Ryder began working on the ordinance in response to a request from the planning commission last month. The county is working with James Madison University on a field test of the Virginia Renewables Siting Scoring System, or VRS3. The test will use a scoring book to evaluate factors related to siting wind energy facilities in various parts of the county. However, work on the book is still not complete.

A team of university scientists and industry experts has narrowed its sights on an initial project - about 100 wind turbines installed at least 12 miles off Virginia Beach, costing more than $250 million. The whirling turbines, each about 300 feet tall, would not be visible from shore, researchers said, and would take advantage of strong, consistent winds found in that part of the Atlantic, especially during winter. ..."If wind energy development in the eastern U.S. is going to make a real rather than symbolic contribution to solving our energy and air pollution problems, it will certainly be offshore development," Rick Webb, a University of Virginia scientist.

Virginia may have given a controversial power line an initial "yes," but Pennsylvania has given it an initial "no." In a ruling released late Thursday, regulatory judges in Pennsylvania recommended that the state's Public Utilities Commission deny applications from Allegheny Power and Dominion Virginia power to build the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line. A hearing examiner for the Virginia State Corporation Commission has recommended approval for the controversial power line, but only on the condition that West Virginia and Pennsylvania also sign off on the plan.

Sen. Chap Petersen’s (D-34) Clean Energy Future bill was wiped from the 2008 legislative agenda last week when the proposal calling for renewable energy sources and reductions in energy consumption was killed in the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee on a 3-12 vote. Senate Bill 446 would have required energy providers to produce 20 percent of their power through renewable resources by 2020. Petersen had touted the initiative heavily during his campaign for the Senate last year.

A bill which would have eased environmental restrictions for a controversial wind farm slated for construction in Highland County has stalled in committee. As previously reported in the Hook, Senate Bill 324, introduced by State Senator Frank Wagner (R-Virginia Beach), would have exempted all electric facilities that generate and distribute renewable energy with a capacity of no more than 50 megawatts.

State legislators may soon make life easier for a company looking to build a controversial wind farm in Highland County. A new bill in the General Assembly would exempt certain small electricity-generating facilities from state environmental regulations and requirements, so long as they operate on renewable energy. Senate bill 234, introduced by State Senator Frank Wagner (R-Virginia Beach) two weeks ago and currently being considered by the Commerce and Labor Committee, would exempt all electric facilities that generate and distribute renewable energy with a capacity of no more than 50 megawatts. ...Rick Webb, a senior scientist at UVA and nationally-recognized wind energy expert, believes that the passing of this bill is crucial to the Highland County wind farm's success and that without the bill's passage, Highland New Wind would face potentially devastating repercussions for failing to abide by the Endangered Species Act. The proposed wind farm's location is in the center of several caves that are home to two species of endangered bats: the Virginia Big-Eared bat and the Indiana bat.

Dominion Virginia Power, the state's largest electric utility, is looking to get greener. Actually, Dominion must get greener, mostly because of government rules in Virginia and North Carolina that at least 12 percent of the company's energy come from renewable sources by 2022. Dominion currently draws about 2 percent of its power from green energy supplies, including a large biomass facility in Pittsylvania County and a hydroelectric pumping station in the mountains of Bath County. To expand its environmental portfolio, the Richmond-based conglomerate is seeking project proposals from entrepreneurs and businesses to provide more renewable energy in the near future. ..."In order to meet one of the fastest-growing demands in the country, we need a very balanced portfolio," he said. That means investing in coal as well as renewables, energy conservation and efficiencies, and nuclear power. Dominion announced last month that it intends to seek a federal license to build a third reactor at its North Anna nuclear power plant, northwest of Richmond.

WASHINGTON - The House rejected a resolution Wednesday that would block government plans to spur construction of major new power lines in many states regardless of local opposition. The issue has been contentious in parts of the East Coast and in the Southwest, where two high priority transmission corridors for power lines were proposed. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., warned colleagues that unwanted power lines could come to their district.

Imagine 3,500 wind turbines, each at least as tall as a 40-story building, lining the ridges of Virginia's mountains for about 400 miles (Shenandoah National Park is 100 miles in length). That is what would be needed, according to a U.Va. environmental scientist, to satisfy proposed legislation to make nine percent of Virginia's energy "renewable" by 2020. Rick Webb doesn't want to imagine it, nor would he allow it if it were up to him. "On-shore wind energy will do little to solve our energy problems in Virginia, but will possibly do significant harm to our environment," he said.

Webb's take: while wind energy may be a partial solution to what he sees as an energy crisis, the electricity produced by turbines built atop pristine Appalachian ridges won't make enough of a meaningful contribution to offset their environmental harm.

Webb, a senior research scientist at the University of Virginia's department of environmental sciences, spent 20 months serving on the committee studying the environmental effects of industrial-scale wind energy in the United States and Mid-Atlantic Highlands - a study mandated by the U.S. Congress after a request from Sen. Mollihan in West Virginia. The committee's recently released report has been submitted to Congress, and Webb says it concludes, as he has said for so long, that decisions about wind projects need to be tied to a systematic review process with specific requirements for information. "The NRC report calls for clear criteria or guidelines for making decisions," Webb said. "We don't have that at this point."

From New York to Virginia, residents face the prospect of new high-voltage line construction after an announcement last week by the Department of Energy. Now, East Coast lawmakers are banding together in a bid to short-circuit the federal decision making it easier for power companies to build major power lines like the New York Regional Interconnect.

A new federal proposal to help electricity flow more freely could help the energy-choked East Coast. But it could also infuriate landowners, who have traditionally gotten their way in fights against utilities in Delaware. U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman last week named Delaware as part of his proposed eastern National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor. It would run from New York to Virginia, and west to Ohio. A second corridor would run through California, Arizona and Nevada.

States with renewable portfolio standards have generated growth in the renewable energy sector, but many of the Appalachian states don't have one. Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New York all have some fairly progressive goals, but West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee don't have a state RPS and wind projects often ignite battles.

Some call it a carbon-free alternative to fossil fuels, but others point to significant environmental costs. In Kansas, where winds blow strong, the push for clean energy includes not only new wind turbines but also new nuclear-power plants as part of a "carbon-free" solution to climate change. It's an idea that may be catching on. At least 11 new nuclear plants are in the design stage in nine states, including Virginia, Texas, and Florida, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute website. But that carbon-free pitch has researchers asking anew: How carbon-free is nuclear power? And how cost-effective is it in the fight to slow global warming? "Saying nuclear is carbon-free is not true," says Uwe Fritsche, a researcher at the Öko Institut in Darmstadt, Germany, who has conducted a life-cycle analysis of the plants. "It's less carbon-intensive than fossil fuel. But if you are honest, scientifically speaking, the truth is: There is no carbon-free energy. There's no free lunch."

HIGHTOWN - The first utility-grade wind farm proposed in Virginia is hailed by its supporters as clean energy that can help stem global warming and rising fuel prices. But mountaintop residents near the Highland County site worry about what the blades of 18 towers taller than the Statue of Liberty would do to their environment. That would include rare or endangered birds, bats and a few other species, as well as a wild trout stream. Eleven state agencies have reviewed the Highland New Wind Development proposal and come up with a lengthy list of suggested studies, including an analysis of the cumulative impact of wind farms on the four-state Allegheny Mountain region.

A House of Delegates committee restored local authority over the location of energy-related facilities when it amended a Senate bill creating a state energy plan yesterday.

The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee yesterday approved 13-1 a bill to establish a comprehensive energy policy for Virginia.

“Like so many others, he [Sen. Allen, VA] has had to reassess his position, but he does remain open to the possibility that the wind industry will eventually find a way to increase its capacity. But at this point, he just doesn’t believe it’s terribly efficient and there are more affordable and reliable energy sources for our economy.”

The Senate passed a bill Friday that would set taxation rates on 18 to 20 proposed wind turbines in Highland County.