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/13638 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:48:59 GMT Newly constructed high-tension power lines frame a county road. The power lines deliver wind energy to load centers. http://www.windaction.org/articles/13638 http://www.windaction.org/articles/13637 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:46:16 GMT A row of wind turbines in Harper County, Oklahoma. Depending on the model, each turbine can produce 1.5 to 2.1 megawatts of electricity when spinning at a speed for which the turbine was designed to deliver its maximum power (MW). http://www.windaction.org/articles/13637 http://www.windaction.org/articles/13636 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:43:50 GMT An approaching storm frames wind turbines north of Woodward, Oklahoma. http://www.windaction.org/articles/13636 http://www.windaction.org/articles/10710 Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:15:45 GMT http://www.windaction.org/articles/10710 http://www.windaction.org/articles/3711 Fri, 30 Jun 2006 11:09:07 GMT http://www.windaction.org/articles/3711 http://www.windaction.org/articles/3064 Thu, 18 May 2006 12:17:20 GMT http://www.windaction.org/articles/3064 http://www.windaction.org/articles/502 GMT ]]> An example of the amount of grading done to install turbines in flat country http://www.windaction.org/articles/502 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23847 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:11:15 GMT While it appeared briefly Monday that the lights were out on a proposed high-voltage electric transmission line that would serve the state's growing wind industry, officials recharged the plan Tuesday. The Southwest Power Pool Inc.'s board of directors on Tuesday included the $518 million "Spearville line" in a package of transmission expansion projects it was forwarding for further study and probable approval. The 765-kilovolt line would go from Spearville, the site of a wind farm in southwest Kansas, to Wichita and down to the Oklahoma border, where it could hook into lines to other states. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23847 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23702 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:54:30 GMT If nothing else, the opposition is organized. While members of the U.S. Senate struggle to find the right language for the American Clean Energy and Security Act and the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, the opposition to both measures has grown larger and more vocal. ...In fact many industry leaders say the bills would kill jobs and wreck the economy. Across the country trade associations have lined up to stop the Waxman-Markey bill. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23702 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23547 Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:09:10 GMT http://www.windaction.org/articles/23547 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23101 Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:32:53 GMT The preserve itself has grown to 39,100 acres. But that's only a fraction of the 3.8-million-acre region known as the Flint Hills, straddling the Oklahoma-Kansas state line with the largest remaining patch of tallgrass prairie on the continent. ...While wind power generates clean energy, the vast networks of turbines, roads and power grids can disturb a natural ecosystem just as much as any other industrialization, Hamilton says. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23101 http://www.windaction.org/articles/21500 Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:58:20 GMT Nine landowners concerned about OG&E putting transmission lines in bar ditches along their land voiced complaints to the Woodward County Commission Monday, saying the county needed to hold the energy company accountable. ...According to another land owner, concrete bases 20 feet deep are being constructed to hold the poles for the transmission lines. Klick said, "These poles are 80 feet tall. They have a detrimental value to everybody's land." http://www.windaction.org/articles/21500 http://www.windaction.org/articles/21295 Wed, 20 May 2009 14:36:29 GMT Two judges in northwestern Oklahoma have ruled for Oklahoma Gas and Electric in separate imminent domain cases over transmission lines. OG&E wants to build a 112-mile-long transmission line to carry electricity from wind farms near Woodward to Oklahoma City. http://www.windaction.org/articles/21295 http://www.windaction.org/articles/21289 Wed, 20 May 2009 11:06:32 GMT Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. has won the first two skirmishes in a legal battle with northwestern Oklahoma landowners over the utility's authority to have private property condemned for a high-voltage transmission line. The 112-mile-long, 345-kilovolt transmission line would be used to move electricity to the Oklahoma City area from wind farms near Woodward. http://www.windaction.org/articles/21289 http://www.windaction.org/articles/21057 Tue, 05 May 2009 16:03:21 GMT Purvine and John Oler, a landowner near Watonga, dispute that there was much negotiation. "They came to us and made an offer and said we would either take that offer or they would file eminent domain," Purvine said. "There was no recourse. That's the way it was." Oler, 64, said the OG&E representative essentially told him, "Do it our way, or we condemn you." http://www.windaction.org/articles/21057 http://www.windaction.org/articles/21033 Sun, 03 May 2009 00:06:29 GMT Conflict is brewing between Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. and some northwestern Oklahoma landowners over OG&E's attempts to condemn property for a high-voltage transmission line to transport wind-generated electricity. "I have a neighbor with a pacemaker. He told me he will never be able to go on his property again," said Jimmie Purvine, 61, who is fighting condemnation of a 1 1/2 -mile long strip across his Dewey County property. http://www.windaction.org/articles/21033 http://www.windaction.org/articles/20597 Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:00:42 GMT The Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission recently voted to secure millions of dollars for conservation projects with OG&E and Tulsa-based NatureWorks as well as set important hunting regulations and dates for new seasons on black bear, antelope, elk and others. At its April meeting, the Commission approved a memorandum of agreement with OG&E. Through the agreement, OG&E will invest $3.75 million to help offset the impact of the "OU Spirit" wind farm on lesser prairie chickens and other wildlife in northwest Oklahoma. http://www.windaction.org/articles/20597 http://www.windaction.org/articles/20585 Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:38:05 GMT Roger Mills County resident Scott Shillingstad said the noises emitted by wind turbines on a neighbor's property are worse than annoying. They're unbearable. "It sounds like we have an international airport next door to us," Shillingstad said. "Our health is being threatened. We're about ready to abandon our property." http://www.windaction.org/articles/20585 http://www.windaction.org/articles/20603 Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:04:37 GMT Wind farm leasing in Oklahoma is a little like the Wild West. Experts say there's virtually no regulation and lots of opportunity for landowners to either profit or make deals they'll later regret. "It's very much a wildcatter's environment with a lot of speculation going on," said former Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Jim Roth, who now handles alternative energy legal issues in his job as an attorney with the Phillips Murrah law firm. http://www.windaction.org/articles/20603 http://www.windaction.org/articles/19722 Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:09:34 GMT The closure this month of Trinity's Tank Car Inc.'s freight railcar manufacturing plant in Oklahoma City affected about 250 hourly and administrative employees. Tulsa-based Trinity Structural Towers Inc., which produced towers for wind farms, closed Jan. 16. About 130 hourly and administrative workers lost their jobs. Employees at both facilities were given a 60-day notice, the company said. http://www.windaction.org/articles/19722