Investment firm Babcock & Brown says it is in dispute with a bank which holds a deposit of a material amount relating to the release of that deposit. Babcock requested a trading halt in its shares today, saying it expected the halt to remain until the dispute was resolved. The owner of wind farms and properties has lost 99% of its market value this year as it struggles to sell assets to repay $3.1 billion in loans.

Shortly after the Financial Town Meeting, where residents voted to approve funding for the construction of a wind turbine in town, Ms. Cuzzone started researching wind turbines and attending meetings for the renewable energy committee. She said the project's initially proposed location - the Barrington High School campus - propelled her to get involved. She lives on Lincoln Avenue, not far from the high school. A new location has since been selected - Legion Way near Brickyard Pond - but Ms. Cuzzone is still interested in the project.

During his community forum in Irondequoit last night, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo told a group of Hamlin residents that he'd send an environmental attorney to look into the town's wind tower regulations and the circumstances under which they were passed. He was responding to repeated requests from a group of town residents, all members of the Hamlin Preservation Group.

Representatives from White Mountain Wind LLC came before the county commissioners yesterday to seek adjustments for the placement of 36 wind turbines on White Mountain. After much discussion, White Mountain Wind withdrew the resolution, in order to bring it back at another time. ...White Mountain Wind asked to untable the resolution to discuss moving the proposed placement of the turbines to locations near the approved locations to make better use of the wind on White Mountain.

General Electric Co., the world's biggest maker of power-generation equipment, may delay delivery of new wind turbines as some customers are finding it harder to finance energy projects. "We haven't seen any cancellations but we have had discussions with some customers on the financial situation ...Some are looking for delays in delivery because there may be some uncertainty about renewable energy incentives or questions about how they will get financing for projects.''

Alfred residents found that where there is wind, there is a window of opportunity in a special Monday night meeting at the Alfred Station Fire Hall. Keith Pitman, president and chief executive officer of Empire State Wind Energy from Oneida, gave an hour-long presentation to Alfred residents to gauge how interested the community is in developing a wind project. So how did the Alfred community react to the possibilities of wind power? Compared to some other communities looking at wind, very peaceful.

The Princeton City Council has approved an ordinance to expand the Bureau/Putnam Area Enterprise Zone to include the proposed Walnut Ridge wind farm in northwest Bureau County. The city council took its action at Monday night's meeting in city hall.

Last month, about 50 St. Eleanors residents turned out at a city council meeting raising concerns surrounding the minimal setback regulations of the turbines from residences, noise and health implications and the impact the wind farm will have on property values. City council voted unanimously to table the rezoning until Monday night. That success was short-lived as council voted unanimously to approve the zoning change. Coun. Brent Gallant did not vote because of a conflict of interest issue.

Forty-six turbines are being tested at Michigan's second commercial wind park in Huron County, and towers that could bring more windmills are being installed in Tuscola and Mason counties. ...Consumers Energy officials also were to announce the start of construction today on three meteorological towers in Tuscola County and four others in Mason County, bordering Lake Michigan. The utility expects to finish construction of the 180-foot-tall "met towers" by the end of the year, officials said. In addition, Consumers Energy will refurbish two existing towers it has purchased in Mason County.

The latest controversial wind farm plan for Northumberland will to be heard at a public inquiry in January. Npower renewables' bid to erect six turbines at Kiln Pit Hill will go before a government planning inspector at a hearing in Tynedale Council chamber in Hexham, beginning on January 6. The inquiry follows the company's appeal to the Secretary of State over the council's failure to determine its application, originally entered in 2006, within planning timeframes. Tynedale agreed to formally oppose the application in July having received a petition signed by more than 200 objectors, as well as 91 letters.

Theolia SA, the French wind-power company part-owned by General Electric Co., dropped the most in more than five years in Paris trading after abandoning financial and operational targets. ..."Theolia is getting short of cash,'' Exane BNP Paribas analyst Yohann Terry, who has an "underperform'' rating on the shares, said today in a report. "We believe it will be difficult for the company to create significant value'' from its pipeline of wind-power projects.

Tontine Associates, the once gilt-edged hedge fund that collapsed rapidly over the past two months in the wake of the market's carnage, was renowned for its massive and highly contrarian bets in industries like home-building and steel manufacturing. ...Last week, however, the combination of big bets gone south and prime brokers demanding repayment for loans forced Gendell to announce to investors that he was shutting two of his main portfolios ...But at the center of the Tontine maelstrom is a less well-known series of trades in alternative energy stocks, especially those related to wind turbines, that played a key role in the both the fund's recent success and its collapse.

Canada is the biggest exporter of oil to the United States, and one might expect environmentalists to cheer the prospect of exchanging a little of our dependence on foreign oil for dependence on foreign wind. But some fear that a flood of clean power from Canada will undercut New England's efforts to become a national leader in green energy and technology. Jobs could be lost, they caution, and local utilities may have less incentive to reduce their use of coal and other fossil fuels that contribute to global warming. Concerns also exist that the construction of expensive transmission lines to bring renewable energy from Canada could drive up the region's electricity rates, already among the highest in the country.

The U.S. Department of Energy has approved a $180 million high-voltage electrical line that's expected to spur more wind farm development between Great Falls and Lethbridge, Alberta. The decision to issue a presidential permit for the project is published today in the Federal Register, said Tony Como, the DOE's director of permitting and siting. ...Montana's transmission capacity is about all used up and three wind farm developers that have purchased the primary capacity on the line have snatched up all of the available space on the MATL line.

A San Diego company that owns Southern California utilities is considering building a wind energy park on the western Navajo Nation, near Cameron, and has been in talks with chapter officials there. Sempra Energy has five wind-testing meters installed on Gray Mountain, to study the wind there. "Gray Mountain is a particularly good site and has some of the best wind resources in Arizona," said company spokesman Hanan Eisenman.

A New York firm apparently is the only viable company remaining among three suitors interested in using publicly owned land on Conneaut's East Side for a wind turbine farm, City Council learned at Monday's work session. City administrators have heard nothing from two companies that months ago expressed interest in dozens of acres within the East Conneaut Industrial Park, council was told. As a result, the city will extend an invitation to BQ Energy to submit a proposal for the property, council agreed.

Renewable energy groups hailed the Oct. 1 passage of tax credit legislation as a big step forward toward U.S. energy independence. Less than two months later, they are lobbying Congress for emergency aid to make those credits more generous. The problem, they say, is that the financial crisis has blown a hole in their reservoir of investment capital. Projects that weeks ago seemed on track to provide new clean power sources for hundreds of thousands of consumers are now starved for credit, as U.S. banks struggle to recover and begin lending again.

Babcock & Brown Ltd (B&B)has sold wind farm assets held by B&B Wind Partners in Portugal for $2.23 billion. The assets were sold to a consortium of investors led by Magnum Capital. B&B said it would earn $285.82 million in net proceeds from the sale of its 50% share of the portfolio. This represents a price above book value and will be used to pay down project debt secured against European wind assets, it added.

Trucks hauling giant wind turbines continue to trek through Lincoln - and some residents say they continue to cause problems. One such truck got off course Thursday and ended up stuck at the intersection of Keokuk and Logan streets, said Lincoln resident Morris Trent, who lives nearby. ...None of the turbines going through Lincoln are bound for the RailSplitter Wind Farm in northern Logan and southern Tazewell counties, according to that wind farm's project supervisor.