The commission charged with finding how the state should reduce its contribution to global climate change - and profit from concerns worldwide about the issue - released its final report Friday calling for more energy efficiency, renewable energy development and the creation of an alliance between the state, nonprofit groups and Vermont's colleges and universities. ...Crombie said all recommendations and possibilities will be considered. But that does not necessarily mean Douglas will change his mind about large wind turbines on the state's ridgelines or bend to the Legislature's proposal of last year. "The governor's position is that we have to be careful about how we approach wind," Crombie said, adding that such wind projects may have other effects on the state - including impacts on the economy and recreation. "We may find that in Vermont we are using a lot of renewable energy already," Crombie said. "Already Vermont is one of the greenest economies in the United States."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued a letter saying it would not authorize a permit for the Sheffield Wind Farm without further review of environmental impact. Concerns over waterways, wetlands, wildlife and habitat fragmentation are key issues with the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to Michael S. Adams, a senior project manager with the Department of the Army New England District Corps of Engineers. ... "The Corps of Engineers permission is required under the Clean Water Act for the construction of the project," Adams said. "At this time it is likely that an individual permit process is going to be required."

When the state Public Service Board granted permission this month for 16 big wind turbines atop a ridge in Sheffield, the three regulators did more than approve Vermont's first commercial wind development in 10 years. They also dispelled some developers' fear that no mountaintop project involving 400-foot-tall structures could ever win a permit. Most important, experts said last week, the board's 119-page decision in the case of UPC Vermont Wind gave wind developers a road map through the long, hilly terrain of Vermont's review process.

Still pending, and waiting in the wings at this moment, are the project's opponents, which include the citizens' group known as the Ridge Protectors and the Town of Sutton. The deadline to ask the board to reconsider its decision will arrive on Saturday, ten days after the order was released. But opponents may be looking to take a bigger step by filing an appeal with the Vermont Supreme Court. In an interview Tuesday night, Paul Brouha of Sutton said there was little interest among opponents to give the board a chance to refine its decision. Rather, he said, opponents are looking to bring issues before the state Supreme Court that have "a chance to change the outcome." The group has 30 days to file an appeal. One of those issue that may come up for appeal, noted Mr. Brouha, is the board's finding that the project would not interfere with the region's orderly growth. To give their appeal greater weight before the high court, opponents are hoping to enlist the aid of surrounding towns like Westmore and Barton.

MONTPELIER - State regulators on Wednesday approved the 16-turbine UPC Wind project to be built in the Northeast Kingdom town of Sheffield, although they also required a series of accommodations by the company before it can put up the project. If built the project would be the first commercial wind power station in Vermont since the Searsburg facility was completed a decade ago.

Ridge Protectors is extremely disappointed in today's decision by the Vermont Public Service Board to issue a certificate of public good (CPG) for UPC Vermont Wind's Sheffield project. Given the political pressure on the PSB to demonstrate that a wind project can be approved in Vermont, however, their decision did not come as a surprise.

State regulators today approved the 16-turbine UPC Wind project to be built in Sheffield, although they also required accommodations by the company before it can put up the project. If built the Sheffield project would be the first commercial wind power station in Vermont since the Searsburg facility was completed a decade ago.

E. Miles Prentice III, a New York attorney who owns an adjoining property, wants to know when the tower's coming down. Working through a local lawyer, Prentice challenged the process that led to its construction early last year. The windmill, he said, would dominate his otherwise-pristine views. The Huntington Board of Zoning Adjustments backed him up. Mark Smith, who serves on the board, said the foundation should never have gotten the green light to build from the zoning office; he said a hasty judgment call by then-Zoning Administrator Roman Livak sidestepped community concerns.

WEST RUTLAND - A wind-energy developer wants access to about 50 acres of town land. Noble Environmental Power, which is studying building what would be the largest wind farm in Vermont in the area around Grandpa's Knob, went before the Select Board on Monday to inquire about buying an easement on the parcel that Town Manager Thomas Yennerell described as "near the ridge line." Yennerell said the company offered a base rate of $2,000-$3,000 a year, with additional payments based on electricity generated by wind turbines placed on the land. He said the board did not offer an immediate answer. "They looked at it and said they'd discuss particulars at a future date," he said.

Dottie Schnure, a spokeswoman for Green Mountain Power Corp., told Channel 3, "What the study is going to do is give us information about whether we can build a plant in-state or multiple plants in state, what the cost of those will be." The utilities, including Greem Mountain Power, Central Vermont Public Service, Vermont Public Power Supply Authority, Washington Electric Cooperative and Vermont Electric Cooperative, chose a Massachusetts consulting firm, Concentric Energy Advisors, to do the study. Schnure said the study is due to be completed by the end of the summer.

Michael and Marilyn Gardner are getting closer to building a combination cell phone tower and windmill on their farm on Mann Hill Road. A joint meeting with the Gardners, the Planning Commission and the Design Review Board is pending to finalize permits for the structure. According to Michael Gardner, the DRB began reviewing to the permit application process recently and a meeting will be scheduled in the next couple weeks.

Town residents on Friday voted against a proposal to expand the wind turbine project on Green Mountain National Forest land in Searsburg and Readsboro......."The showplace town does not want another one," said Brouha. "That says something."

Bryant once was also an avid supporter of large-scale wind farms-until UPC Wind made plans to build a 16-turbine wind farm in his hometown. Now he vehemently opposes such projects, which he claims will overwhelm his stomping grounds environmentally and economically. Bryant and members of Ridge Protectors, a nonprofit he co-founded three years ago to oppose large-scale wind projects in the state, have raised $750,000 to stop the Sheffield project.

MONTPELIER - The Senate very narrowly approved a tax Tuesday on revenue earned by Entergy, the company that owns the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, to pay for a program to reduce the use of heating fuels in the state. The "all fuels" efficiency program to help pay for weatherization and other heating fuel saving measures has become one of the most contentious issues in the Statehouse this year. The tax was passed along with preliminary approval of the Senate's entire energy and anti-global warming bill Tuesday was by a vote of 18-11. The real fight, however, was whether to accept the proposed 35 percent tax on revenue gained by Entergy from the operation of the Vermont Yankee plant. That attempt passed by a 15-14 vote.

HINESBURG -- It may be a hall of learning, but Hinesburg's Carpenter-Carse Library building will soon become an educational showcase, with or without the books. This June, a small wind turbine will be installed in Hinesburg's Geprags Park that will power the library. The 2.5 kilowatt-hour turbine will be installed by Earth Turbines, a business recently founded by David Blittersdorf, founder of NRG Systems. The difference between the two businesses, Blittersdorf said, is NRG works on large-scale, wind-power projects, while Earth Turbines focuses on "home wind power" -- small wind power projects that will create enough power to run a single home or building.

The Vermont Public Service Board is seeking a more informative petition for a certificate of public good from a developer seeking to construct and operate a wind generation facility in Readsboro and Searsburg. According to the original petition submitted in January, the project would be comprised of between 15 and 24 turbines on approximately 80 acres, mostly in the Green Mountain National Forest.

In a time when political and geological uncertainties can make the cost of fossil fuels fluctuate wildly, wind power could offer a steady and predictable alternative source of electricity. At least this is the argument made by the developers of a proposed wind turbine project in the towns of Readsboro and Searsburg. Depending on the number and type of turbines built, this could amount to a 45-megawatt electric generation facility.

This is a story about two men who forged a friendship at a nuclear power plant protest and then went on to collaborate on several sustainable energy projects, including three of the best known modern hydro projects in Vermont, over a 30-year period. Recently, the two separately embarked on wind projects in New York and Vermont. The fate of these projects couldn’t be more different: The New York wind turbines will be built this summer, while the East Haven Wind Farm in the Northeast Kingdom is effectively dead.

Public Service Board (PSB) - Rescheduled Prehearing Conference - RE: Docket #7250, Petition of Deerfield Wind, LLC, for a certificate of public good authorizing it to construct and operate up to a 45 MW wind generation facility, and associated transmission and interconnection facilities, comprised of between 15 and 24 wind turbines on approximately 80 acres in the Green Mountain National Forest, located in Searsburg and Readsboro, with turbines to be placed both on the east side of Route. 8 on the sa.m.e ridgeline as the existing GMP Searsburg wind facility (Eastern Project Area), and along the ridgeline to the west of Route 8 in a northwesterly orientation (Western Project Area) PSB, Hearing room, 3rd floor, Chittenden Bank Building, 112 State St., Montpelier.

Up here in sparsely settled Northeast Kingdom, Sheffield Wind has touched off a bitter debate engulfing residents and town governments in half a dozen communities that will share unequally in the wind farm’s costs and benefits. What Sheffield selectmen see as a boon to their tiny community, other towns see as a threat to their scenic beauty, tourism, economy and property values.