Conservation and animal protection groups filed a federal lawsuit Thursday to halt the ongoing construction of a Greenbrier County wind farm, saying the project will kill the endangered Indiana bat.

The West Virginia Public Service commission has rejected a staff-proposed June hearing on the Pinnacle Wind Farm near Keyser in favor of a September hearing to include a tour of the site. The $131 million, 23-turbine wind farm on Green Mountain just west of Keyser is currently under review by the PSC, which must act on the application by early January.

The West Virginia Supreme has voted unanimously not to get involved in the debate on whether the state needs another wind farm development. The five justices issued their decision Wednesday afternoon, hours after hearing arguments that a proposed 65-turbine wind farm in Barbour and Randolph counties was not needed.

The state Supreme Court is being asked to overturn the approval of a wind farm development in Barbour and Randolph counties. A group called the Laurel Mountain Preservation Association is appealing a March 17 decision by the state Public Service Commission that awarded a siting certificate for the proposed 65-turbine development.

The Keyser Mayor and City Council Tuesday night formally endorsed the proposed 23-turbine Pinnacle Wind Farm, as company officials announced that a local public hearing is expected to be conducted by the West Virginia Public Service Commission sometime before July 1.

The subject of wind power brought pros and cons to the floor of discussion during the Mineral County Development Authority meeting held Tuesday evening at the Elk District Fire Hall. ...Spiggle stated that he would ask two questions to wind power companies, both dealing with signed contracts by the company, with one a promise of tax revenue, and the other verifying the company would remove the turbines if necessary. "If the company would answer ‘no' to the questions, then I would oppose the wind mill project," Spiggle said.

Members of the Community Advisory Panel for the proposed Pinnacle Wind Farm near Keyser traveled to Berlin, Pa., Monday for a neck-craning, up-close tour of a wind turbine project similar to the one planned for Green Mountain. About a dozen members of the volunteer panel were guests of US WindForce as they toured the 18-turbine Lookout Project in Somerset County, which is operated by Edison Mission Group, one of the nation's leading operators of electric power generation.

The Lookout wind project in Somerset County is five turbines smaller than the US WindForce project proposed at Pinnacle in Mineral County, but members of the Community Advisory Panel got the opportunity to get a feel for wind farms and meet the company likely to operate the Pinnacle project. "Edison is our joint venture partner," Jim Cookman, vice president of project development for US WindForce, said during Monday's tour. "We have a joint development agreement.

Chicago-based Invenergy plans to hire 200 construction workers and put up 67 massive wind turbines along Greenbrier County's mountain ridges by the end of the year. The company has already started clearing brush, grading land and building a gravel road that will allow trucks to haul wind turbine parts up the mountains. The first set of 67 turbines is expected to be assembled and erected by August or September. An additional 57 turbines will go up next year.

The possibility of 200 construction jobs didn't sway critics of a planned commercial wind turbine project atop Dan's Mountain. Neither did an estimated $5.4 million in new property tax revenue over the next decade. Nor did an appeal to clean, green energy. Instead, the 14 area residents who spoke in favor of legislation that would place steep limitations on industrial wind energy projects here said the project simply wasn't a good fit for Allegany County.

The Allegany County Board of Commissioners on Thursday granted the president of US Wind Force a meeting to discuss why a proposed bill to regulate the wind industry is a bad idea. Tom Matthews appealed during the public comment period of Thursday’s weekly meeting that amendments to the zoning code — drafted to protect the county and its residents — are too restrictive.

The U.S. Forest Service has rejected a proposal to build a wind farm on Great North Mountain in the George Washington National Forest - for now, at least. Freedomworks LLC, a renewable-energy firm based in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., wanted to put 131 400-foot-tall wind turbines along 18 miles of ridgeline between Virginia and West Virginia.

Officials announced this week that construction of the Potomac Appalachian Transmission Highline, also known as PATH, will now be completed by June 2014. The deadline is nearly two years later than one suggested when the project was initially discussed. "The economy is really the main driver," Doug Colafella, a spokesperson for Alleghany Energy, said of the delay.

Anyone wishing to file a protest to the construction of a 23-turbine wind farm along a 3 1/2-mile stretch of Green Mountain has until Thursday, April 23, to do so. Pinnacle Wind Force LLC filed application with the West Virginia Public Service Commission on March 17 for approval of the facility. On March 24, a legal advertisement detailing the application and plans for the wind farm ran in the Mineral Daily News-Tribune.

A wind energy official has fired back at a Mineral County commissioner on the viability and public perception of the wind industry. David Friend, vice president of US Wind Force, said in a letter Friday to the Allegany County commissioners and also sent to the Times-News that Commissioner Wayne Spiggle's skepticism and concerns "are unfounded."

David Friend, vice president of US Wind Force, said in a letter Friday to the Allegany County commissioners and also sent to the Times-News that Commissioner Wayne Spiggle's skepticism and concerns "are unfounded." ...Friend's letter was in direct response to a Times-News March 29 story in which Mineral County Commission President Wayne Spiggle said he doesn't believe wind energy decreases greenhouse gases and questioned whether the majority of Mineral County residents do.

The developer of a Greenbrier County wind farm said his company plans to immediately move forward with the construction of a wind farm in Greenbrier County. The statement by Dave Groberg, vice president of development at Invenergy Limited Liability Co., came after the state Public Service Commission said on Friday that it would not reconsider its approval of the $300 million project.

Opposition and proponents to the US Wind Force Pinnacle Project both admitted during a community meeting that they may never see eye to eye. "I don't think you all understand when someone is opposed to this," Mike Wilson, Keyser area resident, said. "We are selling our mountains, we are selling our souls. Are they worth it? You're not going to change their minds by having them talk to this person or that person. ... It's within our culture in West Virginia. These are our heritage."

Saying they "have lost faith" in state-run agencies, officials from Mountain Community For Responsible Energy on Friday criticized last week's decision by the state Public Service Commission that issued a building permit for a $300 million Greenbrier County wind farm. As of Friday, no legal papers had been filed by MCRE, the grassroots group which has been fighting the Beech Ridge Energy wind farm since 2005, asking the PSC to reconsider its Feb. 13 decision, the first of its kind since wind farm building permit rules were updated by state lawmakers. State laws allow for a 10-day appeal window after a PSC decision is published. ..."Our case is strong and our membership is solidified. Remember, this is our home. We won't abandon it to turbines."

Maine and County Planner Scott Clay recently presented a report on their research into wind power to the Mineral County Commissioners. Although Clay said the inches-thick binder of information he had gathered contained “both pros and cons” of wind power, most of what the two officials had to say seemed to be in opposition to the construction of wind farms in Mineral County.