HINESBURG — Vermont could get half its electric power from renewable sources within 10 years, including 20 percent from wind, if it gets busy developing the resources now, says a new report. The report by the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, issued Thursday in the front yard of a company that makes testing equipment for potential wind power sites, comes against the backdrop of a debate over energy policy that has grown increasingly heated and increasingly political this election season.

Voters overwhelmingly opposed the wind tower proposal slated for neighboring Sheffield and Sutton on Tuesday evening. The unanimous opposition provided the town selectmen with precisely the overwhelming sense of direction they lacked last fall. “I think it was clear,” Selectman Robert Croteau said. “It’s not like we only had 25 or 30 people or even 60 or 70.” An estimated 120 voters turned out to make their position, and that of their town, unmistakably clear. That clarity, however, may have little effect on the Public Service Board (PSB), which must decide whether to issue a certificate of public good for the 16 towers UPC Vermont Wind wants to build.

(East Haven, VT - AP) - The state Public Service Board travels this week to the tiny northeastern Vermont town of East Haven to look at the site of a proposed wind power project. At the center of the debate over the proposed East Haven Wind Farm is how pristine the surrounding forest is and whether it would be spoiled by the project.

RUTLAND, Vt.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 15, 2006--Catamount Energy Corporation (Catamount) and Marubeni Power International, Inc. (Marubeni) announced today that they are ending development of the Glebe Mountain Wind Energy Project in Vermont.

New England Energy Alliance Survey Finds Consumer Concern about Future Electricity Supplies, Desire to Choose Electricity Supplier and Support for Addressing Global Warming

If New England's nuclear energy plants had to be replaced by other non-emitting sources of electricity to meet the RGGI goals, the region would be looking at large-scale wind projects, with weather-dependent output, spread over some 650,000 acres of land or water at a cost of more than $10 billion.

Two dozen energy experts and observers have been meeting quietly since September to forge a long-term plan for the state, but critics say the little-known process excludes citizen and environmental concerns, and once again marginalizes those who live where most of the state’s power is produced.

The town's Select Board plans to file documents with the state Public Service Board opposing a wind farm proposal to be located in Clarendon, Ira and neighboring towns. Board members voted Monday to oppose Vermont Community Wind Farm's plan to develop an 80-megawatt wind facility and to erect a 197-foot temporary wind measurement tower on Susie's Peak in Clarendon.

MONTPELIER — A House committee is proposing a major expansion of a state program that allows homeowners and farmers to produce their own electricity and sell it back to utilities to reduce their own bills.

Five wind turbines proposed for Georgia Mountain are either a way to save the planet from dependence on fossil fuels or an environment-wrecking boondoggle, according to public comments at Tuesday evening's Vermont Public Service Board hearing. The board is considering whether to allow the Harrison family, which owns a concrete and construction business, to erect five 400-foot tall wind turbines on the mountain, which straddles Milton and Georgia.

MONTPELIER, Vt. -- More than 100 candidates for federal, state and local offices in Vermont have signed onto a plan by the Vermont Public Interest Research Group to reduce dependence on foreign oil and emphasize renewable sources of electricity. VPIRG asked 329 political candidates across the state to sign their pledge and 111 signed the document while 27 candidates provided position papers, which support similar goals.

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."

NORTHEAST KINGDOM -- The wind energy projects proposed for the Northeast Kingdom have raised questions about the state's permitting process. Some claim that Section 248, which deals with energy production, is not as rigorous as Act 250, the state's land development law.

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:

"There's no way this school can continue," she declared during an interview last week, because of the threat wind turbines pose to the special environment school officials have tried to create for their students.

MONTPELIER — After 27 months and more than $1 million, the developers of a four-turbine wind project proposed for a mountaintop in East Haven have been told that the Public Service Board (PSB) should reject its application because the project will have an undue aesthetic impact in a nearby land preserve.

The state has many choices for electricity other than the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, but they may be more costly and could increase the state's carbon emissions, an energy consultant told lawmakers. Vermont does not need to develop its own power sources to replace the Vernon reactor, because utilities could get the power from outside the state.

The face of Shelburne Farms changed this week when students from Vermont Technical College installed a 100-foot wind anemometer that will help determine whether the farm is a good candidate for an energy-producing wind turbine.

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.

Ridge Protectors, a group fiercely opposed to industrial wind power on Vermont's ridge lines, has launched a letter-writing appeal to Gov. Jim Douglas, who they hope will veto S.209, the so-called Energy Efficiency and Affordability Act. The bill, which is aimed at promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency, has passed both the House and Senate, and is on the governor's desk. The letter-writing campaign is a last-ditch attempt to change a part of the measure that gives industrial wind power a tax break at the expense of the education fund, said Paul Brouha of Sutton.