The court noted the record contained many contentions that the wind farm could pose a safety risk to pilots operating under visual flight rules noting local airport managers pointed out pilots, "would have a difficult time staying beneath the foggy and otherwise inclement weather that often plagues Nantucket Sound, while at the same time maintaining a safe distance from the wind turbines. During such times, there would be a ‘clear risk of collision with the wind turbine generators.'"

The town of Barnstable and the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound filed an administrative appeal yesterday requesting that the Federal Aviation Administration reverse its approval of the Cape Wind project.

Representatives from the wind development company Iberdrola gathered in the fire hall Friday evening to educate the community about the impact of possible wind energy towers. ...Guy Smith, a Gaines resident who owns land in Barre, believes wind towers in the county would drive people away, ruining the beauty of its untouched, rural landscapes. "Why do they want to put wind energy where there isn't wind?" Rebeck said. "This is big money making at the highest level. They will be here for a long, long time." Darlene Benton reasons that the world's energy crisis can be solved with less invasive means. Owner of the Paradise Healing Arts Center on South Main Street in Albion, she attended the meeting on the request of some of her clients who own land in Barre.

Members cited the Ministry of Defence objections due to possible interference with radar at RAF Spadeadam and seismic monitoring at Eskdalemuir. They also had concerns over the visual impact the development would have.

"Hundreds and thousands of migratory birds, including many that are protected under international wildlife treaties such as the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement, are killed in growing numbers by man-made barriers," said Bert Lenten, executive secretary of AEWA and initiator of the World Migratory Bird Day campaign. "Some of these cases could quite easily be avoided by introducing technical measures for reducing this often avoidable cause of destruction," he said.

A dozen opponents of the high school site were at the meeting to ask the committee to immediately declare the high school off limits, and they presented a 21-page report that, they contended, proves that the turbine would pose a physical danger and noise hazard to students. But committee members said they wanted to review the report and hear counter-arguments from the town's renewable energy committee, which has asserted that the device is safe. It has voted to give preference to the alternative site, which would be 1,000 feet from any house and have stronger winds.

An abutter to Barrington High School believes the town may be violating a number of zoning ordinances with its siting of the proposed wind turbine. Kathleen Shafer, who lives at 210 Lincoln Ave., recently requested a zoning certificate regarding the wind turbine, which is slated to be built on the school's campus. The certificate would act to clarify the project with respect to any zoning implications of the proposed use. Barrington Building Official Robert Speaker replied to the request by stating that the high school property - and all other town-owned property - was exempt from town zoning ordinances.

The School Committee last night decided to put off a vote on whether to remove the high school from contention as a location for a proposed turbine. ...School Committee members agreed to take up the turbine matter at its Oct. 16 meeting. That group is expected to recommend an alternative site at the end of Legion Way, which would essentially make the school committee's rejection of the high school site unnecessary. ...And because the device would be as close as 190 feet from a school building, the committee has been under pressure to withdraw its approval of the high school site.

After hearing that the proposed site of a town wind turbine has been shifted away from classrooms at the high school, the School Committee last night unanimously endorsed the plan. It now goes to the May 28 Financial Town Meeting, where voters will have to decide whether to finance the $2.4-million project with the help of a $2.1-million no-interest federal loan. The committee's approval didn't come without reservations. No wind measurements have been taken at the site, and committee member Jim Hasenfus warned that Barrington is a "marginal wind area."

The Barrington Town Council made it official Monday night: The wind turbine project proposed for Legion Way is off the table. ...At the meeting on Monday night, council member Kate Weymouth motioned to accept a recommendation from the Committee for Renewable Energy for Barrington to not move forward with construction of a turbine at Legion Way, "at this time."

Members of the Citizens Wind Watch, a group of residents who oppose the wind turbine project in town, said Barrington Town Council member Kate Weymouth was out of line at last Monday's meeting when she commented on the opposition. ...Ms. Weymouth read from a prepared statement at the meeting, just prior to making a motion to accept CREB's recommendation not to build the turbine at Legion Way. Some of the statement included important dates in the process, while other portions commented on the opposition.

The battle to block a wind turbine on town-owned land in hopes of saving on Barrington's electric bill has gone multimedia. Opponents have begun circulating a professional-quality 16-minute video blasting the $2.4-million proposal, accusing the town of rushing into the project without fully assessing the costs and benefits. It also asserts that the spinning blades, high on a peninsula at Brickyard Pond near the East Bay Bike Path, will generate too much noise for neighbors and kill birds.

With its new 100-foot-tall windmill still broken and idle, Bartlett's Ocean View Farm has sued its manufacturer and the company which installed the turbine in Nantucket Superior Court, seeking $1.5 million in damages. One of the windmill's 40-foot-long blades broke in half in moderate winds some time after dark Jan. 18, the broken piece plummeting to the ground where it landed nearly 175 feet away from the turbine.

Early Monday morning, a 20-foot-plus piece of one of the blades on Bartlett's Ocean View Farm's wind turbine snapped off and fell to the ground nearby. The wind turbine immediately shut down. There were no reported injuries when the blade struck the surrounding farmland, said John Bartlett.

A portion of one of the blades on the Bartlett's Ocean View Farm windmill broke off at some point Sunday night and plummeted to the ground below.

Changes to a proposed wind farm in Sheffield and Sutton will put Barton in the center of activity and that has some residents concerned. Residents urged selectmen during a meeting of the board Monday night to file for party status with the Vermont Public Service Board so the town can have a say in the process, Rupert Chamberlin, chairman of the board, said Wednesday. “Near as I can tell, there is a lot of concern,” Chamberlin said. “But the select board hasn’t taken a stand yet.”

GREAT BEND - Barton County Commissioners delayed a decision Monday on zoning for non-commercial wind turbines until the state's secretary of Wildlife and Parks could speak to them. No resolution was adopted, according to Barton County Clerk Donna Zimmerman. Instead, Secretary Mike Hayden was tentatively planning on meeting with the group April 2 to discuss the building of wind turbines near Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area.

Edison Electric Institute President Thomas Kuhn told the subcommittee that under any scenario, the emissions reductions in the cap-and-trade bills before Congress will be expensive. ...Kuhn warned that if targets and timetables are not aligned with the expanded use of energy efficiency and renewables in the short term and with widespread deployment of new nuclear plants and advanced coal and carbon capture and storage technologies in the long term, "the costs of compliance would become astronomical and consumers would be compelled to curtail their use of electricity dramatically, with resulting consequences to the economy and the standard of living."

Nobody at the meeting except wind development company employees spoke in favor of the renewable energy project, which would produce up to 40 megawatts of power for Washington Electric Co-op in East Montpelier and other Vermont utilities. Vermont utilities are facing the loss of a large chunk of their stable low-cost power sources in several years and consider wind as an environmentally sound solution. But most of the roughly 90 people attending the first public hearing held in Barton said they did not see what they would get out of it except a spoiled view and noise from construction. Johnson and Larosa said they only prepared to address transportation issues and could not answer a broad range of questions ranging from “what’s your budget?” to “who owns the company?” This appeared to anger some people.

The Barton Planning Commission has held hearings on both its revised town plan and a petition, signed by more than 200 of Barton's 2,500 residents, asking that the plan specifically prohibit commercial and industrial wind. At the latest hearing, about 25 people showed up and watched a slide show produced by JoAnn Stefanski, who has been instrumental in launching the petition drive and fighting the possible introduction of commercial wind in Barton Barton's petition is in response to UPC Wind's intention to put up 16 wind turbines in Sheffield, a plan the Vermont Public Service Board has approved, and one that a slim majority of Sheffield voters said they supported at a special town meeting two years ago. A big and vocal minority continues to oppose the project and will file a Vermont Supreme Court appeal of the PSB decision next week. Meanwhile, they have asked for a halt to construction, saying that UPC Wind has failed to meet some of the 32 conditions that the PSB has imposed on the project.