Longview realtor Bill Hallanger has been pressing the committee to draft a policy so he can put up an $8,000 windmill he bought from an Arizona company earlier this year. ...County officials say they must review proposals like Hallanger's to protect neighbors from noise and other impacts.

Kittitas County commissioners approved on Tuesday the expansion of the project area of the Wild Horse Wind Power Project to accommodate the addition of 22 turbines. The 8,600-acre, 127-turbine project east of Ellensburg is owned and operated by Bellevue-based Puget Sound Energy, which has plans to add the turbines to the current project area and to a newly purchased area of about 1,260 acres on the north side of the existing project. ... The new acreage includes about 960 acres purchased by PSE and lands leased from the state Department of Natural Resources and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Landowners could erect 100-foot-tall wind energy towers on their property, and their neighbors wouldn't be notified or get a chance to comment, under new rules the County Council is considering. The draft law aims to make it easier for people to take advantage of wind turbines, an environmentally friendly and renewable form of electricity, to help power their homes. "It's a great thing if people can produce their own clean energy," said County Council member Barbara Brenner, who, along with council member Carl Weimer, pushed for rules allowing residential wind energy systems. "My biggest concern is if we make it too difficult or cumbersome to get through the process, probably a lot of people who would have done it won't."

Four months ago, Longview Realtor Bill Hallanger bought an $8,000 windmill from an Arizona company and set out to put it up on the nearly 8 acres he owns on Nevada Drive. Hallanger figured the project would be a fun experiment. He'd learn about renewable energy and maybe shave a little money off his electric bill. But the project has taken on a more urgent purpose. Despite looming worries about energy prices and supply shortages, the technology isn't yet covered by the county's zoning laws, and that has stalled Hallanger's effort.

"In its simplest terms, it's about who should make the land-use decisions for Kittitas County residents," said James Carmody, lawyer for the citizen wind farm opposition group Residents Opposed to Kittitas Turbines. "Is it county elected representatives or a group of unelected bureaucrats? We say local government should make that final decision." Assistant Attorney General Kyle Crews said there are debatable issues raised by the county about the EFSEC statute, "but the actions of the governor, the applicant and EFSEC were all done lawfully."

A wind energy developer wants to lease state-owned forest to build as many as 39 skyscraper-high wind turbines along a ridge near Larch Mountain in east Clark County. The proposal, by a Portland-based subsidiary of enXco Inc., marks one of the first signs of westward migration for a wind energy boom that's already caused windmills the size of office towers to sprout across Eastern Washington. Washington's commissioner of public lands expects more to come. "There are significant opportunities," state lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland said Wednesday. Evergreen Wind Power Partners applied for the lease on about 5,400 acres of forest land owned by Sutherland's Department of Natural Resources.

The 69-turbine, $250 million wind farm proposed for seven miles west of Vantage was approved Tuesday by Kittitas County commissioners, and construction at the site could start in October. Commissioners Mark McClain and Alan Crankovich OK'd a final version of a development agreement with Invenergy Wind North America LLC after making minor changes to some of its provisions. Before a wind-farm building permit can be issued to the Chicago-based energy company, a list of requirements in the agreement must be met, said Darryl Piercy, director of county Community Development Services.

Kittitas County commissioners have affirmed that planned turbine locations in a proposed wind farm should be moved to comply with the required setback distance from two residences that exist near the project east of Ellensburg. ...The company is proposing to construct and operate the 69-turbine Vantage Wind Power Project 15 miles east of Ellensburg between Vantage Highway and Interstate 90. After reviewing the proposed agreement page by page and suggesting changes, commissioners agreed to meet again at 2 p.m. May 6 to examine a final, updated copy of the document. Commissioners may take final action at that time to approve the estimated $300 million project located about seven miles west of Vantage. The project is within the county's wind energy overlay zone, an about 500-square-mile area on the east end of the county that has been pre-identified as generally compatible with wind farm developments.

A controversy that has been brewing in Columbia County for months draws closer to resolution tonight. The Columbia County Planning Commission will discuss options for amending the zoning ordinance regarding development requirements or processing for wind tower-related energy production. ...Of the five options under consideration, two are proposed by citizen's groups. Friends of Scenic Columbia County is a group representing residents with more restrictive ideas for development standards, according to county documents.

"This is the only town I know where you can fly a kite year round." But taking advantage of this natural resource can be a lot harder than it seems. The Kittitas Valley Wind Farm off Highway 97 has been in the works for three years now. It was denied by County Commissioners, ok'd by Governor Gregoire, now it's at the State Supreme Court. ...

The Kittitas County Planning Commission on Tuesday voted 5-0 to recommend approval of the proposed 69-turbine Vantage Wind Power Project, a $300 million wind farm proposed for 15 miles east of Ellensburg between Vantage Highway and Interstate 90. In making the motion for recommendation of approval, Planning Commission member Kimberli Green said she had no problems with the project as long as Chicago-based Invenergy Wind North America LLC follows through with all environmental safeguards and mitigations it has committed to. ...Invenergy is proposing the project which is about seven miles west of the Columbia River and Vantage and approximately three miles southeast of Puget Sound Energy's Wild Horse Wind Power Project.

The joint public hearing on a wind farm proposal set for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Kittitas County Fairgrounds will be the first time county government utilizes its new wind farm overlay zone ordinance to deal with a wind-power project. The new ordinance, approved in July 2007, designates an approximate 500-square-mile area on the east end of the county as a zone pre-identified for general locations for wind farms. A streamlined process required by the ordinance applies to companies seeking projects within the new zone that runs along the edge of the Columbia River. ...There are two pathways for wind-power generation companies to gain wind farm approvals in the county: file solely with the county utilizing local land-use ordinances or file with the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council.

Four proposed towers in Yakima County may soon reveal whether the Rattlesnake Hills near Sunnyside are suitable for wind turbines. Goldendale-based Northwest Wind Partners LLC has received tentative approval from a Yakima County hearing examiner to install four anemometers, or instruments that measure wind speed. Hearing Examiner Gary Cuillier will issue a written ruling sometime next week, after giving a verbal go-ahead in a hearing last week. ...Information gained from the towers will determine the possibility of putting turbines on the hillside, he said. Windmills on Rattlesnake Mountain in Benton County have drawn some controversy in recent months, but Cuillier wasn't worried about that yet.

A 30-page list of requirements for the construction and operation of the proposed Vantage Wind Power Project was issued Monday by Kittitas County Development Services officials. The list is part of the county's determination that an environmental impact statement is not necessary for the 69-turbine wind farm planned for a 4,750-acre site seven miles west of Vantage between Vantage Highway and Interstate 90. What is required of the company proposing the $250 million, electricity-generating facility - Chicago-based Invenergy Wind North America LLC - is meeting the standards outlined by the county in its 30-page mitigated determination of non-significance, or MDNS.

A joint public hearing before Kittitas County commissioners and the county Planning Commission examining the 69-turbine Invenergy wind farm west of Vantage is set for March 12, according to county planning staff. ...Planner Joanna Valencia, with county Community Development Services, said the hearing before the two decision-making bodies will take testimony on the impacts of the proposed, $250 million wind farm and the adequacy of the applicant to mitigate or lessen those impacts. The company, Chicago-based Invenergy Wind North America LLC, filed for the wind farm under provisions of a new ordinance for wind-power projects within a 500-square-mile east-county area designated as a pre-identified zone for wind farms.

Kittitas County on Wednesday charged a state council that makes decisions on county wind farms with being biased against the county's position and against public testimony from those in opposition to a local project and also alleged the council's chairman violated appearance of fairness rules. Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) and governor-appointee, Jim Luce, prejudged the 65-turbine Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project before final decisions were made, was biased against the county's stance against the project and expressed disdain for public comment on the project. "Those disclosures ... are startling and undermine basic tenants of how we all believe government should operate," Zempel said in the release.

Chicago-based Invenergy Wind North America applied on Wednesday with Kittitas County to construct a $250 million, 69-turbine wind farm sandwiched between Vantage Highway and Interstate 90 southeast of the existing Wild Horse Wind Power Project on the east end of the county. ...By utilizing the county's pre-identified wind farm zone, the company will likely expedite the approval process. "I'm estimating that public hearings before the county commissioners on the project could come as early as December," Piercy said.

The Desert Claim wind farm, planned by French-owned EnXco Inc. for eight miles north of Ellensburg, has been moving slowly since the company filed in November 2006 with the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, or EFSEC, for approval of a scaled-back version of a project that was first sought directly from Kittitas County in 2003. Kittitas County commissioners in April 2005 rejected the older, 120-turbine Desert Claim version saying it wasn't compatible with the surrounding land-use in the project area. That decision was later upheld by a county Superior Court decision.

Gov. Christine Gregoire today announced she will overrule local objections and allow a controversial plan to install 65 towering wind turbines in hills northwest of Ellensburg. ...It's the first time a local decision on a power plant has been overturned under a state law first created to site controversial nuclear-power plants.

Congressman Doc Hastings told Gov. Chris Gregoire on Friday he's concerned that a final approval by her of a controversial wind farm in Kittitas County will set a negative precedent that says county government's wind power project review process is of no value. Hastings, a Republican from Pasco who represents Kittitas County as part of the 4th Congressional District, sent a letter Friday to Gregoire addressing his concerns centered on the Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project, a 65-turbine wind farm planned for 12 miles northwest of Ellensburg and sought by Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy. Hastings urged Gregoire, a Democrat, to consider "the potential implications of setting aside the lawful policies of locally elected officials - not only for future wind farm development, but also for power project siting in Washington generally," according to a news release and a statement from Hastings.