As U.S. WindForce prepares to present its application to the West Virginia Public Service Commission, Dave Friend, vice president for sales and marketing, said the company is looking to do more with the community. "We've been working at the community level for a while," Friend said. "We formed a community advisory panel, which has a cross section from the Keyser, New Creek and Elk Garden area. The goal was to involve the community in our planning process."

The Garrett County Commissioners are still hoping for legislation to allow for wind turbine setbacks. "We looked into it over the summer and our attorney (Mike Getty) told us we didn't have the authority," Denny Glotfelty, chairman, said. "There is no reason not to get legislation. Mr. Getty reiterated that we ask for legislation to single out wind turbines."

A wind farm proposed in mountainous Western Maryland has cleared a key hurdle under a year-old law that streamlines state review of such projects. However, a potential new hurdle has arisen: the recent financial market meltdown. ...Kevin Rackstraw, eastern representative for the California-based company, said it hopes to begin construction next year, contingent on being able to secure financing for a project expected to cost more than $120 million. Given the credit crisis, that "obviously in this environment is a challenge," he said.

Nearly a decade after the Navy retired and dismantled 19 communications towers along the Severn River, a fledgling energy company is planning to build wind turbines that would turn the near-constant breeze there into electricity. ...The county must decide whether wind turbines would affect the communications towers. Of the turbine proposal, Schram said, "We'll see how it goes along from this early stage."

It qualified as a wind-wind situation, the gathering on the Frostburg State University campus on a breezy Saturday during which folks with differing opinions discussed the future of Western Maryland's zephyrs and the energy turbines they may or may not spin. Competing with a nearby bagpipe band, whose members were, coincidentally, playing wind instruments, the panel of four was part of the annual Appalachian Festival.

H. Russell Frisby Jr., who was chairman of the Maryland Public Service Commission from 1995 to 1998 and now represents the advocacy group Marylanders for Reliable Power, said Friday at the Maryland Association of Counties summer conference that the clock is ticking for Maryland to free up enough capacity to meet the state's growing demand, and residents need to realize that.

U.S. Wind Force has received a county grading permit for a geotechnical investigation for a commercial wind energy conversion system and access roads near Vale Summit along the ridge of Dan's Mountain. The Allegany County Division of Land Development Services issued the permit July 31, one day after the application was submitted by CME Engineering in Frostburg on behalf of the newly formed Dans Mountain Wind Force LLC. Dans Mountain LLC is a subsidiary of U.S. Wind Force.

Maryland has opened energy supply talks with a Delaware offshore wind developer, hoping to tap into green energy from an expanded wind farm off Rehoboth Beach. State Energy Administration officials in Maryland said Wednesday that options now under review include using Bluewater's proposed turbine complex to power all of Maryland's state and county buildings, and possibly drawing energy from a second wind farm that could be built off Ocean City. ... "This is in its infancy. At first blush, I would say: Build it in Delaware, let us look at it, let us see how it looks and what kind of problems you have first," Hall said. Neither of Bluewater's talks in Maryland and New Jersey currently involve forced contracts or costly, regulator-driven deals of the type used in Delaware to produce the Delmarva contract.

Hutter said he fears the "unintended consequences" of quickly drafted ordinances for or against wind turbines. So does John Bambacus, who was formerly a state senator and Frostburg mayor. After nearly 40 years in public service, he plans to ask the county planning commission June 18 to declare a six-month moratorium on any applications for wind turbines, residential or industrial, to allow county officials time to decide what should be allowed, where and under what constraints, if any. "What I have found as I have become involved in this issue for the last year or so is that in other parts of the country, it's moving at warp speed," Bambacus said. "There needs to be adequate safeguards to protect the public environmentally, as well as for public health (and) public safety, especially in industrial turbines being proposed in this region. Some of these will be as high as 440 or 460 feet ... The fact there are no safeguards in place whatsoever in Garrett County and only modestly in Allegany County ... it seems to me that rural areas have to be on their toes.

Though two Synergics wind turbine projects in Garrett County have not yet been filed with the Maryland Public Service Commission, the energy expected to be produced by them has already been put under contract. ...The contracts signed are for a proposed Synergics project on Roth Rock bordering Mettiki Coal Co. on Backbone Mountain, according to Frank Maisano, wind-power industry spokesman. This project is expected to begin delivering 40 megawatts of power in September 2009. The second Synergics project will likely be on Four Mile Ridge near Avilton, where Synergics has meteorological towers situated to study the wind potential there, Maisano said. This project is expected to produce 60 megawatts of power by December 2010.

A surcharge on electric bills in Delaware and surrounding states that was designed to increase generating capacity hasn't delivered on its promise, four states are arguing in a complaint filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The states of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania filed the complaint late Friday, together with a coalition of electricity buyers and consumer advocates. They say the surcharge will overcharge electricity consumers in the 13-state territory in the PJM Interconnection grid by $12 billion between 2008 and 2011. As a share of that, Delmarva Power ratepayers in Delaware will overpay by about $125 million in "unjust and unreasonable" rates, the states claim.

The question about whether Garrett County will use its power of eminent domain to seize private property if a citizen refuses to grant an easement to a wind turbine company is purely a hypothetical one, according to the Garrett County commissioners. The officials indicated on Tuesday that they have no desire to use that power anytime in the near future. "You can never say never, but you can say that it's not on the horizon," said commission board chair Denny Glotfelty during a public discussion about eminent domain. "We preserve personal property. That's what we stand for. So we're not going to turn around and take that right away."

Through legislation passed last year, a company with plans for power projects generating less than 70 megawatts would bypass the certificate process. While the Clipper project proposed on the same land had been a larger-scale project than Criterion, the reduction to 28 wind turbines allows the Criterion project to fall within the exemption range. However, the change in the amount of energy being produced, the increased height of the turbines, and the change from Clipper to its subsidiary, Criterion, have been the subject of opposition to the PSC's possible acceptance of other studies, like the effect on local wildlife, done when the project was first proposed in 2002.

State regulators say they need more time to review a proposed settlement before deciding whether to approve a $1.3 billion multistate power line. State law requires the West Virginia Public Service Commission to issue a decision on the power line by May 3. But the PSC said last week that it wants to push back the deadline until at least Aug. 2. Allegheny Energy Inc. subsidiary Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Co., also known as TrAILCo, wants to build the 500-kilovolt, 240-mile power line between Washington County, Pa., and Loudoun County, Va. In West Virginia, the line would pass through Monongalia, Preston, Tucker, Grant, Hardy and Hampshire counties.

Gov. Martin O'Malley said Saturday that his administration will not allow commercial wind turbines on state forest land, ending a heated four-month debate. "While we must continue to explore and make progress on creating a more sustainable and independent energy future for Maryland, we will not do so at the expense of the special lands we hold in the public trust," the Democratic governor said. O'Malley spoke at a news conference at a scenic overlook in the Savage River State Forest. ...The state sought public comment on the concept, bringing 1,400 responses, 83 percent of them opposed, DNR spokeswoman Olivia Campbell said.

About 75 local residents attended a Maryland Public Service Commission hearing Thursday evening at Garrett College on a proposed wind power project. PSC chief hearing examiner Bryan Moorehouse heard testimony from 30 residents, with 24 opposing the initiative. The event was nearly 3½ hours long. Clipper Windpower, also known as Criterion Power Partners, plans to construct wind turbines along the Backbone Mountain ridgeline between Allegheny Heights and Wild Turkey Rock. The structures would have a combined generating capacity of up to 70 megawatt (MW) of electricity. "This is not a new project," said Kevin Rackstraw, Clipper's eastern development leader. "It's actually a very old project."

Though there are claims that representatives of Clipper Windpower could not recall Garrett County trying to get out of a lease between the company and the Garrett County Sanitary District, documents show that the county did make such attempts, Mike Getty, county attorney, said. "We did exactly what the memo (from 2005) said. We looked for the best way possible to remove the county from housing a windpower facility..." Getty said. "We were contacted by (Clipper's attorney) that they weren't interested."

A deal made in 2003 between the Garrett County Sanitary District and Clipper Windpower could result in wind turbines on property now owned by the county. "The county had nothing to do with that," Denny Glotfelty, county commission chairman, said. "The sanitary district at that time was a private entity. ... The county took over the sanitary district and the county tried to see if they could get out of the contract." Glotfelty, who had been on the Garrett County Sanitary District before it became a county-operated entity, said that the proposal was made to the sanitary district in 2002, and the sanitary district presented it to the towns of Loch Lynn and Mountain Lake Park, both of which had water sources in the area in question on Backbone Mountain. When both towns agreed to allow the wind turbines to come in, the sanitary district moved ahead with a lease with Clipper.

The Garrett County government stands to reap more than $840,000 in royalty payments from a 2003 agreement allowing construction of three wind turbines on county land, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. The disclosure follows the county commissioners' unanimous vote Feb. 5 to oppose construction of wind turbines on state forest land because they would reduce its recreational value. Dennis Glotfelty, Republican chairman of the Board of County Commissioners, said Friday he saw no reason to reveal the county's stake in the Clipper Windpower Inc. project during heated debate about turbines on public land over the last three months. "The people didn't bring it up and nothing was addressed on it one way or another," Glotfelty said.