Virginia's first proposed wind farm cleared another legal hurdle Thursday when a Highland County judge ruled for the third time this month against landowners seeking to keep the huge windmills off the county's ridgelines. But the controversial project ran into a regulatory roadblock Friday when state officials reported they have reached an impasse with the project's developers over potential bird and bat kills and other environmental and economic impacts.

Virginia's environmental agency recommends that the developer of a proposed Highland County windmill project study the big turbines' effects on birds, bats and scenic views. The state Department of Environmental Quality passed its recommendations yesterday to the State Corporation Commission, which will approve or reject the project.

A year after county supervisors voted 2-1 to grant a conditional use permit to Highland New Wind Development, that move was taken to court by residents and landowners challenging the decision. The trial is expected to take about three days.

The $850 million power line, which would be built by two companies, is intended to relieve power congestion in northern Virginia and get electricity to customers as far north as New Jersey, said officials with grid-operator PJM Interconnection.

Preliminary research shows wind turbines kill thousands of bats and birds in the Appalachian Mountains, which are a major migratory flyway, scientists say.....Dan Boone, a Maryland-based botanist and wildlife scientist, said laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act aren't enough to protect against bird and bat kills, deforestation and other damage done by wind turbines.

Nationwide, wind power has been hailed as a source of clean, renewable energy and a moneymaker for ailing rural communities. But its rapid expansion in the East has intensified concerns about bird and bat deaths, altered landscapes and other environmental and economic issues.

For four years or more, Boone has traveled across the mid-Atlantic region to make every argument he can muster against local wind-power projects: they kill birds and bats; they are too noisy; they are inefficient, making no more than a symbolic contribution to energy needs.

At one point, Mike Town , state director of the Sierra Club , challenged the acting assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Johnnie Burton, to conduct a full investigation of possible offshore wind energy.
“We already are,” Burton told Town.
“We also can say with certainty that one platform in the Gulf of Mexico would equal the energy from wind turbines placed shoulder to shoulder on the coast of New Hampshire,” she said.
Town did not disagree, only that wind energy should be considered “part of the solution.”

The Public Service Commission will hear arguments in coming weeks about three wind power projects seeking certification to operate in West Virginia.

STUART - Opposition to windmills in Highland County appears to be spreading to Patrick County.

A Chicago company is looking into building a wind farm on Bent and Poor mountains.

Community Energy says it is evaluating several Virginia sites

MONTEREY — Despite another strong majority opinion from citizens to the contrary, Highland New Wind Development’s application with regard to the comprehensive plan has now been deemed in accordance with land use goals by Highland planners

VERONA — John Root, a Mount Sidney resident, got a go-ahead from the Augusta County Board of Zoning Appeals at its April meeting for the county's first modern wind-powered generator.

MONTEREY— Yet another decision awaits county officials about Highland New Wind Development’s plan to erect a 39-megawatt wind plant atop Allegheny Mountain.

Rural Tucker County, W.Va., has 44 mountaintop windmills. They're tall enough that their rotating blades can be seen for miles, and loud enough that their whooshing sound is heard in the nearby hollows.

RICHMOND — Formal respondents in Highland New Wind Development’s case pending before the State Corporation Commission are adding to a long list of concerns expressed already by a variety of state agencies. Among those who have weighed in recently are the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which expresses serious doubts about environmental reviews conducted thus far.

RICHMOND — The State Corporation Commission dismissed Highland citizens’ motion to dismiss Highland New Wind Development’s application for a utility last week.

MONTEREY The State Corporation Commission held hearings last week on a proposal to build wind turbines in Highland County. The gathering of dark-suited officials and lawyers was a bit unusual in remote, bucolic Monterey, but something reminded everyone there is much more to Highland County than the wind-farm debate.

MONTEREY — The one business on Allegheny Mountain located directly under the ridge where the project would be built is Bear Mountain Retreat.