Much of Tuesday's hearing concerning the wind turbine project coming on line at Mount Storm focused on who should be in court. A group of plaintiffs living near the 200-turbine NedPower wind-power project under construction adjacent to the Dominion Mount Storm Power Plant is seeking an injunction to stop the project. NedPower, a Dutch company, is the developer of the project. It plans eventually to install some 200 turbines to be operated by Shell WindEnergy, which has since sold a half interest to Dominion Power of Virginia.

Mollohan has compared the situation of wind power in West Virginia to the beginnings of the growth of the coal industry. “With regard to wind energy, the prospects are that West Virginia will be relegated to something of a colonial status,” he said, “with its resources being exploited by and for the benefit of outsiders, and with West Virginians being left with a legacy of environmental damage.

CUMBERLAND - A wind power project developer creates a special company for each of the projects it may have in the works, according to James Cookman, vice president for development of US WindForce, headquartered in Wexford, Pa.

The developer of a proposed wind farm project in Pendleton County have appealed the state's rejection of its permit application, saying regulators misunderstood its intentions in limiting opponents' access to the site.

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.

Diana Everett, attorney for the anti-wind farm group Friends of Greenbrier, produced a document which purportedly came from land books at the Tucker County clerks office showing property tax assessments have decreased by 9 percent since 2003.

The developers of a proposed large-scale wind turbine farm for Tazewell County have been quietly making progress high atop East River Mountain. A meteorological tower to study wind speed and direction has been erected on the mountain. A number of geo-technical studies, along with wildlife and avian studies, also are continuing at the Tazewell County site, Ryan Frazier, a senior communications specialist with Dominion Energy, said.

West Virginia is the third-largest producer of wind power in the eastern United States, but as a judicial decision in Maryland this week shows, developing the resource isn't easy. ...Titus ordered the project halted until Beech Ridge and Invenergy, its corporate parent, obtain a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Titus also said the company cannot operate any of the project's 40 existing turbines between April 1 and Nov. 15.

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.

The environmental group, along with lead plaintiff Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, alleges in a lawsuit that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers overstepped its authority by permitting four southern West Virginia valley fills in direct violation of the Clean Water Act and the national Environmental Protection Act. That case, won by the plaintiffs in West Virginia southern district court, was heard Sept. 23 at the federal 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. "This is just the latest in a continuing legal saga. We've been on this trip since about 1996," said Jason Bostic, vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association.

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.

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.

The company behind a controversial wind farm project in Greenbrier County is out with a tourism-related donation.