The two utilities behind the proposed Potomac Appalachian Transmission Highline are putting their best foot forward. Officials from Allegheny Power and American Electric Power held an extensive briefing for reporters on Wednesday in advance of public hearings on the project. The $1.8 billion, 765-kilovolt line is proposed to run from St. Albans, W.Va., to Kemptown, Md., via northern Frederick County.

The Nelson County Planning Commission took comments from the public at its July 22 meeting on a proposed ordinance that would regulate small wind turbine energy systems used for electrical generation within Nelson County. ...The ordinance came about because there are several people in the county interested in using small wind energy systems.

As a microcosm of the wind plant controversy, the wetlands issue seems to be typical of the level of scrutiny applied to the plans for turbines on Allegheny Mountain. Highland New Wind's plans for a utility in the Laurel Fork watershed has garnered strong opposition from residents and landowners since 2002, and the current debate about wetlands on the project site is a tug of war ...Recently, three Highlanders submitted a letter to a number of state agencies and county officials, asserting there appears to be a wetlands area under which HNWD will bury a transmission line, and that HNWD has not applied for a federal permit to do that.

A third meeting of county officials reviewing HNWD's plans was held at a brisk pace this week. The Technical Review Committee of county administrator Roberta Lambert and building official Jim Whitelaw is sorting through a checklist of conditions Highland New Wind Development must meet before it can get a green light for construction. Opponents of the 38-megawatt electric utility are pushing to hold the county, and HNWD, accountable for meeting their responsibilities, raising questions about erosion control, wetlands protection, proper maps, and other concerns.

A month ago HNWD development made national news when its public relations firm announced that Virginia's first utility scale wind project was ready to start construction. As indicated here, that was a blatant misrepresentation. HNWD does not have a building permit, does not have an Erosion and Sediment Control permit, does not have approval from the FAA, has not satisfied the permit conditions imposed by the State Corporation Commission (SCC), and has not obtained an Endangered Species Act permit.

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.

A recommendation on a proposed ordinance that could regulate the development of windmills along East River Mountain has been delayed until June. The Tazewell County Planning Commission delayed action on the proposed mountain ridgeline ordinance Thursday ...The planning commission is mulling over changes recommended by a tall structures steering committee.

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 Warren County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing this month on proposed supplementary regulations for wind energy systems that have been tossed around by planners at several meetings since October. The supervisors will hold a hearing on May 19 at 7:30 p.m. on changes to Chapter 180 of the zoning ordinance that would add the definition of a turbine and allow private use of wind energy systems.

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.

A Harpers Ferry, W.Va., company's proposal to build 131 wind turbines on Great North Mountain has been rejected. In an April 2 letter, Maureen Hyzer, the supervisor for the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, denied FreedomWorks LLC's proposal to install three meteorological towers that would collect wind and other necessary data to support installation of future wind turbines.

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.

Tazewell County officials are moving closer to a decision on a controversial windmill farm project for East River Mountain. A steering committee studying the wind turbine project has recommended several changes to a proposed ridgeline protection ordinance, David Anderson, chairman of the Tazewell County Board of Supervisors, said.

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.

Six weeks ago, Ann Robinson of Falls Mills, Va., had never heard of wind turbines, but on Sunday afternoon, she was expressing her concerns over a BP Dominion's proposed wind turbine farm on East River Mountain in Tazewell County, Va. "At first I thought, oh well, wind energy, this is green ... this is a good thing, but then I started researching wind turbines and learned differently," Robinson said to a crowd.

Not long ago, Gordon Latter and his family applied for a building permit that would have let them install a residential wind turbine at his home atop a windy hill in White Hall. ...Yet Latter's plans were thwarted, at least for now. Albemarle County's zoning regulations do not allow installation of wind turbines.