The Select Board decided, on a 3-1 vote, to take no position Tuesday on a small-scale, temporary wind research project being proposed for Little Equinox. The project, which is before the state's Public Service Board, would construct an 80-foot residential wind turbine on the mountain for two years for testing purposes.

Bears and foreign conglomerates were among some the concerns citizens from in and around Readsboro brought to Green Mountain National Forest officials Wednesday night. ...The open house for receiving public input on the Deerfield Wind Project's Environmental Impact Statement was held at the Readsboro Central School's gym. National Forest officials had released a draft if the statement for public review and comment.

A Georgia family is preparing to seek state approval for three 400-foot wind turbines atop Georgia Mountain, the first commercial wind project to be proposed for Chittenden County. ...If all goes as planned, Georgia Mountain Community Wind will file an application with the state Public Service Board by Jan. 1. If the project wins approval, the turbines would be installed in 2010. The Harrisons' proposal differs from most of the dozen other wind projects in the Vermont pipeline.

Two public meetings on the proposed Deerfield Wind Project have been scheduled in November, according to Robert Bayer of the U.S. Forest Service. The first will be held on Nov. 5 at the Readsboro Elementary School and the second will be held on Nov. 6 in the Franklin Conference Center at the Howe Center. Both are from 6 to 8 p.m. Bayer said the sessions are part of the Forest Service's application process, which is in progress for Deerfield Wind, LLC, a limited liability company created by Iberdrola Renewable.

A Vermont-based company is planning to construct an 80-foot residential wind tower on Little Equinox this fall. Earth Turbines, a start-up in Williston that develops residential turbines, filed a joint petition Friday with Endless Energy Corp. and NRG Systems to the state's Public Service Board to erect the turbine and continue to use the 100-foot wind measurement tower already on the mountain. ...The town was notified along with adjoining property owners through the permit process. In the application, it states both the turbine and the tower "can be removed by Dec. 31, 2010."

Noble Environmental Power's local representative said the company is not pulling out of Rutland yet. Brad King, project manager of the Connecticut-based company that plans to build a wind farm on Grandpa's Knob, responded Friday to reports that the national financial crisis had caused the company to lay off workers and postpone projects in upstate New York.

Noble Environmental Power is having financial and legal difficulties, but it was unclear Thursday what that will mean for the proposed wind farm at Grandpa's Knob. New York media reported Thursday that Noble had laid off employees and stopped work at two planned wind farms there, linking the development to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, one of the company's chief backers. Meanwhile, the New York Attorney General's Office announced in July it would subpoena Noble and another company developing wind farms in upstate New York as part of an investigation into a variety of allegations against the companies, including bribery and anticompetitive practices.

The Deerfield Wind Project was handed a setback when two state agencies weighed in on the recent U.S. Forest Service draft Environmental Impact Statement. As a result, the project now faces greater scrutiny in the application process for a certificate of public good. ...On Tuesday, the Deerfield Wind Project suffered another setback, this time with the application process. The Public Service Board granted a request to suspend hearings to allow concerned parties more time to review documents by the project's attorney.

The Vermont Public Service Board was to have opened hearings on Deerfield Wind on Monday, to collect evidence on whether the project should receive permission from the state. Opponents called for the postponement, telling the board that Deerfield Wind had waited until the end of the day Friday to provide them with what they called "an enormous overload of documents" about the project. ...The two-month delay is intended to give all parties an opportunity to review all the documents so they are prepared to fully respond to the information in them.

A public hearing on the revised town plan at the municipal building Thursday night drew a crowd, whose most vocal members wanted opposition to industrial wind projects reflected in the plan. Presented by the board of selectmen and Jay Dudley, chairman of the planning commission of Barton, about 130 people considered issues that ranged from law enforcement in town to the no. 1 question on most people's minds: how should the town plan for or against the harnessing of big wind?

In late 2009 residents here and in surrounding towns may see wind turbines along Georgia Mountain. Jim Harrison and his family, owners of Harrison Concrete, have proposed the construction of 400-foot-tall wind towers on 700 acres the family owns on the southeastern summit of Georgia Mountain in Milton, along the Chittenden and Franklin County line. Harrison said his reason for undertaking the project is the need for renewable energy, describing the project as a "way a small family can make a difference."

The Vermont Public Service Board on Wednesday asked two wind power companies to pay $2,000 for potential violations over wind measurement towers on Lowell Mountain. Atlantic Wind LLC and, enXco agreed with the state to withdraw their application to the PSB for new, taller wind measurement towers on Lowell Mountain. The PSB accepted that deal this week. In response to the deal, enXco took down two existing 50-meter measurement towers as required by an existing certificate of public, good, according to the PSB order issued Wednesday.

In Vermont the parties are still waiting for a decision on the Sheffield project, which was argued before the high court in May. A clerk at the Supreme Court said Tuesday she has no idea when a decision might be announced. Meanwhile, the opponents of big wind in western New York believe they are finally getting the recognition they deserve with this month's announcement by the AG's office in Albany.

First Wind, a company with permits to build a wind power project in northern Vermont, is under investigation in New York for alleged improper practices in obtaining land and permits to build wind farms. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has served subpoenas on the Newton, Mass.-based company and on Noble Environmental Power, a Connecticut company. First Wind has built three projects in New York; Noble has built major wind farms just across Lake Champlain from Vermont.

Across Lake Champlain, many Vermonters are asking the same question. While wind energy sails along at a healthy clip in New York and much of New England, in Vermont it's been as flaccid as a limp windsock. Currently, all of Vermont's grid-scale wind power - a meager 6 megawatts total - comes from 11 turbines in Searsburg, in southern Vermont. A 16-turbine project in Sheffield is due to break ground later this year, but that is by no means a done deal. If it does move forward, the modest project would increase Vermont's wind energy output fivefold. That's still a pittance compared to Vermont's neighbors.

Seventeen new wind turbines proposed on Green Mountain State Forest Land by Deerfield Wind, LLC, could generate over $3 million for the town over the next 20 years, according to Richard Saudek, attorney for both Readsboro and Searsburg in the matter. The contract was shared with residents at a meeting Tuesday. Instead of taxes, the town will benefit from the success of the wind farm or receive a minimum of $154,000 annually. ...Saudek said he has never shared a contract like this with the public before but came away with some questions. Concerns of citizens included when the payments would come in, if the town would receive money during the construction phase, what happens if the owners default on payment and how market fluctuations would affect the contract.

The last challenge facing the Sheffield wind project may well come down to of the most hallowed principles in a regulated marketplace. Is the public getting a good deal? That question was front and center at a hearing last week before the state Supreme Court. ln fact, it's a question that has dogged the project ever since it was proposed by UPC Wind in February 2006. The case has landed in the Supreme Court because opponents, a citizens' group organized as the Ridge Protectors, believe the public good is not being well served by the project. And they are willing to put their money where their mouth is. Their attorney, Daniel Hershenson, argued before the high court last Thursday, May 15, that a decision allowing the project to go forward should be overturned.

Blades have begun to turn on 121 wind turbines here and in neighboring Ellenburg, a 35-minute drive northwest of Plattsburgh. Saturday, they turned with a soft whush, whush, whush. "Whush, whush, whush, all day long, all night long - I moved here because it was so peaceful and quiet," groused Allen Barcombe as he pointed to the nearest tower, jutting up 400 feet into the sky behind his house. ...The New York turbines, in two projects developed by Noble Environmental Power, are the first of nearly 400 expected to go up in five towns on a windy plateau just south of the Canadian border. When completed, the development about 90 minutes from Burlington will represent the largest concentration of wind turbines in the eastern United States.

In what could be a national precedent, the Vermont Public Service Board is reviewing a plan to build 17 industrial wind turbines on more than 80 acres of the Green Mountain National Forest. Known as Deerfield Wind, the turbine project would be located along a prominent ridgeline in the towns of Searsburg and Readsboro, Vermont. ...Deerfield Wind would be the first industrial wind-energy facility in a national forest anywhere in the country ...The Green Mountain National Forest is one of only two national forests in New England. The U.S. Forest Service has designated nearly 20,000 acres at 37 sites within the Green Mountain National Forest as "potentially both viable and suitable" for wind power development. Recently, a proposal for a second industrial wind-energy facility within the Green Mountain National Forest was initiated.