Though Highland New Wind Development has asked the county to issue it a building permit by July 15, there is work left to be done. HNWD, as required by the State Corporation Commission, compiled a list of what it believes are the environmental and other approvals and permits needed for its project - a total of eight. Some of these have a subset of conditions or requirements as well.

It's been seven years since Highland County heard about plans for a wind energy utility here, and Friday, things hit a major turning point. Highland New Wind Development submitted a site plan, and things are moving in earnest on several fronts in anticipation of securing a date for construction. ...Whether HNWD has met all the conditions attached to county and state permits will be determined by a Technical Review Committee appointed by the board of supervisors;

The source of the reported information is the developer's public relations spokesman, Frank Maisano, who announced in a press release that the company has filed a site plan, which he characterized as the last step in obtaining a building permit. The newspapers in question simply repeated the company's public relations material on the controversial project.

The fate of a proposed wind turbine project for East River Mountain is now back in the hands of the Tazewell County Board of Supervisors. After several weeks of review by members of the county's Planning Commission, the commission voted 3-2 Thursday to forward a proposed ridgeline protection ordinance back to the supervisors.

Saying he is not interested in a repeat of a "sales pitch," Mineral County President Wayne Spiggle is spelling out four specific issues which he wants representatives of U.S. Wind Force to answer when they meet with the commissioners on June 23.

The Allegany County commissioners have postponed Thursday's public work session discussion that was to focus on the proposed restrictions to industrial wind farms. The public meeting is now scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday at the County Office Complex. The commissioners, acting County Administrator David Eberly and County Attorney Bill Rudd are to analyze a number of points made by US Wind Force President Tom Matthews.

The U.S. Forest Service has rejected a proposal to build a wind farm on Great North Mountain in the George Washington National Forest - for now, at least. Freedomworks LLC, a renewable-energy firm based in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., wanted to put 131 400-foot-tall wind turbines along 18 miles of ridgeline between Virginia and West Virginia.

The supervisor for the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests has denied a Harpers Ferry company's proposal to build 131 wind turbines on Great North Mountain.

The county will not be helping Allegheny Energy build a 765-kilovolt transmission line across northern Loudoun by relinquishing the conservation easements it holds on land needed for the proposed route. By a unanimous vote at its April 7 meeting, the supervisors approved a letter to the power company declining to give up any conservation easements that stand in the way of PATH - the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline.

Dominion Virginia Power, the eastern Virginia utility currently building a coal-fired power plant in St. Paul, and BP Wind Energy are exploring potential "wind farm" sites in the western sector of Wise County and in Tazewell County. Nearly a year ago, Dominion and the British Petroleum subsidiary agreed to jointly develop, own and operate wind energy projects in Virginia.

Landowners downstream from where Highland New Wind Development LLC hopes to construct an industrial wind energy utility are not satisfied with the county's response to their concerns about erosion and sediment control. In January, Lucile Miller and McChesney Goodall, both of whom own large tracts below the McBride property where HNWD plans its facility, asked the county to provide more information on how the development might affect their properties.

Highland County supervisors agreed Tuesday they could use some help getting the proposed industrial wind energy utility here off the ground ...Toward that end, supervisor David Blanchard suggested the county ask for $1.5 million in stimulus package money to pay for consultants who could assist. The 39-megawatt facility planned by Highland New Wind Development LLC has state and local permits to build and operate the plant, but there are strict conditions attached to each.

The board took no action on a proposed ridgeline protection ordinance. Board members opted instead to wait on the recommendations of the tall-structures steering committee. David Anderson, the board's chairman, said the steering committee has two additional meetings scheduled. Anderson said the committee could present its recommendations to the supervisors by April. The proposed ordinance - if adopted by the board - could restrict the development of tall structures on certain protected mountain ridges, including East River Mountain and Burkes Garden.

"I would say if it brings economic development to the county, we need it," Jack Thompson of Springville, Va., one of several dozen concerned citizens to attend a public information meeting ...Lois Mullins, a member of the Mountain Preservation Association, said the group is concerned about a destruction of the environment, a destruction of the scenic beauty of East River Mountain and a negative impact on wildlife. "That's the primary concern is that they are destroying our beautiful mountain when you could locate somewhere else and get better results," Mullins said.

A panel of federal judges on Wednesday overturned a decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding its authority to overrule state decisions on power line transmission projects. The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond sided with the Piedmont Environmental Council and several states, reversing the FERC's interpretation of 2005 laws granting the federal government jurisdiction when project permits are not approved within one year.

After two years of study, a group of scientists and energy experts has concluded that building a wind farm off Virginia Beach is feasible, would cost about $1 billion and could spur more than 1,000 "green" jobs over three years. ...The study is one of five alternative-energy initiatives being pursued by the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium, based at Old Dominion University. Its chairman is Patrick Hatcher, an ODU professor, who also is leading another promising project -- turning algae into biodiesel fuel.

There is no timetable to review potential wind energy sites in Wise and Tazewell counties, a spokesman for Eastern Virginia utility Dominion said Monday. Dominion and its wind projects partner, BP Wind Energy North America Inc., are also mum on the number of sites under consideration or location of those potential wind turbine farms.

The beauty of East River Mountain is in jeopardy according to a group of citizens who are against the proposed wind turbine project. This group has grown from a group of 6 to a group of 150. They have a laundry list of reasons why they don't want industrial size wind turbines on our mountains.

Dominion Virginia Power and a subsidiary of the BP energy company are planning two wind-power projects in far Southwest Virginia. ...Rick Webb, a University of Virginia scientist who opposes the Highland project, says it's wrong to put windmills on scenic mountain ridges. He said he would feel better about the Southwest Virginia projects if they went on sites that had been used for mining: "My real objection is the pointless sacrifice of our remnant wild landscape."

The magnitude of these structures shocked our county officials but will they generate revenue of the same magnitude? "Land owners get their annual fees from what is produced. Then also the county would only be able to do the personal property tax. And a personal property tax would be on each individual wind turbine. And under personal property, it would depreciate each year too." says Supervisor David Anderson. The construction phase would create some revenue as well.