Renewable energy companies across the south-west say the Coalition's new climate change policy will have little impact on a crisis facing their sector. Portland-based Keppel Prince Engineering yesterday asked 70 employees to take leave while it waits for the Federal Government to reassess the way renewable energy certificates are allocated.

Merkur said the company is meeting all ministry environmental standards, and the Amherstburg project has been more heavily scrutinized than most as a result of appeals all the way up to the environment minister. But residents opposing the 10-megawatt South Side project pointed out the company also didn't promise to meet the town's 600-metre setback from turbines and their homes.

Residents this weekend approved a controversial wind turbine ordinance that would impose strict regulations on industrial wind power developments. Among other things, the ordinance - written by the planning board and the wind energy subcommittee - stipulates that any 400-foot-tall turbines erected must be at least a mile from any houses.

Invenergy LLC, which is seeking state approval for a wind farm in southern Brown County, also questions Holland's toughened setback requirements for wind turbines. "Regardless of the town's desire to enact such a moratorium or setbacks, it has no power to do so," Invenergy attorney Peter Gardon wrote in a six-page letter dated Feb. 4.

Legislation adopted last week by the state Senate that streamlines the permitting process for large-scale wind turbine projects includes language proposed by Sen. Robert L. Hedlund that preserves local control over wetlands and other environmentally sensitive areas. ...Hedlund also included language requiring that siting standards developed by the state Energy Facilities Siting Board are crafted to reflect the unique characteristics of the different regions of the Commonwealth.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar journeyed out into Nantucket Sound on a Coast Guard vessel last week to signal the Obama administration's readiness to put some muscle behind wind energy. To do that, Salazar has to resolve a battle over building a wind farm on 25 square miles of open water that has driven a rift between environmentalists, infuriated local Native Americans and threatened one of the administration's cherished priorities.

Nauset Regional High School is exploring the possible use of town-owned land as a site for a wind turbine. Voters may be asked in May if "they'd like to discuss leasing us some land," Nauset principal Thomas M. Conrad told the Nauset Regional School Committee at a meeting Thursday in Orleans.

Last week, Gov. Dave Freudenthal said he would ask the Legislature to impose a one-year suspension of eminent domain powers to merchant companies wanting to connect wind turbines to the electrical grid. He said a time-out is needed to contemplate the use of eminent domain, but only the realm of "collector" lines for wind energy. In Wyoming, a private entity can take someone else's private property for its own economic gain.

Brian Cochran, Bluefield city solicitor, in the process of drafting a tall structure ordinance so the city has something in place if a developer specifically wants to acquire property and erect a wind turbine project like the proposed Dominion and BP project in Tazewell County, but Cochran said there's no hurry to get one in place. "The city of Bluefield already has some restrictive zoning in place," Cochran said. "I don't see where our code would allow a development like the one that has been proposed in Tazewell County."

A compromise between existing language and more restrictive setbacks left the requirements for turbines that they be placed no closer than 2,500 feet south of Route 12E between the village and Clayton, and east from County Route 6; and no closer than 3,000 feet from the village boundaries. The turbines would not be allowed to raise the sound levels more than 8 decibels above the background noise at non-participating residents' property lines.

Ruggedly beautiful Steens Mountain stands in an area of southeast Oregon so isolated that it's barely changed since cattle king Pete French arrived in the late 1800s. Coyotes yelp at sundown. Drivers are so few that they wave to each other as they pass. Campers, hunters and bird-watchers trek from across the state to breathe in the majestic emptiness and to gaze from the Steens summit across a seemingly endless tapestry of high desert and open range. But soon, the scenery will change. Harney County has cleared Columbia Energy Partners of Vancouver to build a wind farm on the mountain's north slope.

Utah-based Wasatch Wind announced today it has submitted a revised application to drop about 4,200 acres of state trust lands from its proposed wind energy project in the Northern Laramie Range in Converse County. Now excluded from the project is the Duncan Ranch, which the state purchased several years ago. Also excluded are state lands leased by the Pinetree Cattle Co.

The State Lands and Investments Board has drafted proposed rule changes regarding wind energy development on state lands. And it's hoping to receive a lot of public input over the next couple of months to make sure all stakeholders have their say. Written public comment will be accepted until 5 p.m. March 1, and there will be four public hearings across the state in March.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego will start taking an in-depth look at one of these less-studied structures tomorrow when they subject an 80-foot, 23,400-pound working wind turbine to a series of simulated earthquakes escalating to more than 7.0 in magnitude. This will be only the second known test of a full-sized wind turbine on a shake table.

Some say the shine has worn off an industry that in many communities had been welcomed both for its green image and its ability to pump money into the local economy. "I'm detecting a shift in the climate of opinion," said Gary Abraham, a Cattaraugus County lawyer who has represented citizen groups in litigation related to wind projects.

The town of Henderson is asking a judge to annul the town of Hounsfield Planning Board's site plan approval for the proposed Galloo Island Wind Farm. The Henderson Town Council filed a state Supreme Court Article 78 proceeding Friday at the Jefferson County clerk's office against Hounsfield, the project's developer, Upstate NY Power Corp., Seneca, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

In written testimony filed with the state Public Utilities Commission this week, Richard S. Hahn, a principal consultant with the Boston-based La Capra Associates, recommends lowering the price reached in a power-purchase agreement between developer Deepwater Wind and electric utility National Grid. "[National Grid] and Deepwater should be encouraged to attempt to arrive at a revised PPA price that reflects a more just and reasonable balance between the interests of ratepayers and the desire to jump-start a nascent renewable energy business in Rhode Island," he wrote.

Windmills are coming to Summerhill Township, with as many as 27 energy-producing turbines planned for outside Beaverdale. EverPower, formerly EverPower Renewables, is wheeling out Highland North Wind Farm. The company plans to have the turbines cranking out 62 megawatts of electricity - or enough power for 30,000 homes - by summer 2011.

"What do we have to do to make you pack up your bags and go away?" said Durham-area resident Joan Rawski. She was among about 400 people who packed the Durham community centre for a public information meeting on wind energy Thursday evening. Florida-based Nextera Energy wants to put up about a dozen wind turbines east of Priceville and many residents of West Grey are opposed to the plan and say they will fight the proposal.

Oswego County officials said they are breathing a sigh of relief after learning a proposed high-power transmission line might be running though existing lines in the City of Watertown instead of the Village of Pulaski. Upstate Power has proposed to construct a wind farm on Galloo Island, off the shore in Hounsfield, along with a new power line with the capability of transporting 1,000 megawatts south to service downstate consumers.