buttes, immortalized in Michener's book "Centennial" and numerous other works are now surrounded by wind turbines. http://www.windaction.org/articles/17880 http://www.windaction.org/articles/17879 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:04:20 GMT A famous viewshed in Colorado now destroyed by nearly 300 turbines at the Pawnee Grasslands. The Pawnee Buttes, immortalized in Michener's book "Centennial" and numerous other works are now surrounded by wind turbines. http://www.windaction.org/articles/17879 http://www.windaction.org/articles/16709 Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT A view of the large wind farms under construction in Northern Colorado. One of these wind farms, Cedar Creek, is located at the Wyoming-Nebraska-Colorado border. The other, the Peetz Table wind farm, is farther east in Colorado, just south of Sidney, Nebraska. Together they include 500 wind turbines with peak generating capacity of 700MW. http://www.k0lee.com/blog/2007/11/colorado-wind-energy.html http://www.windaction.org/articles/16709 http://www.windaction.org/articles/10340 Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:52:11 GMT Wind turbines from the Cedar Creek Wind Energy Project are seen across the horizon behind one of the Pawnee Buttes. http://www.windaction.org/articles/10340 http://www.windaction.org/articles/22521 Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:44:09 GMT Wind farms and solar power plants may offer free fuel costs and no carbon-dioxide emissions, but don't assume there's universal support from environmentalists, according to industry observers. "The world is changing," said Andrew Spielman, a partner at the Denver office of Hogan & Hartson LLC who works on renewable-energy projects. ..."There are more complexities with renewable projects," he said, "and it's no longer an assumption that the environmental community will approve and support renewable projects." http://www.windaction.org/articles/22521 http://www.windaction.org/articles/21674 Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:27:33 GMT Xcel Energy and the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association have filed with the commission for a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the lines, which the companies say will increase the reliability of the grid in the valley and increase their ability to export electricity generated from wind and solar farms in Southern Colorado. ...An administrative law judge will hold a pre-hearing conference Friday in Denver to consider the intervention requests. The utilities commission has until Jan. 26 to decide on the applications by Xcel and Tri-State. http://www.windaction.org/articles/21674 http://www.windaction.org/articles/14905 Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:55:44 GMT A giant wind farm in northeast Weld County may be a groundbreaking model of how to generate clean, renewable energy while protecting wildlife occupying the same space. But it's also been on the receiving end of some environmental criticism. ...Ken Strom, director of bird conservation for Audubon Colorado, said he is disappointed that Cedar Creek's developers did not move all the turbines away from the escarpment. "In terms of the outcome of the hearings, I don't think (our concerns) were adequately addressed," he said. "I think they tried to meet a number of our concerns but they fought to move a minimum of the turbines." Strom notes that some birds will be killed as a result of having the turbines within their traditional nesting areas and others will simply avoid the area out of fear of the constantly whooshing towers. http://www.windaction.org/articles/14905 http://www.windaction.org/articles/10442 Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:31:41 GMT SEI, the school for renewable energy and sustainable housing technology, won approval June 4 from the Board of County Commissioners for its bid to erect a 106-foot-high tower on its year-old Paonia campus. The tower will support an electricity generating turbine with blades spanning 12 feet to be used for class instruction and to produce power for the school's use. The BoCC, sitting with commission chair Jan McCracken absent, voted 2-0 in favor of the schools proposal after hearing comments from neighbors both in support and opposition of the plan. http://www.windaction.org/articles/10442 http://www.windaction.org/articles/10348 Sun, 24 Jun 2007 13:31:06 GMT So you plant your feet in the gritty soil beneath the whirring monsters that seem to brush the blue sky and you feel the hot wind dancing from the south and for a long time you just stare. This is wind energy. And one day, many scientists believe, it will drive the world. Of course, not everyone has that sense of awe over the whole thing. Take rancher Bob Emick. Inside his home, which sits smack in the middle of 98 of the science fiction-looking turbines...He leans on one elbow, glances out a window and watches a rotor spin. "I guess," he said, "you just get used to them." http://www.windaction.org/articles/10348 http://www.windaction.org/articles/10338 Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:41:24 GMT The view brought mixed emotions to the Riters. "To be honest, I was shocked when I first saw them," said 66-year-old Karl Riters, who enjoys hiking, backpacking and volunteering with the Poudre Wilderness Volunteers. "I saw them from maybe eight miles away and I started hoping that as I got closer they wouldn't be that apparent. But the closer we got, the worse it looked. I'm all for reducing carbon emissions, but when out in a desolate area like this, you don't want to see that." Lori Bell, the grasslands' acting district manager, said she has received numerous complaints about the turbines. She said there is nothing the U.S. Forest Service can do because the wind farm is on private land. http://www.windaction.org/articles/10338 http://www.windaction.org/articles/768 Fri, 02 Dec 2005 15:58:18 GMT In the next two years, a Virginia company hopes to pump upward of $400 million into what could be Colorado's largest wind farm on private grazing land near Grover. http://www.windaction.org/articles/768 http://www.windaction.org/articles/21405 Sun, 31 May 2009 12:45:59 GMT What I remembered most was the quiet solitude, listening to the gentle breezes brush though the grass against my tent. When I arrived at the trailhead I was appalled to see windmills as far as the eye could see to the north and west. Being sadly disappointed, I headed further east in search of more Chalk Bluffs that could afford some good photography. I drove all the way to Sterling and could not find one bit of the plateau without windmills. http://www.windaction.org/articles/21405 http://www.windaction.org/articles/11397 Sat, 18 Aug 2007 18:24:55 GMT Wind power has all the ingredients of a good brain-buster. The energy that windmills produce helps to preserve the environment, but the giant wind generators themselves have to be added to the environment. Wind power is making us redefine what we consider pollution. Windmills may not billow black smoke that requires scrubbing or leak hazardous radiation, but they make a lot of noise and can change a scenic horizon or ridgeline into a jumble of tinker-toy technology. Like dams in rivers, they interrupt the free flow of natural settings. http://www.windaction.org/articles/11397