Port Austin area resident and New River Renewable Energy President Ron Belisle hasn't given up the fight for a community-developed wind farm.

Consumers Energy plans to develop as many as eight windmill farms in Michigan, officials say. The move is part of the utility's Balanced Energy Initiative, which aims in part to double the amount of renewable energy the company generates from 5 percent to 10 percent by 2015. ...''We need to add 3 million megawatt hours per year ... to go to 10 percent by 2015,'' Rasher said. For the wind farms, Consumers is looking at installing large turbines that generate up to 2.5 megawatts each. Each wind development will generate up to 100 megawatts. But Rasher said the wind farms can only be expected to generate power about 25 percent of the time. That's why Consumers also is planning to build an 800-megawatt coal-fired plant at its Karn-Weadock complex in Bay County's Hampton Township. ''We need some other resource that's dispatchable,'' Rasher said. ''You can't put all your eggs in one basket.''

Officials hope a bill proposing 10% of Michigan's energy be from non-renewable resources by 2015 can help stimulate wind development in Michigan's Thumb region. ...Anna Giovinello, vice president of Noble Environmental Power, said failure to pass the 10% benchmark would not affect the company's Thumb project, but it could have "a chilling effect" on future wind development in the Thumb. "These decisions are made by investors who have to commit hundreds of millions of dollars to build turbines," she said. "It just doesn't make sense to investors to commit that kind of money to a state that doesn't support their projects."

Neighbors of a proposed electrical substation are threatening the Elmwood Township trustee who plans to sell 10 acres to Wolverine Power Cooperative adjacent to a large windmill north of M-72. ...In an anonymous letter addressed "Dear Mr. and Mrs. Lautner," the Lautners were told by "concerned neighbors" that "our goal is to hold you personally and financially responsible for our hardship and we will pursue this relentlessly. We will expose this to the media, newspapers, television, etc." A story on the substation appeared in the Wednesday edition of the Traverse City Record-Eagle. The "neighbors" wrote that the substation would lower adjoining property values. "This scar is the legacy Terry and Kathy Lautner will leave their family," it continued. Concerns were also raised during public comment at the monthly meeting.

This small Saginaw Bay community describes itself as "the hidden treasure of the Thumb" for its sandy beaches, pristine woods and tranquil inland lake. And many here want to keep it that way. But there's a looming specter that some believe threatens to mar the rural landscape: wind turbines, the windmill-like structures that can tower to heights of 400 feet and use wind to generate electricity. Officials here are considering banning turbines within township boundaries, saying they disrupt the idyllic countryside and put wildlife at risk.

A wave of wind development blowing across Michigan's Thumb may be halted by tundra swans and other wildlife. DTE Energy has signed up 25,000 acres of farmland for as many as 250 windmills across the Thumb. But plans for up to 43 windmills on 4,300 acres in Lake Township have some residents and bird experts crying fowl - as in waterfowl. They believe erecting windmills in the township will result in bird kills and injuries, from birds being chopped up or injured by windmill blades.

After a lengthy debate, the Lake Township Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday denied a variance request submitted by DTE Energy to install a 197 foot meteorological tower on vacant property on the south side of Etzler Road just over a quarter mile west of State Park Road in Caseville. DTE officials at Tuesday evening's meeting said they will have to wait and see what the company's next move may be. ...The variance requested was to allow a meteorological tower with a height of 197 feet to be installed in Lake Township. DTE needed the variance because Lake Township's ordinance does not allow special structures (such as chimneys or smoke stacks, radio or television transmitting towers or antennas, wireless communication towers, microwave, relay towers or power generation towers) to exceed 175 feet in the agricultural district.

Schmidt's Sherman Township neighborhood is targeted by two developers for the setting of wind turbines. "This is going to make a dramatic difference to the personality of the neighborhood," he told a group of citizens gathered at Tustin Community Center Oct. 4 for a public discussion on the planned wind farms. Proposals by Heritage Sustainable Energy, LLC and Babcock & Brown Renewable Energy Holdings, Inc. call for the installation of dozens of 2.5 megawatt turbines across Osceola, Wexford and Missaukee counties. Turbine towers plus blades will each exceed 400 feet. "We're zoned residential and agriculture," Schmidt said. "This is industrial. These are big, bad boys."

With the area's first commercial wind turbine scheduled for installation in November, some people are beginning to worry about the potential impact of the development to their property and neighborhoods. ... One goal of the meeting is to unite and empower people in the ordinance development process. With no state or federal guidelines regulating wind farms, local government units must create their own ordinances.

TAYLOR - Amid a national push to reduce fossil fuel usage, Taylor is poised to join the slowly increasing ranks of Michigan cities gambling on the wind to cut soaring energy costs. The City Council this week signed on to a $100,000 deal to build a pair of 120-foot-tall meteorological towers in Taylor's north and south ends.

DTE Energy Co. announced today that it signed a long-term purchase agreement with Heritage Sustainable Energy LLC, allowing for the construction of a 6,500-acre wind farm in Richland. The 10-year agreement is part of the Detroit-based utility's GreenCurrents program, which allows electric customers to pay a premium for the assurance that their power will come from renewable sources.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - States should develop creative approaches to climate change, just as they have with challenges such as health care, despite their different economic interests, governors said Saturday. Talks on state-level climate policy were planned for the annual National Governors Association meeting this weekend at a resort on Lake Michigan, where receding water levels have touched off debate over the effects of global warming on the Great Lakes.

ELKTON - Members of three labor-union locals planned to picket today outside a wind-turbine farm being built in the Thumb. A union official said the purpose of the picket is to draw attention to low-cost labor being used at the Harvest Wind Farm near Elkton, in Huron County. John Deere Wind Energy is the project's developer. ''We are not trying to shut them down,'' said William Borch Jr., president and up-state business agent for Iron Workers Local 25. ''Our main objective is to get John Deere to employ local tradesmen.''

"We would like to have more Michigan workers - we want local workers on there," said Jeff Sawyer, business agent for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 324 of the Saginaw area. Sawyer said approximately six workers from Local 324 are involved with the project. They are mainly crane operators and dozer hands. He said concerning the whole project, he'd like to see at least the number of workers from Michigan increased.

Debate on a controversial wind-energy bill has been stalled as budget talks dominate Lansing's agenda, and the Blackman Township Board came out against the bill Monday night. House Bill 4254, introduced in February, would allow the placement of windmills in any zoning classification as long as they meet certain conditions, including proximity to adjoining property and limits on the amount of noise created. Blackman Township Supervisor Ray Snell said he is opposed to the bill because it would trump local zoning regulations regarding the placement of windmills. "It allows anybody to put up a windmill in a residential district," Snell said. The township board voted unanimously to oppose the bill.

America led the way globally last year in the creation of new wind energy by increasing capacity 27 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. In the fast growing and largely unregulated industry, questions have surfaced in several states regarding development practices. Last April, an antitrust complaint was filed by a citizen group from four states against Babcock & Brown and several of its development, financing, management and operational business groups, plus 50 other domestic and international companies. Babcock & Brown is the parent company of Babcock & Brown Renewable Energy Holdings Inc, wind energy developers working locally.

Cleveland Township planners have recommended approval of a long-awaited zoning ordinance amendment outlining requirements for "wind energy systems" in the township. Work on the amendment has been under way since last year. The draft amendment specifies requirements for structures used for anemometers or windmills that generate electrical power for individual residences, businesses or farms. The maximum allowable height for such towers under the proposed zoning ordinance provision is 125 feet. Following a public hearing at their regular monthly meeting June 6, Cleveland planners voted unanimously to send their draft to the Leelanau County Planning Commission for a review prior to sending it to the Cleveland Township Board for consideration of adoption.

A local sand-mining company took the first step toward producing energy from windmills in Muskegon County by winning permission to erect towers on its Lake Michigan dune property that will measure the wind.

After failing in its plans to build 65 upscale homes on land that was once sand-mined, Nugent Sand Co. wants to embark on an experiment involving generation of wind power and is seeking approval tonight. Within the next month, the firm would like to erect two meteorological towers up to 162 feet in height on its property. They would be used only for the next year to test wind speeds and direction.

About 15,000 homes and businesses in Michigan's Thumb will get their electric power from wind energy by next spring, Gov. Jennifer Granholm, utility and business officials announced today. A $90 million joint venture between Wolverine Power and John Deere Wind Energy means 32 wind turbines will be built on a 3,200-acre parcel in Huron County this year and will generate 53 megawatts of electricity by March of 2008. "This wind plant will be the first, we hope, of many," Granholm said. "Investments in the alternative energy industry are key to our economic future." Also today, House Democrats announced a package of bills to encourage investment in various forms of alternative energy