The US Forest Service is one step closer to issuing a decision on the Deerfield Wind Project. The Manchester Ranger District of the Green Mountain National Forest has reviewed the Public Service Board's approval and the public comments it received regarding last year's Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Now the forest service is ready to release a supplemental report on their latest findings. But despite the new information, some state officials are urging the forest service take extra precautions before they make a final decision.

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.

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.

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.

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.

BRATTLEBORO -- There is no place for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Sen. Bernard Sanders' plan to combat greenhouse gas emissions. Monday, Sanders announced he was reintroducing an ambitious bill to reduce pollution associated with global warming. The bill was first introduced by his predecessor, Jim Jeffords. Sanders is co-sponsoring the bill with fellow Vermonter, Sen. Patrick Leahy. When asked how nuclear power fits into the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act, Sanders replied, "it doesn't." "Our bill focuses on energy efficiency and it focuses on sustainability. It doesn't deal with nuclear power," said Sanders, in a telephone interview Monday night. Sanders said there was one major reason why nuclear power doesn't belong in the act. "We are dealing with highly toxic radioactive substances and we don't know of a way to dispose of them safely," he said.

LUDLOW— When it comes to addressing the worldwide problem of greenhouse gas emissions, Okemo Mountain Resort Owner Tim Mueller said, you've got to start somewhere. That's why Mueller and wife, Diane, are purchasing enough renewable energy certificates from Sterling Planet, a retail renewable energy provider, to power all the electrical needs of their three ski resorts, which include Okemo, Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado and Mount Sunapee Resort in New Hampshire.

In the continuing dialog between Endless Energy Corp. and people interested in the proposed five turbine wind farm, Monday's meeting focused on ecological issues.

SHEFFIELD – Residents here by a 27-vote margin backed construction of the Sheffield wind energy project in a nonbinding paper ballot to assess sentiment on the controversial proposal.

SHEFFIELD -- The majority of voters at a special town meeting in Sheffield Thursday night said they were in favor of a commercial wind farm in town.

NORTHEAST KINGDOM -- Kingdom residents will have another opportunity to comment on a proposed regional plan that supports wind power as a renewable energy source but leaves decisions up to individual towns. A second hearing on the draft plan is Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 7 p.m. in the Lyndon Institute cafeteria. The deadline for written comment is also Dec. 6.

SHEFFIELD – Residents here are gearing up for a public showdown to determine how registered voters feel about the proposed Sheffield Wind Farm.

Legally, referendums in Vermont are non-binding and carry none of the punch they do in some other states.