facts, analysis, exposure of wind energy's real impacts Windaction http://www.windaction.org/articles/c67+61?theme=atom Xarayar 2006-06-12T02:16:27Z .37875 2013-03-22T20:59:46Z 2013-03-22T20:59:46Z

.37216 2013-01-30T04:40:47Z 2013-01-30T04:40:47Z

Twenty of 22 contracts administered by the agency contained incorrect or missing information in the state contract database, with six missing performance elements and another 13 missing contractor progress reports. ...The audit also discovered that as many as 16 travel and other expenditures "lacked appropriate approval and justification documentation." This included a line item for a $25,000 expenditure listed only as "2008 Membership."

.36730 2012-12-12T15:15:01Z 2012-12-12T15:15:01Z

Vestas is cutting working hours at its Colorado blade plants at Windsor and Brighton in preparation for a post-PTC slowdown in the US wind sector. The company said it had told employees at the factories that it was reducing their weekly hours from 40 to 32 hours. The change will take effect in January.

.36381 2012-10-22T12:58:24Z 2012-10-22T12:58:24Z

The resilience of Colorado's vaunted "new energy economy" is being tested after a series of job cuts, financial setbacks and political firestorms. ...Hard times for the green industries stem from a combination of technical challenges, low-cost foreign competition and an uncertain outlook for government support of alternative energy.

.36295 2012-10-12T03:31:02Z 2012-10-12T03:31:02Z

Wind-turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems made its largest Colorado job cut Thursday, laying off about 200 workers at its Windsor blade plant. The cuts represent 29 percent of the plant's workforce. Vestas also had laid off workers at plants in Brighton and Pueblo.

.36257 2012-10-10T13:07:14Z 2012-10-10T13:07:14Z

Vestas Wind Systems, the wind turbine manufacturer that built four factories in Colorado, announced its third round of job cuts on Tuesday, firing 75 workers at its blade factory in Brighton.

.36220 2012-10-05T11:54:58Z 2012-10-05T11:54:58Z

What Romney considers "breaks" and "green" are up for debate. Despite his assertion that he supports "green energy," Romney has made it clear that he is in favor of letting the PTC expire ... Instead, Romney said the money invested in renewable energy and cleantech companies could have been better used for other purposes.

.35774 2012-08-13T21:37:00Z 2012-08-13T21:37:00Z

"In response to this market slowdown and in accordance with its business needs, Vestas Towers America in Pueblo, Colo., today adjusted its manufacturing workforce. This workforce reduction in the tower factory represents approximately 3 percent of Vestas' total workforce in the U.S. and Canada."

.35368 2012-06-29T14:40:10Z 2012-06-29T14:40:10Z

"Our government is not good at picking winners and losers in the marketplace but has certainly proved it is good at wasting taxpayer dollars," Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee's subcommittee on regulatory affairs, stimulus oversight and government spending, said on Thursday.

.34698 2012-04-02T18:47:24Z 2012-04-02T18:47:24Z

Colorado's entire delegation - save GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs - supports an extension. So does Iowa's congressional delegation. Lots of senators and House members, both liberals and conservatives, have signed up to support it. But the production-tax-credit extension - which costs $4.1 billion over 10 years and includes some other renewables such as geothermal - has thrice failed in the U.S. Senate.

.34553 2012-03-15T04:23:00Z 2012-03-15T04:23:00Z

Udall also is pressing ahead by drafting a separate bill to renew the wind credit, hoping to get influential Republican senators to co-sponsor the measure. Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, for example, supports wind power but voted against the Stabenow package of tax credits on Tuesday.

.34312 2012-02-16T12:14:19Z 2012-02-16T12:14:19Z

A Senate staffer said that in the highly partisan push-and-shove over the payroll tax deduction and cutting federal spending to pay for that, the conference committee ultimately pushed the list of sought-after business credits out of the discussion. "Bills like this can quickly become Christmas trees with other measures attached in committee and it looks like the conferees ultimately tried to stick to the major issues.

.33770 2011-12-03T18:49:32Z 2011-12-03T18:49:32Z

Rather than see building more transmission as the solution, though, Bowman sees its drawbacks as a symptom of a bigger problem: a highly centralized power system. "I'm going to predict the day of very large transmission lines to carry energy from remote areas to urban centers are about over," he said. "What I do think you'll see happen is smaller projects that are built to accommodate the existing system you have in the rural electric districts and to move that power to the cities that way. I think there will be a different model."

.33208 2011-10-04T11:19:05Z 2011-10-04T11:19:05Z

NREL spokesman Bob Noun blames Congress for the organization's failures. The Denver Post reports that he believes the gridlocked U.S. Congress forced the NREL to find $8 million in new budgetary savings. "We don't see any budget scenario where the lab doesn't face budget cuts," Noun said.

.32549 2011-07-21T13:41:30Z 2011-07-21T13:41:30Z

After reviewing population trends, hunter-harvest reports and licenses sales from the two states over the last 30 years, wildlife biologists concluded that oil and gas drilling, wind farms, agricultural practices and other human encroachments are slicing and dicing critical habitat the animals have historically relied upon to survive.

.31988 2011-05-19T10:46:45Z 2011-05-19T10:46:45Z

The willful violation addresses the deliberate removal of support equipment while welding sections of wind towers together, which caused the sections to slide and resulted in the amputation injury. A willful violation is one committed with intentional knowing or voluntary disregard for the law's requirements, or with plain indifference to worker safety and health.

.31953 2011-05-16T12:56:32Z 2011-05-16T12:56:32Z

OSHA said Monday it has cited Vestas for one willful and 23 serious violations following an inspection of the wind turbine manufacturing plant. The inspection was initiated after an employee suffered a partial amputation of two fingers and a broken wrist in November. OSHA has proposed $164,000 in fines against Vestas.

.30593 2010-12-31T16:57:46Z 2010-12-31T16:57:46Z

For hikers who took a walk to the Pawnee Buttes on Christmas Day, the experience provided a view of more than just the two buttes and the Cedar Creek wind farm to the north. Hikers that day also saw an oil rig drilling a well on property to the west of the buttes.

.28349 2010-07-17T17:47:37Z 2010-07-17T17:47:37Z

The blades' rotation — at speeds as fast as 200 mph — can prevent radar signals from reaching targets and can create radar echoes. The reflected signals — called "clutter" — produce shadows that can hide an object such as a plane. Although no major incidents have been reported so far, leaders on both sides of the issue are looking for ways to mitigate the turbines' radar effects.

.27970 2010-06-27T16:00:13Z 2010-06-27T16:00:13Z

Politicians have been quick to pledge increasing use of clean energy and set ambitious production goals for solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and nuclear. ...But when land managers and investors float plans for building wind farms or tapping geothermal energy or stringing new transmission lines or processing uranium for nuclear power, the potential impacts to neighbors stir passionate resistance.