Plans by two electric utilities to build 1,150 miles of new high-voltage transmission lines across southern Idaho and Wyoming are on schedule, with a draft environmental impact statement on the work expected late this summer. ...Idaho Power began work on a series of environmental studies that will provide crucial information for the draft document.

Developers of a proposed 185-turbine wind farm and the Bureau of Land Management are continuing to gather information on the effects the farm would have on the sagebrush-filled desert southwest of Rogerson. The 425-megawatt China Mountain Wind Energy Project would be scattered across a 30,700-acre area. Though a draft environmental impact statement on the project is still a year away from release, the BLM this week launched a 30-day comment period on whether three meteorological towers should be placed in the area of the future farm. Several other towers already sit in the area.

A Bingham County judge granted a motion today delaying the construction of 150 wind turbines in Wolverine Canyon, even though the plan was approved by the Bingham County Planning and Zoning Commission. Thursday afternoon Judge Richard St. Clair granted two motions filed by groups opposed to the project. One of those motions will extend the discovery period, meaning the soonest oral arguments will be heard is end of July.

After nearly two years of planning, Utah's largest electric utility announced Tuesday that crews had begun constructing a $600 million, 135-mile high-voltage transmission line from a new substation near Downey, Idaho, to an existing substation near the Salt Lake City International Airport. Rocky Mountain Power spokesman David Eskelsen told the Deseret News that work on the Populus to Terminal transmission line is under way, with the first segment in PacifiCorp's Energy Gateway transmission expansion scheduled for completion in 2010.

It was a hot topic for months in Bingham County last year and Thursday it will be back in the lime light. The Ridgeline wind turbine project has been proposed to be built on 20,000 acres in Wolverine Canyon in Bingham County. The energy company wants to put in up to 150 turbines.

Arguments on motions by a group of Idaho Falls residents opposing development of a wind power project in Bingham County are scheduled to take place Thursday at the Bingham County Courthouse. The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. before 7th District Judge Richard St. Clair in Courtroom 1.

Imagine spending $13 thousand dollars on a windmill that's supposed to save you money, but in the long run you install it and it only ends up only saving you a few pennies. "It's just really aggravating because we were led to believe that we were going to lose $30, $40, $50 dollars off our power bill every month. It's not going to happen," says Taylor. The Taylor's bought their windmill back in October and haven't seen a change in their bill.

Now Lucas is gearing up to fight the development of wind and solar alternative energy plants in the middle of the remaining sagebrush desert habitat that is the home of species ranging from sage grouse to antelope. He's not against the technology. And he is as concerned about reducing greenhouse gases that cause climate change as the next environmentalist. ..."I think there's a chance that these big solar farms and wind farms will be obsolete almost as soon as we develop them," Lucas said. "We need to somehow get people engaged directly in producing our own energy."

Greener energy sources such as geothermal wells and sprawling wind farms are being touted as the nation's environmentally friendly answer to energy independence, but so far, alternative energy developers are finding that they face many of the same conflicts as traditional generation plants.

At a time when Idaho trails others in harnessing wind resources, the Office of Energy Resources has disbanded the state's wind-power think tank and reassigned a staff member who had focused on wind projects to work on energy efficiency instead. The staffer, Gerald Fleischman, told the Idaho Wind Power Working Group he "will no longer be able to respond to requests about wind issues and wind projects," according to a letter obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

Rocky Mountain Power is asking landowners for their input on the route of a major transmission line proposed to run across southern Wyoming from the Casper area to the Idaho border. Representatives of the Salt Lake City-based utility told the Carbon County Commission last week that it has identified a 2-mile-wide corridor for its proposed Gateway West transmission line, which would carry 500 kilovolts of electricity.

Dave Parrish, the former Magic Valley regional supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, has challenged his demotion earlier this year following a letter he wrote to the Times-News. Meanwhile, department officials have chosen a habitat manager from north Idaho as Parrish's permanent replacement.

[A windmill] ordinance was one of the main topics of conversation at a Bonneville County Planning & Zoning meeting held at the Bonneville County Courthouse Wednesday night. Despite meeting until after midnight, nothing was decided upon. "The process of getting the government to go through and create and ordinance and draft an ordinance takes time. They don't like to just create an ordinance in five minutes and send it out," said Steven Serr of the Bonneville County Planning and Zoning Commission.

Southeastern Idaho farmers fear damage to a U.S. Interstate 86 exit near American Falls could impact the fall sugar beet harvest by forcing beet-laden trucks to take an inconvenient detour. On Sept. 25, a truck carrying the base for a large wind turbine failed to exit the freeway, damaging the Exit 40 overchange bridge.

Supporters of a highly controversial wind farm project said Tuesday they believe they're being targeted and have now become victims of ruthless crimes over the summer. The Thompson family found nine cows -- the most they've ever seen -- shot and killed on their property. This after they got the green light to plant 66 wind turbines on about 5,000 acres of their private ranch just east of Shelley.

According to Sierra Pacific Power Co. spokesman Fay Anderson, there are several locations in Nevada being studied for wind-generated electricity projects, the farthest along outside of the Virginia Range project being in Elko County. There also are projects proposed for Lincoln, Clark and White Pine counties. ...

A group in southeastern Idaho has requested a judicial review of the Bingham County commissioners' approval of two wind farms. Natural Guardian Limited Partnership of Idaho Falls requested the review late last month because it said the production of energy is not in compliance with a county ordinance. The group also said there were inconsistencies within the county's planning and zoning decisions when it came to approving the wind farms.

Fish and Game officials informed state employees on Aug. 4 that David Parrish of Jerome would no longer serve as regional supervisor for the area, which covers the eight counties in south-central Idaho. Parrish had been in the position for eight years. The decision came one month after the Times-News printed a letter Parrish wrote in response to an editorial endorsing the 185-turbine China Mountain wind farm project. After discussing the letter with Sen. Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, Idaho House Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, contacted Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter with the concern that Parrish had violated the governor's office's media policy.

David Parrish, who spent 16 years in the Magic Valley office of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, including the last eight as supervisor, has been demoted and transferred to Boise as the agency's fisheries program coordinator. ...Idaho House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, said she is concerned that the state's agencies are not given the opportunity to assess issues as experts. Rather, the rank-and-file uniformity mentioned in Warbis' e-mail indicates that the state's leading experts must now opine as politicians.

David Parrish, reassigned from Magic Valley regional supervisor to Boise as fisheries program coordinator, wrote in a letter to The Times-News on July 6 that the 185-turbine China Mountain wind farm "will have negative repercussions on Idaho's wildlife." "It's a no-brainer - the footprint of a project that will cover prime habitat (for) sage grouse, mule deer, antelope and other sagebrush dependent species," Parrish wrote.