A $400 million renewable energy project could begin construction next month and would power roughly a quarter-million Southern California homes. The plan has received no criticism during a public-input phase that ends Oct. 6. An open house Thursday in Milford introduced Beaver County residents to the plan that would put 159 wind turbines - each 262 feet tall - across 40-square miles on public and private land located 10 miles northeast of town.

A 19-megawatt, nine-turbine wind-energy facility is up and running, selling electricity to PacifiCorp and representing the first utility-scale wind project in the state's history. "I'm sure others will catch up and pass it, because it's not a big project by wind-energy standards, but it is the biggest in Utah at the moment," said Randolph Mann, vice president of wind development for Edison Mission Group Inc., based in Irvine, Calif. EMG manages the power-generation business and other unregulated subsidiaries of Edison International.

PASADENA - The City Council has authorized an agreement with a wind power-generating facility to be constructed in Utah, furthering its stated goal to be more environmentally conscious. The Milford Wind Corridor Phase I is a 200-megawatt generating facility to be constructed in Millard County, Utah. The corridor is just 60 miles from the coal-fired Intermountain Power Project in Delta, Utah, which the council decided not to extend contracts with in December 2006.

Officials in Burbank, Pasadena, Glendale, Riverside and Anaheim have told the Intermountain Power Agency in Utah that they're not renewing their contracts for coal-fired power with the company. They join Los Angeles, which already rejected plans to renew its contract with Intermountain.

At the halfway point between the West Coast energy crisis of 2001 and the next major electricity contract renewal year of 2011, a federal power marketing agency is proposing a policy change that could affect rates in the Pacific Northwest for generations and become a national model for energy development. Northwest hydropower is one of the cheapest energy resources in the nation - about half the current market rate for electricity. The Bonneville Power Administration - which sells power in all of Washington, Oregon and Idaho and parts of California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Montana - announced this summer it wants to change the way it charges utilities for its wholesale power, to keep rates low.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Seven utilities have announced formation of a partnership to advance the Frontier Line, an electric-power transmission grid that would serve Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California.