The company looking to expand the wind power facility in Searsburg has specified its intentions of building 17 wind turbines on the hills of Searsburg and Readsboro.

Small-scale energy production and efficiency measures could create more than 6,000 jobs in Vermont, according to a study released Tuesday by the Vermont Council on Rural Development.

"The USFWS has indicated that inadequate preconstruction data has been collected to evaluate risk to birds and bats," according to the Army's letter to UPC requesting more information. "Briefly discuss the data that has been collected and what additional data may be necessary to resolve the concerns of USFWS."

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.

MONTPELIER, Vt. --Gov. Jim Douglas on Thursday said he was "disappointed" with the Public Service Board's approval a day earlier of a 16-turbine wind power project planned for the northeastern Vermont town of Sheffield. "I don't think industrializing our ridge lines is the right thing to do for the natural beauty of our state," the governor said at a news conference. "I don't think the modest amount of electricity that will be generated from wind turbines is worth the impairment of our ridge lines. "But I also respect the law," and the quasi-judicial board's role under it in making determinations about utility projects, the governor said, though he added he expected the ruling might be appealed to the Vermont Supreme Court.

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.

A 16-turbine wind power project in Sheffield, Vt., about 25 miles south of the Quebec border, received its major state approval today.

New England's electricity rates, among the highest in the nation, will continue to depend almost entirely on the price of natural gas over the next two decades -- no matter what policies state leaders adopt for conserving energy and approving new kinds of power plants, according to a study being released today. The report, by Independent System Operator New England, which runs the six-state power grid and the region's $10 billion wholesale power market, offers no hope rates will drop significantly unless the price of natural gas plummets. That's an outcome few energy investors are banking on. Since 2000, as New England has grown more dependent on cleaner-burning natural-gas power plants, average homeowners' electric bills in Massachusetts have roughly doubled, along with an equivalent jump in the prices for wholesale natural gas. The ISO's "scenario analysis" examines 52 approaches to meeting demand for electricity through 2025, but takes no position on which are best. They include launching massive conservation efforts, building nuclear generators at existing nuclear plants, and making a huge regional push into cleaner-burning coal plants. Regardless of which scenario is pursued, 90 percent of the time in 2020-2025 the price of gas would determine the price of electricity, the report says.

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.

Anticipating the need to replace the supply of about two-thirds of the state's electricity, 200 Vermonters will sequester themselves in a hotel for a weekend in early November to study energy options and consider how to balance Vermont's energy portfolio for the next generation. Energy discussions - whether considering wind, nuclear, or hydroelectric power - attract crowds of special-interest groups and political activists. The competing rhetoric can be overwhelming. The goal of the $500,000-plus worth of studies - the largest energy sampling ever conducted in the United States - is to cut through the slogans and give policymakers a fresh look at how Vermonters envision the state's energy future, said Stephen Wark, the Department of Public Service's consumer affairs director. Vermonters will pay for the bulk of the studies, through rate charges on utility bills and state tax dollars. "We are looking for mainstream Vermonters, not advocates," Wark said. "What we are looking for is people with an open mind, people that are willing to learn and share their opinions with us."

The money from Noble will make a huge difference for Clinton. "We're almost positive we can do away with the town tax," Lagree said. "We'll still have the school tax and county tax." Lagree said inflationary increases are built into the payments. The town is now looking at various improvements it has not had a chance to make.

MONTPELIER -- Democrats came up 12 votes short of overriding the governor's veto of an energy bill in the House on Wednesday, then couldn't quite pull off an effort to resurrect the bulk of the bill. Together with a failed veto override of a campaign finance bill it meant two political victories for Republican Gov. Jim Douglas over the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Democrats weren't casting it that way. "It's a huge loss for Vermonters," said Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham. He said legislators succeeded in raising awareness about global warming and that the veto proved Douglas is out of touch with Vermonters on the issue. Douglas disagreed. "Some of the rhetoric has been noisy but devoid of fact," he said. His work on establishing tough auto and greenhouse gas emission standards shows his dedication to the issue, he said. Douglas also said he would meet today with his cabinet to begin implementing parts of the bill.

Legislators in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic passed a number of bills applying to the electric power industry, with several states committing to emissions reductions through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and other states making broad organizational changes to their regulatory processes.

Simply polling residents about a complicated topic like whether the state's utilities should buy power from wind projects, nuclear power, Hydro-Quebec of any of the other sources of electricity available when the current contracts expire would prove of limited benefit, experts and officials decided. So instead the "public engagement process" requested by the Legislature and created by the department will have three parts. In all it is expected to cost roughly $520,000. The heart of the process will consist of deliberative polling, in which roughly 200 Vermonters selected from a telephone poll of 5,000 candidates will spend a weekend hearing from experts about power sources from wind to coal. Their responses to the worthiness of different possible energy sources - and the expected cost of each - will then be part of a report that will give utilities and policy makers guidance as they seek new supplies. Also included in that study will be the results of five meetings from around the state on energy supply issues, which will include polling of those attending. Finally there will be an Internet site that will also gather information on Vermonters' preferred electricity sources.

SWANTON - Tom Salmon spoke at length of the state's recent history of finding practical energy solutions Thursday, including details of his tenure as the state's governor in the mid ‘70s. When he was finished talking about the past, Salmon offered an emphatic solution for the state's future: keep the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. Salmon, speaking during an energy forum at the Swanton Industrial Park, said Vermont Yankee has been a great source of energy for the state since its inception in 1972, and should be considered for renewal when its current contract expires in 2012. The forum was one of three sponsored by the Vermont Energy Partnership, the St. Albans Cooperative Creamery and the Franklin County Industrial Development Corporation. "Vermont Yankee is not the enemy my friends," the former governor said. "Vermont Yankee does not contribute to global warming."

MONTPELIER - With doubts growing about their ability to override a veto of key energy legislation, the Legislature's Democratic leaders on Tuesday offered to drop from it one of Gov. Jim Douglas' least favorite provisions: the tax increase on the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. Douglas wasn't buying it.