Arthur and Pamela Dodds are upset with the West Virginia Public Service Commission's approval of the wind turbine facility along the Laurel Mountain ridgeline in Barbour and Randolph Counties. "I was very disappointed that the wind turbine complex had been approved. I feel there was an improper balancing of the information that the opposition gave," says Pamela Dodds, a Barbour County resident.

The West Virginia Public Service Commission approved AES Laurel Mountain's certificate on Wednesday to construct a $250 million wind turbine electric generating facility of up to 65 wind turbines on an eight-mile stretch of the Laurel Mountain ridgeline between Barbour and Randolph counties. ...Scores of area residents have spoken out against the project saying it would mar the mountainous scenery and interfere with wildlife. Art and Pam Dodds said members of the Laurel Mountain Preservation Association are very disappointed in the decision of the WVPSC to grant the siting certificate.

West Virginia has OK'd a proposed $250 million wind farm along the Laurel Mountain ridgeline. The state Public Service Commission says AES Laurel Mountain has to establish a decommissioning fund, obtain additional permits and satisfy other conditions contained in the order approving construction that was issued Friday.

e West Virginia Public Service Commission is expected to reach a decision today on whether to grant AES' siting permit to construct up to 65 wind turbines on the Laurel Mountain ridge between Barbour and Randolph counties. ...The PSC has been considering all of the written evidence and testimony in order to arrive at a decision in the case. Today is the final day in the statutorily imposed 300-day process for the PSC to make a decision.

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.

Rockbridge County is a step closer to having a wind energy ordinance on the books. The Planning Commission last week recommended adoption of the ordinance as well as approval of the first application for a wind energy system - two micro turbines that are to go on top of Howard Johnson's Hotel. The wind energy ordinance was supported by several citizens who spoke during a public hearing.

US WindForce officials met Monday night to outline plans for a charitable fund the company plans to launch as part of its 23-turbine Pinnacle wind farm, but the meeting turned to the merits of the project itself, as residents rose to register their opposition. "I'm totally against putting 23 turbines on Green Mountain, for obvious reasons," said Keyser resident Mike Wilson. Wilson said the turbines, which will rise 418 feet above the crest of Green Mountain, just west of Keyser, will detract from the natural experience campers savor at Jennings-Randolph Lake's award-winning campground, "2 miles by air" from the turbines.

Without investors or a final plan, Highland New Wind Development nevertheless remains optimistic about getting Virginia's first wind energy utility built here in Highland County. HNWD attorney John Flora told county supervisors Tuesday the market for wind energy is down, but the company is proceeding with its plans. ...Because HNWD does not know which kind of turbines it will use, it has not submitted a final site plan, something both the county and state require. Supervisor David Blanchard wondered why the company had not at least put together several site plans based on the options for turbines.

US Windforce has been hosting monthly meetings of the Community Advisory Panel since spring, when the company began its public outreach for the wind farm. Towering 418 feet, the turbines will rise along the crest of Green Mountain, from just north of the Pinnacle radio tower site, all the way to where the mountain drops down to the Potomac River near Keyser. ...The main topic of discussion Monday night will be the community benefit fund, which US WindForce plans to seed with annual donations of $20,000 for the life of the project, if the wind farm is approved.

According to Blanchard, McBride told DHR, "I can tell you right now, you're going to see them [the turbines]." Agency officials explained to McBride the DHR is not trying to stop his project, but they do need this information to evaluate it. "Mac couldn't seem to understand that," Blanchard said. "Mac is a developer, and he naturally wants the path of least resistance. He kept talking about how much it's going to cost." Blanchard said DHR officials told McBride the State Corporation Commission's order granting HNWD a permit stipulates the company is to work with DHR on these issues. "They told him what they needed," Blanchard said.

The question of how Invenergy would "decommission," or tear down, its $300 million Beech Ridge Energy wind farm came into question during Wednesday's state Public Service Commission compliance hearing A plan for decommissioning all of Beech Ridge Energy's 124 wind turbines slated for north-central Greenbrier County was one of 18 preconstruction conditions mandated by the PSC. Beech Ridge hired the Nebraska-based civil engineering firm HDR to prepare a "decommission report".

With final approval of a siting permit less than a week away, anti-windfarm activists are firing yet another round of legal salvos in their bid to stop the construction of 124 wind turbines slated for north-central Greenbrier County. State Public Service Commission hearings begin next Wednesday to determine if Beech Ridge Energy, owned by the Chicago-based company Invenergy, has complied with dozens of preconstruction terms that the PSC ordered when a conditional building permit was approved in 2007. ...Dave Buhrman said the Washington law firm Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal has been hired to sue Beech Ridge over potential violations of the Endangered Species Act if construction goes forward.

Members of the US WindForce Community Advisory Panel met this week to review wildlife reports and other updates from the proposed Pinnacle wind power project planned for Northeast West Virginia. The Pinnacle project seeks to erect 23 turbines atop Green Mountain, running from the northern end of the Allegheny Wildlife Management Area, northward about 3 miles to the end of the ridgeline near the Potomac River. In development since 2003, the project is approaching the end of the planning stage, with WindForce officials planning to submit the application to the West Virginia Public Service Commission by December.

In newspaper advertisements, ApCo says customers who sign up are "investing in a future of energy that's both clean and green." ...But ApCo has already agreed to buy the green power. ApCo contracted for 75 megawatts of energy from the Camp Grove Wind Farm in central Illinois and 100 megawatts from the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm in western Indiana. ApCo already buys power from Summersville Hydro in West Virginia, and has plans to buy from the Beech Ridge Wind Energy project in Greenbrier County when it is finished. So what's the benefit if ApCo customers sign up, given that the company's already buying the green power?

Clarke County Planning Commissioner Kathy Smart, who wants a "greener" home, has an appointment to discuss her heating system. She is considering the installation of a solar- or wind-power generation system to replace the oil furnace that warms her baseboard heating units. But first, Smart must determine if enough wind blows across her property to make a wind-power generation system viable. She is also waiting for the approval of a new county ordinance that would permit small wind turbines for home use.

Appalachian Power Co. customers may soon be able to write a larger check for the monthly bill to support the generation of electricity with wind, water and other renewable sources. The utility said the minimum investment will be $1.50 a month. A typical residential customer could elect to fully offset his electrical consumption with green energy by paying about $15 monthly.

Highlanders for Responsible Development remains committed to its watchdog role involving the Highland New Wind Development industrial wind facility, says HRD president Randy Richardson. "We remain concerned, we are not disappearing, we are going to keep an eye on it." Formed in August 2005 largely in response to the proposed wind turbine project, the non-profit organization continues to meet monthly and monitor wind-energy activity.

The environmental group, along with lead plaintiff Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, alleges in a lawsuit that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers overstepped its authority by permitting four southern West Virginia valley fills in direct violation of the Clean Water Act and the national Environmental Protection Act. That case, won by the plaintiffs in West Virginia southern district court, was heard Sept. 23 at the federal 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. "This is just the latest in a continuing legal saga. We've been on this trip since about 1996," said Jason Bostic, vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association.

Is it too expensive to survey historic resources before Virginia's first wind energy plant is constructed? Highland New Wind Development says it would have to fork over between $50,000-$75,000, or more, to do what state officials have been steadily requesting for two years. ...DHR archeologist Roger Kirchen, however, told The Recorder his agency needs the results of these surveys before a review of the project is completed. "The final SCC order directs the applicant to work toward providing us with information," Kirchen said Monday. "The SCC order has the authority. We've exchanged some documents (with HNWD) ... but none of these issues have been resolved. At this point, we're just trying to identify the potential effects."