Councilman Matthew Mannix has asked the Town Council to consider suspending negotiations with Deepwater Wind until July 1. Mannix submitted the motion to the Town Clerk's office earlier this week...Mannix cited the complexity of the project and its "unclear" impacts on the town.

The Town Council Monday authorized the expansion of its new Wind Energy Committee from five to seven members because of the availability and willingness of at least 11 specially qualified residents to serve, and because of the growing interest in wind energy. The four councilors attending the meeting agreed to the expansion even though Council President David Long and Councilman William Kelly spoke briefly about a generic preference for smaller committees. Council Vice President Julio DiGiando and Councilman Michael Schnack endorsed the expansion without caveat. Councilwoman Barbara Szepatowski was absent. Next Monday, Dec. 18, is the deadline for applications for the new committee. No members have yet been named.

Councilor Peter Baute passed out copies of a map showing possible sites for offshore wind farms under the governor's ambitious plan, two of which lie off Block Island. The two near the island have the highest wind velocities, he said, but there are two other sites near Newport and Little Compton that have winds almost as strong. Baute and a visitor from Roger Williams College toured the areas of the island that face the sites and took pictures, he said. Facsimiles of the turbines will be superimposed onto the pictures to approximate how they will look from the island.

Massachusetts and Rhode Island will jointly explore the development of offshore wind power in federal waters near the two states, according to an agreement announced Monday by the states' governors.

The Patrick administration placed the project's cost at $100 million and project proponents touted its potential to serve the offshore wind industry. In an interview Tuesday, Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rick Sullivan acknowledged Massachusetts and Rhode Island are competing for the Cape Wind jobs. Massachusetts was not looking to sweeten its infrastructure effort with loans or grants.

Middletown could be getting into the wind turbine business.

Middletown Councilor Bruce Long proposed the measure as a way to give the town some cover while planners look to strengthen the town's existing wind turbine ordinance, now more than a year old, to address such issues as identifying sites for industrial grade turbines outside residential areas, safe setback distances and other design considerations.

There's more to determining the value of wind power than knowing which way the wind blows -- or even how hard. MIT researchers studying winds off the Northeast coast have found that estimating the potential environmental benefits from wind and other renewables requires a detailed understanding of the dynamics of both renewable resources and conventional power generation. Data show that wind-energy facilities would generate far more electricity in winter, because that's when winds are strongest. But the need for electricity is greatest in summer, when air conditioners are going full blast.

Islanders covet this view. Tourists make the 13-mile ferry trip south from mainland Rhode Island to see it. It’s what draws Rosemarie Ives to her family’s summer home overlooking the clay bluffs each year. “The view,” says Ives, “is precious.” But the panorama could be on the verge of lasting change. Eight wind turbines are proposed in the ocean three miles southeast of Block Island.

“The project proposed by Deepwater Wind is extremely complicated and the short-term and/or long-term impact of that project on the town of Narragansett is unclear,” Mannix said in his motion. “The reason I put in a motion is to make sure we get a complete vetting of information,” Mannix said last week.