Sitting shoulder to shoulder in the portrait room at the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, community members listened intently to panelists before engaging in a somewhat heated debate about windmills and nature. Lights were dimmed as images emerged of Don Quixote's jousting windmills and of dead bats to illustrate the wind-energy debate. The presentation, titled "Windmills: Viewed through the lens of art, science, and animal impact" included panelists Patrick Marold, Thomas Tailer and Scott Darling in this culminating event of a three-part series, "The Energy Project Vermont," a partnership between ECHO and Burlington City Arts with the support of University of Vermont.

An environmental court judge has dealt a setback to a wind energy developer that wants to build a project in the Northeast Kingdom. The judge has set a trial for December to hear arguments about whether the project complies with Vermont's water quality regulations. Parts of Judge Merideth Wright's ruling went in favor of First Wind, the company that wants to put the 16 turbines on a ridgeline in Sheffield. But when the judge focused on how the project will affect the water quality of high elevation streams, she handed the opponents a victory.

One hundred people crammed into Ira town hall Tuesday night to meet with the developers of the Vermont Community Wind Farm. Some in the crowd already had their mind made up, and would not support the project no matter what. A majority of residents are relatively supportive of the concept of wind power, but have issues with the location and magnitude of the proposed project.

Officials from Vermont Community Wind have organized a bus trip to a wind farm in New Hampshire to try and build support for a large scale wind farm they're proposing in and around the Rutland County town of Ira. Company officials say about 35 residents from the area will travel to Lempster, New Hampshire, on Saturday where a 24-megawatt wind farm has recently been built.

More than 150 people gathered tonight in Georgia to debate a proposed five-turbine wind farm on Georgia Mountain. Some 30 speakers and the broader audience seemed split on the project as they participated in a hearing before the state Public Service Board, which would have to approve the development for it to proceed.

The neighbors gathered in Dan and Tina FitzGerald's kitchen had a list of grievances about five wind turbines proposed for the mountain in his backyard. The list began with this: A fear their voices will not be listened to. "We feel there is a tremendous amount of money stacked up against us," said Darlene Ross, who would have a view of the turbines from her home on Arrowhead Lake.

Although the Public Service Board granted the Deerfield Wind Project a certificate of public good, there remains a lot of work ahead. Now the wind project must obtain approval from federal and state agencies, and officials say it may be another year before construction of the wind turbines can commence. ...According to U.S. Forest Service supervisor Meg Mitchell, the forest service is reviewing the PSB decision. Mitchell said the forest service is also looking at submitted comments from the draft environmental impact statement.

Opposition is organizing against a proposed wind project in Ira, a small hilly town southwest of Rutland, with a handful of residents from Ira and surrounding towns meeting last week to discuss their concerns. A company called Vermont Community Wind Farm has proposed putting as many as 60 wind turbines in and around the town of 460 people.

The Vermont Public Service Board has issued a certificate of public good for the Deerfield Wind Project, but the work must still be approved by the U.S. Forest Service. "They've cleared a major hurdle, but there's still a good bit of the race left to run," Meg Mitchell, supervisor of the Green Mountain National Forest, said Tuesday.

Plans for a wind farm atop Georgia Mountain are coming together rapidly and the project-which would establish three to five turbines along the ridge-could be operational as soon as 2011, said consultants for the Georgia Mountain Community Wind LLC. The consultants testified before the Milton Planning Commission on March 17, as part of the project's permitting process.

Wind energy advocates want the Douglas administration to lift its ban on large-scale wind projects on state-owned land. The advocates say Vermont needs to explore all options as it looks for new energy resources. But Governor Jim Douglas remains opposed to the idea VPR's John Dillon reports:

The Vermont Public Service Board has denied Ridge Protectors Inc.'s request for discovery and hearings on the certificate of public good being issued for a wind generation facility in Sheffield. ...The case relates to the Aug. 8, 2007, Public Service Board's issuance of a certificate of public good which granted conditional approval of a wind generation facility by Vermont Wind.

Chairman Ivan Beattie said he would have been inclined to support the project, as recommended by the Planning Commission, had it not been for a decision made at town meeting in 2006 that gave the town $150,000 to oppose a much larger wind project on the mountain. The former project, proposed by Endless Energy, would have put five 390-foot turbines on the mountain and generated 30 million killowatt-hours a year. Beattie called the two projects "different animals," but he wanted to err on the side of caution. "The integrity of a town meeting vote," he said, "is one of the most important elements of local government."

The Planning Commission made a recommendation Monday night that the Select Board review a petition by Endless Energy Corporation (EEC), NRG Systems and Earth Turbines to allow for construction of an 80-foot high, 2.5 kilowatt, wind turbine on top of Little Equinox Mountain. ...But this may not be the last wind turbine activity on the top of Little Equinox in the near future. In an affidavit in support of the petition, Harley Lee, President of Endless Energy Corporation - a wind development company out of Yarmouth, Maine - stated that EEC was still hoping to install wind turbines on Little Equinox Mountain under a proposed innovative community wind structure that would provide local residents, businesses, and other utility customers with cost effective power. An earlier proposal to install five, 410-foot high turbines at the top of Little Equinox stirred enormous local controversy in 2005-06.

The Vermont Public Service Board, a neutral arbiter of aesthetics, has ruled twice against the structure, which was erected by the owners of Teal Farm in January 2006, with the blessings of the town's zoning administrator. Subsequent challenges from the farm's adjoining neighbor, part-time Vermont resident E. Miles Prentice III, halted the project. The service board agreed with Prentice: It found the wind tower to have "an unduly adverse effect" on the surrounding viewscape. Living Future Foundation, which operates Teal Farm and its array of sustainable energy-and-agriculture projects, appealed the decision.

The war over wind raged on this week, as the Barton area's Ladies Improvement Society pressed the Barton Select Board for any means to stop commercial wind development in town. Though no commercial wind projects are being proposed for the Orleans County town, the 10 or so women who attended a Monday night select board meeting want to ensure that stopgaps are in place in case a project should be proposed. The group doesn't even want wind developers to drive heavy trucks through Barton for other projects. ...Selectmen, however, told the group that a community-wide discussion will have to happen on the issue, because there are many in town who support renewable energy.

Residents upset about recent state approval for a wind power project in a neighboring town have launched a petition drive to change the town plan to prohibit commercial wind power development. “This petition basically reinforces that we don’t want to look at the ones at the end of Crystal Lake, and we don’t want the construction coming through,” said Liz Butterfield, owner of the Barton Village Corner Store. “And in the future, we don’t want wind development in the town of Barton.” ...“I think a 420-food wind tower at the end of a state park is a travesty,” Butterfield said.

The petition basically duplicates the concerns the USFWS raised two months ago. It says that studies at existing wind facilities "have shown high mortality rates for birds and, especially so, for bats. Not mentioned in the hearings nor in any developer studies is the fact that ducks, geese, and other water fowl migrate over these ridge lines and stop over in the wetlands in the Sheffield project area. Threatened species of interior forest birds come north to live here for the warmer months. We are very concerned that their habitat and nesting will be severely interrupted. "Given the political pressure in Vermont and New England to construct renewable electric generation developments, particularly industrial-scale wind plants, we are concerned that otherwise thoughtful biologists and wildlife experts are being compelled to ignore their best judgment," it says. "We encourage you and your colleagues in EPA and the Corps of Engineers to exercise your authorities to the fullest and hope that our state and federal officials will encourage you as well.

Will wind generation towers adversely impact one of Vermont’s iconic views, the long shimmering expanse of deep Lake Willoughby in the Northeast Kingdom? That is a question that officials in the town of Westmore have raised. They say they are concerned the sight of the proposed Sheffield Wind Farm on mountains located from two to five miles from Lake Willoughby, which is in Westmore, could affect the town’s prestigious National Natural Landmark status.

Planning Commission Chairman Brian Keefe had his hands full keeping the overflow audience from drifting away from the siting issue. Many wanted to discuss questions of aesthetics or the merits of wind power. Keefe explained that there would be at least two or three meetings to discuss those other issues.