Edison Mission Group and a private Pennsylvania-based wind farm developer said they have agreed to develop up to 1,000 megawatts of mostly onshore wind energy throughout the U.S. mid-Atlantic. Edison Mission, which manages the power business of Edison International, made the agreement with US Wind Force LLC to develop wind farms over the next several years that would feed PJM power grid that includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, West Virginia and parts of North Carolina.

Richard Braithwaite, who lives three-quarters of a mile from the turbines, complained about the noise and presented a petition to the Mineral County commission during a Dec. 13 meeting. "You have got to hear (the wind turbines) to believe it. When the wind blows from the east, it sounds like a railroad train," said Braithwaite during the commission meeting.

Elkins City Council has set a special call meeting for 4 p.m. Thursday with plans of passing a resolution opposing the Laurel Mountain Wind Farm project proposed by AES. City officials said Tuesday that after checking with the West Virginia Ethics Commission, no public comment period will be required for the meeting. A resolution was on council’s March 4 agenda. However, that document was not prepared in time for a vote. During that meeting, West Virginia Green Energy Alliance representative Joel Martin gave an informational presentation which sparked more than two hours of discussion between his group and those opposed to the wind project.

Thursday evening, Elkins City Council formally voted against a proposed 125-Megawatt wind farm that would stretch across Laurel Mountain though Barbour and Randolph Counties. The vote will not play a direct role in determining the fate of the project. The West Virginia state Public Service Commission will have the final say on the issue, which will not be voted on for several months. None of the proposed wind turbines would be constructed in Elkins city limits. Residents attending Thursdays meeting say they support the council's opposition to the project.

For four years or more, Boone has traveled across the mid-Atlantic region to make every argument he can muster against local wind-power projects: they kill birds and bats; they are too noisy; they are inefficient, making no more than a symbolic contribution to energy needs.

A Virginia energy giant has bought a 50 percent stake in a Grant County wind turbine project that is the subject of a case before the state Supreme Court. Dominion, one of the nation’s largest energy producers, announced Monday it plans to develop the first phase of a 200-turbine wind farm near Mount Storm, a project that some residents are trying to block. In a news release, Dominion said the $300 million project gives the Virginia company an opportunity to increase its renewable energy portfolio.

LEWISBURG — One environmental concern over the proposed 124-turbine wind farm slated for northern Greenbrier County is the number of birds and bats killed each year by the blades of the nearly 400-foot-tall structures, but whether bats can put a halt to the $300 million project remains to be seen.

The speakers were met with a bit of skepticism, however, as Commissioner Wayne Spiggle questioned them about their proposed relationship with existing industries and the possible environmental impact on winged creatures.

A Grant County wind project that received state Public Service Commission approval in September is now in the hands of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. Plans for the AES New Creek project call for placing up to 66 wind turbines on a 7-mile stretch of New Creek Mountain ...The project is now awaiting the DEP's decision on its stormwater construction permit. The 30-day public comment period for the permit closed Thursday.

Workers atop mountain ridges are putting together 389-foot windmills with massive blades that will turn Appalachian breezes into energy. Retiree David Cowan is fighting to stop them. Because of the bats. ...It is the first court challenge to wind power under the Endangered Species Act, lawyers on both sides say. With President Obama's goal of doubling renewable energy production by 2012, wind and solar farms are rapidly expanding. As they do, battles are being waged to reach the right balance between the benefits of clean energy and the impact on birds, bats and even the water supply.

The prospect of thousands of endangered bats flying to their deaths in West Virginia wind turbines soon could get consideration in federal court because of Judy Rodd. The 63-year-old is the president of Friends of Blackwater Canyon, which recently joined 10 other groups in filing a "notice of intent" with the Fish and Wildlife Service to sue a wind company on Endangered Species Act grounds. The organizations warned of potential turbine kills of the Indiana bat, Virginia big-eared bat and Virginia northern flying squirrel. "Yes, we're concerned about climate change," said Rodd in a phone interview. "But that doesn't mean they can't build the turbines somewhere else and let the bats live."