CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Residents opposed to a planned 124-turbine wind farm in southeastern West Virginia have rejected the developer's proposal to scale back the project in response to their concerns.

Heavy hitters file letters asking PCS to deny application

Several counties in Western Virginia and West Virginia face a new kind of decision: Whether to allow wind farms that can produce power.

“It’s hard to take your eyes off them because they’re so huge,” said Cooper. “But people come to the mountains for peace and quiet and dark skies at night. They don’t come to buy second homes because they want to live beside giant industrial wind turbines.” Cooper said wind developers also broke promises: overestimating the number of jobs that would be created and the tax revenue the project would pump into Tucker County.

FAIRLEA — There was a lot of talk Tuesday about dead bats and birds, excessive noise and “flashing strobe lights” in the night sky if a state commission approves a proposed 124-turbine wind energy project.

FAIRLEA, W.Va. (AP) - More than 400 people turned out for a public hearing on a proposed wind farm in Greenbrier County.

For months, supporters and opponents of a proposed 124-turbine wind project in Greenbrier County have dueled through news releases and letters to the state Public Service Commission.

FAIRLEA — Greenbrier residents came out en masse Tuesday for public hearings on the controversial 124-turbine wind farm proposed for northern Greenbrier County.

The public service commission is hearing from 150 people who have an opinion about the wind farm.

ABOUT 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians figured out how to use the wind to move their ships. Later the Persians first harnessed the power of the wind to turn a piece of machinery.

LEWISBURG — West Virginia is well regarded as the “mountain state,” but could it become known as the “wind farm state” in the near future?

Heated debate surrounds Greenbrier County plan

A Grant County Circuit judge this week dismissed a lawsuit that tried to block the construction of a 200-turbine wind project near Mount Storm, a decision wind energy proponents predict will pave the way for the approval of proposed wind farms across the state.

Grant County property owners will appear at the Mineral County Courthouse in Keyser today to argue against a 400-foot-tall windpower project NedPower/Shell plans to build at Mount Storm.

Rural Tucker County, W.Va., has 44 mountaintop windmills. They're tall enough that their rotating blades can be seen for miles, and loud enough that their whooshing sound is heard in the nearby hollows.

AKRON, Ohio, March 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) announced it has entered into 20-year agreements to purchase the combined 250- megawatt (MW) output of two new wind power generation projects being developed in West Virginia by US Wind Force, LLC, a renewable energy company based in Wexford, Pennsylvania, and its joint venture partner Padoma Wind Power, LLC, based in La Jolla, California.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - A 330-mile electric transmission line proposed by Allegheny Energy this week would begin in northern West Virginia and pass through Weirton, Morgantown, Dominion Power's Mount Storm power plant and Berkeley County before ending in Frederick County, Md.

In the near future, at least 10 wind mills will be constructed on Green Mountain (Hoover Hollow).

LEWISBURG — If you can’t decide whether wind turbines are an abomination on the land or an answer to rising energy costs, you can now thumb through 340 pages of the siting application submitted to the Public Service Commission by Chicago-based Invenergy.

A proposed $300 million wind farm project has come under fire from three Greenbrier County lawmakers in the form of bills introduced in both the House and Senate which could result in a major blow to Chicago-based developer Invenergy.