Talks of a wind farm on top of Rattlesnake Mountain in Benton County is no rumor. ...So far we know the Department of Natural Resources has signed a contract to lease 640 acres to Northwest Wind Partners. The assistant region manager for the Department of Natural Resources could not tell us how many windmills we're talking on top of Rattlesnake Mountain. He says the decision was made to lease the land because they support renewable energy.

Kittitas County Prosecutor Greg Zempel says a recall election petition leveled by Desmond Knudson against county commissioners should be dismissed because the allegations ... “... fail to state any real substantial facts showing misconduct.” He said the charges “do not present with legal and factual sufficiency a specific and substantial action of misconduct” by commissioners that demonstrate they acted outside his scope of authority.

The wide open spaces and natural terrain and wildlife of Southeastern Washington are fading, and some residents would like the encroaching effects of urbanization toned down, such as a proposed project that would place 35 to 50 turbines on Rattlesnake Mountain. More than 30 people showed up Saturday at the Richland Community Center for a meeting to oppose a proposed windmill farm at the base of the mountain. ...Rick Leaumont, chairman of the Audubon Society's conservation committee, agreed that urgency in protesting the project is necessary because about 238 bird species have been documented in the area, and would be effected by the windmills. "Wildlife needs some kind of solitude, a place that is theirs," Leaumont said. "Any location on the mountain would be a problem."

A Kittitas County Superior Court judge will decide next week whether an effort to recall the three county commissioners should proceed to signature-gathering and an election.

Debate over putting wind turbines on Rattlesnake Mountain appears to be maturing faster than plans for the project itself. ...Guettner said Rattlesnake Mountain may be an ideal spot for wind turbines, but not one the public is likely to accept. "I feel like there's a supermajority of people who feel the way I do," he said. "I think it's time we marshal these people." ...Rick Leaumont, Audubon's conservation committee chairman, said about 238 bird species have been documented in the area. He said they are regularly coming and going to and from the monument, often crossing the mountain. "Any location on the mountain would be a problem," he said. "It's like an airport."

By December 2007, more than 1,500 turbines will be churning out electricity in the Columbia River Gorge. Scientists are also concerned that since the turbines are nearing along the ridge of the gorge, canyons and shrub-covered rangeland, the natural habitats of the birds could be at risk. ...Wildlife biologists in Oregon and Washington state say the turbines are taking toll on raptors and other birds and it may limit expansion of clean wind energy.

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.

... depending on an array of factors, including the size of turbines that would be used, it appears the project could consist of about 150 turbines standing as tall as 500 feet from ground level to blade tip, well more than a football field high. "Any place you could see the ridge you could see the turbines," said Toby McKay, the Tri-Cities Unit land manager for the Department of Natural Resources, which manages a sliver of the land the project could be built on. "My guess is Prosser, Mabton, Sunnyside, that whole area, I'm sure there would be some view of those."

Puget Sound Energy says its estimate of the cost to find additional sources of electricity to meet customer demand over the next 20 years has more than tripled since it prepared a similar plan in 2003. The Bellevue-based electric and natural gas utility says it now believes that coming up with an additional 2,759 average megawatts of power by 2027 will cost $14.4 billion, up from the $4.4 billion estimate in 2003 and $8.1 billion in a report prepared in 2005.

Ellensburg area businessman Desmond Knudson late Wednesday filed with Kittitas County a petition calling for an election to recall all three county commissioners: Alan Crankovich, David Bowen and Mark McClain. Knudson, who said he was the sole person behind the petition, alleges that the commissioners knowingly broke state law when they approved on July 19 an update of the county development regulations that contained a new county wind farm zone that takes in part of the U.S. Army's Yakima Training Center lands on the east end of the county. ... Word about the recall petition spread Wednesday afternoon. Kittitas County Republican Party Chairman Matt Manweller said the public shouldn't take Knudson seriously, and that his action was "a PR stunt, not a serious attempt to engage in a legitimate political process."

The reaction to the Monday announcement that Kittitas County commissioners will mount a legal appeal against Gov. Chris Gregoire's approval of the 65-turbine Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project was not surprising: project supporters are disappointed, but those against the location of the 6,000-acre wind farm like the challenge. Others indicated the legal action is welcome in that the state Supreme Court may answer, once and for all, whether land-use decisions made by local governments and their elected officials have a stronger legal standing than state actions to overrule those decisions.

Kittitas County commissioners on Monday agreed to take Gov. Chris Gregoire to the state's highest court to challenge her Sept. 18 decision approving the controversial 65-turbine, $150 million Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project, a wind farm proposed for 12 miles northwest of Ellensburg. Commissioners, after a closed executive session, instructed the county Prosecutor's Office to file the appeal in Thurston County Superior Court, the first step before going to the state Supreme Court. ...the commissioners rejected the wind farm because environmental impacts were not adequately mitigated or lessened.

The Kittitas County Board of Commissioners will challenge Governor Christine Gregoire's decision to approve the Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire's approval of a controversial wind farm opposed by Kittitas County commissioners may spark a reaction, such as litigation or possibly legislation.

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.

Gov. Chris Gregoire announced this morning that she has approved the Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project. "It's clear that Washington is growing and with that growth our demands for energy resources also grow," Gregoire wrote in a letter to Jim Luce, chairman of the Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council. "It is clear and compelling policy of the state to prefer new resources that have the least impact on the state's natural environment."

Yet, even with the new push, wind power still meets strong resistance. Opposition over turbines has surfaced for projects scattered around the nation - a trend that could intensify as remote sites quickly are snatched up.

Gov. Chris Gregoire any day will announce her widely anticipated decision about whether to permit a controversial wind power project near Ellensburg that previously was rejected by Kittitas County commissioners. The decision may have statewide implications. For some, project approval would amount to an egregious case of Olympia trampling over a local government's legal rights to make its own decisions about land use. "I think it's huge," said Benton County Commissioner Leo Bowman. "It's bigger than what most of us have thought about." For others, approving the Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project is the only practical solution in a state where voters have approved an initiative requiring more environmentally friendly power plants.

SDS Lumber Co. plans to apply for a permit before year's end to build a wind farm in Skamania County that would produce up to 70 megawatts of power. The project would be on a north-south ridge at elevations of 2,000 to 2,200 feet between Underwood Mountain and Whistling Ridge. The remote property lies east of the old mill town of Willard and about a mile north of the Columbia River Gorge ­National Scenic Area boundary. ...Dennis White, an environmental activist who lives in the Klickitat County community of Husum, said a regional discussion needs to take place about the cumulative effects of wind generation facilities in the Columbia Gorge. "Wherever there's a BPA line, we're going to have these wind farms just outside the scenic area, up and down the gorge," White said.