The bill was effectively killed Wednesday when it was referred back to a scheduling committee. A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, said there were no plans to bring it to the floor today, the last day of the Legislature 's regularly scheduled session. Opponents said they wanted to include local governments and other groups more directly in writing the new state rules. Wind farms being proposed around the state include a plan to put six turbines in the town of Springfield in northwestern Dane County. The key dispute over the proposal -- by Sen. Jeff Plale, D-Milwaukee, and Rep. Phil Montgomery, R-Ashwaubenon -- is how far wind farms should have to be set back from surrounding homes to protect property owners from

The state Legislature is considering two bills aimed at standardizing wind power regulation by ordering Wisconsin Public Service Commission officials to approve statewide rules for turbine sites. The bills also would prohibit local governments from creating more restrictive ordinances. "It just seems like we're writing the PSC a blank check," Barry-Kawula said. "It seems to me like there wouldn't be any harm done to just slow it down." Assembly and Senate versions of the bill were introduced at the end of February, and each had a public hearing last week. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Utilities and Rail approved the bill Friday, two days after its hearing.

The state Senate this week could take up a bill establishing statewide guidelines for wind farms, but it'll take a strong gust to get it to the governor's desk by Friday. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Utilities and Rail passed the bill with a 4-3 vote Friday, following a long and contentious hearing Wednesday that prevented the committee from taking action. With the legislative session ending Friday, the wind farm bill is running out of time. The bill stipulates that any local regulations of wind farms be consistent with rules established by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin.

Wind farm legislation sailing through the Legislature lost its breeze this week. ...Opponents object to giving control of that standard to the PSC. "This bill will preempt all local control over building wind farms," said Glenn Stoddard, an attorney and partner in Cwest, a group formed to help preserve local control over wind farm approvals. "Even though it says local governments still can make the final decision in the matter, that decision is still directed by the PSC." Stoddard added that the wind energy bill isn't needed, because the PSC has to approve any project that generates more than 100 megawatts of energy. "These companies that build the farms just want a green light and a blank check," he said. "This bill is just something that was compromised in the back room."

Michael Vickerman, Executive Director at Renew Wisconsin, said, "Small wind farm proposals currently are forced to wade through a quagmire of overly restrictive local ordinances during the zoning and permitting stages of the projects. Many of these local ordinances were designed by small groups of wind opponents to specifically prevent the construction of turbines in the area. This bill puts smaller wind developments on a fair track for consideration and approval.

But the seemingly benign wind turbines do have their opponents. In fact, based on information gathered by Renew Wisconsin, the turbines are usually opposed by area residents. The group said only two of the 19 wind projects in Wisconsin during 2007 lacked local citizen opposition. One of the most active opponents is Mike Winkler, whose longtime family home is near the Marshfield turbines. His novel, "Wind Power - It Blows," is a fictional account of fighting wind turbine installations. Winkler and his family sued the Town of Marshfield and We Energies in 2004 to stop the Blue Skies, Green Fields project. But a Fond du Lac circuit court ruled Winkler had no standing because the wind turbine agreement was between the town, the utility and renting farmers, not the Winkler family.

Responding to counties and towns that are restricting development of small wind farms, one lawmaker plans to introduce a bill that would call for similar standards to be enacted for wind turbines across Wisconsin. The proposed bill was among the initiatives recommended by the state's Task Force on Global Warming. ... Local ordinances that restrict wind power could make it harder to reach the goal, required by state law, for Wisconsin to generate 10% of its power from renewable energy by 2015, the task force said.

A wind turbine placed 36-feet too close to a rural Johnsburg home has generated some controversy in this township of 1,100 in the northeast corner of Fond du Lac County. Ordinances require that wind turbines be placed at least 1,000 feet - a distance of more than three football fields - from homes. However, a We Energies turbine located on a neighbor's property near resident Bill Winkler's town of Marshfield home came up short, by a little more than a first down. ..."We are prepared to find a resolution, even if it means moving the tower," McNulty said.

Most of the firms trying to put up wind farms in east central and northeast Wisconsin are familiar with Mike Winkler. He has been fighting them for five years. A resident of Malone, in Fond du Lac County, Winkler considers the rush to build networks of wind energy towers a folly that will do little to meet the region's needs for electricity. Now, Winkler has written and is privately publishing a book that raises his concerns. The book is a 93-page paperback titled, "Wind Energy...It Blows!"

The push has both environmental and economic ramifications because politicians and the business community are hopeful that the state can exploit home-grown technology and the use of biofuels such as those that could be produced by the state's paper- and wood-product industry. But tackling climate change while balancing competing agendas will be daunting. Environmentalists on the 29-member panel fear Doyle won't go far enough, while representatives of business worry a shift away from energy sources such as coal will lead to higher electric prices.

State Rep. John LeMahieu, R-Cascade, told the Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee that town board members take "a lot of grief" from the public when they approve wind farms. He cited the recall election held Tuesday involving a Calumet County board supervisor who favored a wind farm project. "Unless the towns approve them, we won't have wind farms in this state. They're certainly not going up in the city of Fond du Lac," he said. Under LeMahieu's bill, $208,000 in utility aid payments would be shifted this year from Fond du Lac County to the towns in which Cedar Ridge, Forward Energy and Blue Skies Green Fields are located.

Criter, 71, who has represented District 16 since 2002, defeated political newcomer Ralph Prescott, 53, in a special election Bjork's group initiated over votes Criter cast in July and October that the group believes were a conflict of interest. Criter, a farmer in the Town of Brothertown, has expressed interest in leasing land to developers who are scouting the county for places to locate 400-foot wind turbines. Landowners could make about $8,000 for every turbine their land will support. Criter doesn't believe either vote violated state ethics rules, which bar elected officials from benefiting financially from their office.

A special recall election is set to take place, and one of the driving forces behind this recall is the wind. The signs of opposition are in place on some streets around the county. Lee Bjork, who wants Jerry Criter removed, said, "We want honesty, we don't want conflict of interest, and this recall is our only way of reaching that point." For the past several years, Criter supported the idea of putting wind turbines on his land -- something developers would pay property owners to do. Bjork says the conflict of interest comes when Criter cast votes on the wind turbine issue, since he could gain financially from it.

The recall's instigators, who collected 261 signatures to force the special election, admit they're worried about how the turbines will affect life in Calumet County. But the reasons they give for recalling Criter include a vote he cast in July, which amended a county ordinance to include guidelines for the test towers that measure wind speeds. The petitioners, who call themselves Citizens for Responsible Government Calumet County, contend Criter violated the state's ethics code, which prohibits elected officials from voting on matters in which they have a financial interest. An exception, however, permits public officials to vote on amendments to existing ordinances. In October, Calumet County Dist. Atty. Ken Kratz investigated allegations that Criter's vote was illegal and concluded it was within the law.

A draft wind ordinance developed by a town of Union committee should be an example state officials consider during discussions of state wind turbine siting standards, state Rep. Brett Davis said. Because wind energy regulation is a controversial statewide issue, Davis said he will push for a legislative council study committee to discuss the issue. "I think there are so many competing interests that are involved from all different sides that everyone needs to sit down at a table and really work through this," he said. Davis, R-Oregon, met with members of the Town of Union Wind Study Committee over the past few months while they researched and developed a draft ordinance regulating wind energy. Committee chair Tom Alisankus presented the recommendations to the plan commission Thursday night.

Door County concluded almost a year's worth of research on commercial wind turbines Tuesday with passage of a revised wind energy ordinance. The Door County Board passed, 17-3, the ordinance that regulates commercial wind turbines in excess of 170 feet. Sturgeon Bay Supervisor Chuck Brann was absent. The supervisors adopted the ordinance after reducing the outdoor sound level maximum requirement from 55 decibels to 50 decibels. Sound made by a commercial turbine cannot exceed the 50 decibels for any period of time when measured outside at the property line of inhabited structures or places of "frequent public gathering," according to the adopted ordinance.

Regulations being considered for wind turbines in Union Township would make a proposed wind energy project in the township impossible, the wind developer said this morning. Wind turbines in Union Township would need to be at least one-half mile from homes and 1,000 feet from property lines, according to a proposed wind ordinance presented to the Town of Union Plan Commission on Thursday night. The town’s Wind Turbine Study Committee was charged with investigating wind turbines and writing a proposed ordinance to regulate them.

Wind turbines sited in Union Township would need to be built at least one-half mile from homes and 1,000 feet from the nearest property line, according to a proposed wind ordinance presented to the Town of Union Plan Commission tonight. ...The recommended setbacks are the absolute minimum, Alisankus stressed, because the information the committee gathered suggested even greater distances of up to 1 1/2 miles. Ordinances can only regulate turbines in regard to public health and safety, he said.

Trempealeau County's wind farm ordinance hasn't yet generated a lawsuit, but that might be AgWind Energy Partners LLC's only choice. At least that's how Jordan Hemaidan of Madison-based Michael Best & Friedrich LLP sees it. "There are many considerations that have to go into when or whether or not to file a lawsuit," he said. "AgWind is not pursuing one at this time, but it reserves the right to bring a lawsuit forward at the time of its choice." Hemaidan represents the Holmen-based wind farm developer and, earlier this month, he sent a letter to county officials saying judicial review of the ordinance and a court order overturning it could be in order.