Legislators declined this summer to clear the way for North Carolina to tap the power of mountain winds. Next year, they could decide whether to allow a single, experimental ridgetop wind farm. Rep. Phil Frye said at a Wednesday wind-energy forum that he plans to propose allowing the state to issue one permit for building rows of wind turbines on a ridge - which he hopes would happen at a site overlooking his hometown of Spruce Pine.

Construction of a demonstration wind energy project in Pamlico Sound could begin as early as next year, according to state officials who met with Outer Banks residents to discuss offshore wind energy Friday. ...[Gov. Beverly] Perdue told the audience that the state could position itself as a leader in "green energy," developing innovative ways that would help the environment and also create jobs. "Make no mistake though, every governor in America is thinking about this. North Carolina has to do as much as we can do safely or we will fail," she said.

Virginia officials have long discussed placing wind turbines off the coast, but the first towers in the region are likely to appear farther south - in North Carolina's Pamlico Sound. Duke Energy and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently signed a contract to install one to three turbines in the sound west of Buxton and Avon as early as next year. The turbines would be seven to 10 miles from shore. The pilot project ...could position North Carolina as a leader in developing wind energy.

Governor Beverly Perdue, Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight, and Representative Tim Spear hosted the meeting at Cape Hatteras Secondary School. "If water levels are rising as predicted and we take no action, we will have made a terrible mistake for the people who come after us," Basnight said in opening remarks to a crowd of more than 250 people assembled in the school auditorium.

Wind projects require government subsidies and inflated energy prices to be viable. When the full cost of subsidies, operations and government-mandated prices are considered, the consumer cost for green power substantially exceeds conventional energy. Despite all the hype, green power is not your friend.

The leader of the state Senate said Friday that he won't fight wind farms proposed offshore from an area he represents, although he's aware that residents are concerned about the possible effects on tourism. "Change does not come easy to me or to the people of this island," Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare, told a public meeting on Hatteras Island.

For more than a year, a tiny Chapel Hill company has been laying plans for a project that would catapult North Carolina into a national leadership role in offshore wind energy development. Outer Banks Ocean Energy Corp. is eyeing federal waters about 25 miles offshore to chase a dream of harnessing pollution-free electricity generated by some of the nation's best wind resources. An offshore wind farm has yet to be built in this country, and the hurdles are formidable.

In 1983, Sugar Top Condos were built on the top of Sugar Mountain in Avery County. Sugar Top Condos rise 131 feet above the ridgeline and can be seen for several miles. These towering condos were so devastating to the scenic splendor of the mountains that the General Assembly wisely enacted strict ridge top laws to stop these monstrosities from appearing throughout our mountains. While the statewide law was too late for Sugar Mountain, the law stopped similar projects of shocking heights and destruction of the mountains. Sugar Top Condos is a permanent reminder that once a structure is built on our mountain tops, we cannot unbuild it.

After measuring wind value and eliminating conflicts with bird migratory patterns, fish habitat and military air space, a new state coastal wind study says the best spot for utility-scale wind energy is in the sound off Buxton. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill feasibility study, requested last year by state Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Manteo, found that most other state waters are unsuitable for wind-energy development.

One need not state a falsehood to tell a lie. Misleading presentation of facts and rhetorical sleight of hand have become modern art forms. One of the most insulting practices is the framing of arguments in terms of false choices. I’m particularly disappointed to see two local environmental organizations with whom I share much common ground distilling the debate over industrial scale wind farms down to: We can let the coal industry flatten the mountains and pollute the air and water, or we can let the wind industry turn the mountains into Gary, Ind.,with slopes. Which shall we do? I’ll take C), neither of the above.

Will wind-generated power save the environment or sacrifice it? The answer depends on who you ask ..."Your senators are very brave in what they're doing," said Lisa Linowes of New Hampshire-based Wind Action. "The legislature already concluded when it adopted the Ridge ordinance that your mountains have cultural significance to the state. When asked now to consider whether that value is worth more - or less - than wind generated electrons on the grid, your mountain senators are doing what most politicians in the U.S. have not done. They're putting a cold eye to the options and deciding wind is not worth the sacrifice, at least for now."

The North Carolina Senate voted overwhelmingly to ban large turbines from the state's ridgelines. The North Carolina State Senate has voted overwhelmingly to ban large wind turbines from the state's scenic western ridgelines. The 42-1 vote on Thursday represents the strongest stand against wind turbines taken by lawmakers in any state.

The N.C. Senate voted yesterday to ban the commercial generation of wind energy on North Carolina's western mountain ridges. Supporters of the ban argued that the construction of large wind turbines in the mountains would ruin the mountains' natural beauty. Environmentalists say that the state should be encouraging wind power, not limiting it.

North Carolina senators have approved banning wind turbines from Appalachian ridges, balancing potential for green energy against unspoiled mountain vistas. The Senate voted 42-1 on Thursday to establish regulations for where wind turbines can be built. It next heads to the state House, where it may not come up until next spring.

Rows of wind turbines are unlikely to be spinning atop mountain ridges anytime soon. A Senate committee on Wednesday rejected a proposal that would have paved the way for large-scale wind energy production in the mountains. Large wind turbines are banned under the state's interpretation of a law restricting ridge development. The Agriculture Committee advanced a proposal that would keep it that way, changing the ridge law to cement the ban.

Officials have interpreted the state's mountain ridge development law as banning large wind turbines on the ridges. The Senate Agriculture Committee this morning rejected a proposal that would have reversed that ban. Instead, a bill moving through the Senate will continue to call for cementing the ban.

The answer to North Carolina's green energy challenge is blowing in the wind-swept mesas of Texas. With the first deadlines fast approaching for North Carolina's renewable energy targets, power companies in this state are snapping up green certificates from out-of-state wind farms. The certificates don't buy electricity, but pay for credits needed to meet state targets.

If the nature of this debate sends one clear message, it's that wind power legislation needs to be thoroughly studied, not rushed through. The locus of the debate isn't over wind power itself, but of size, scale and most of all - location. Sen. Steve Goss of Watauga County wants farms permitted on ridge top locations in his area; Sens. Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe, John Snow, D-Murphy, and Joe Sam Queen, D-Waynesville, point to the fact that such large structures would run afoul of the mountain ridge law.

State senators are now considering a bill that -- as it's currently written -- would effectively ban any large-scale generation of wind power in the mountains. The bill appeared to be headed for passage in the Senate last week because it had the support of several key Democrats from the mountains. Allowing large wind turbines would "destroy our crown jewel," said Sen. Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe. But Sen. Steve Goss, D-Watauga, broke with the other western legislators, saying that the ban goes too far.

The debate has its roots in a condominium project that popped up on a mountain ridge in the 1980s. There were no mountain area zoning laws to prevent it, and when the Sugar Top project emerged to stick out like a sore thumb, the General Assembly quickly acted. It adopted the Ridge Law, intended to stop the erection of excessively tall structures atop mountain ridges in altitudes of 3,000 feet or greater.