The Scottish Parliament's economy, energy and tourism committee this week called for a speedy approval of the Beauly to Denny line despite nearly 20,000 objections. ...Developers say the upgrade is needed to carry renewable energy from schemes in the Highlands and Islands.

The scale of public opposition to Europe's largest onshore wind farm proposed for the Shetland mainland has been underlined after about 70 campaigners handed in a petition of more than 3600 signatures demanding the plans be scrapped. ...The signatures, representing almost 20% of Shetland's population over the age of 12, were given to Shetland Island Council convenor Sandy Cluness.

Plans to build a wind turbine park for Digby Neck hit a snag this month when Nova Scotia's deputy minister of environment told an executive at Skypower Corp. in a letter that more information about the project is needed before an environmental assessment application is approved. Skypower Corp. of Toronto and Scotian Windfields of Dartmouth have jointly proposed a 30-megawatt wind farm on Digby Neck comprised of 20 wind turbines, each generating 1.5 megawatts of electricity.

The board voted 8-2 today, after two hours of public comment, in favor of Public Service Electric & Gas Co.'s proposed 45-mile, $750 million high-voltage power line project that opponents testified would ravage the land -- hurting flora and fauna -- and damage the region's natural beauty.

Officials from Vermont Community Wind have organized a bus trip to a wind farm in New Hampshire to try and build support for a large scale wind farm they're proposing in and around the Rutland County town of Ira. Company officials say about 35 residents from the area will travel to Lempster, New Hampshire, on Saturday where a 24-megawatt wind farm has recently been built.

A National Park Service official says a wind project proposed for a Skamania County site just outside the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area would intrude on the experiences of people traveling two national historic trails. Both the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and the Oregon Pioneer Historic Trail pass through the Gorge, and both also pass within five miles of where turbines would rise at the Whistling Ridge Wind Project, said Rory D. Westberg, the Park Service's deputy regional director for planning and resource management.

Nova Scotia's Deputy Minister of Environment has issued a decision on the Digby Wind Power Project's Environmental Assessment Report that appears to leave the project twisting in the wind. ...In a June 19 letter addressed to SkyPower Corporation VP Charmaine Thompson, Deputy Minister of Environment Nancy Vanstone states quite simply, "I have determined that the registration information provided is insufficient to allow me to make a decision."

The Umatilla Planning Commission is considering a proposal to keep wind turbines out of the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon. The "No Turbine Zone" would amend the county's plan. Proponents say it was a result of secrecy about plans for the developments.

Nearby wind turbines, declining water quality and decreasing water levels at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Wisconsin earned the popular birders' destination the dubious distinction of being ranked the third most imperiled refuge in the nation, according to a list compiled by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. ...The uncertain impact of the wind turbines prompted another organization, the National Wildlife Refuge Association, to name Horicon one of the nation's most endangered refuges in a list released four years ago.

Xcel Energy and the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association have filed with the commission for a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the lines, which the companies say will increase the reliability of the grid in the valley and increase their ability to export electricity generated from wind and solar farms in Southern Colorado. ...An administrative law judge will hold a pre-hearing conference Friday in Denver to consider the intervention requests. The utilities commission has until Jan. 26 to decide on the applications by Xcel and Tri-State.

Campaigners objecting to a massive windfarm on a mountain where Welsh prince Owain Glyndwr staged a decisive battle will today stage a peaceful protest. More than 100 turbines, each 140m high, could go up on Mynydd Hyddgen. Developers Airtricity won an Assembly tender for the wind farm, at Nant-y-Moch in the Pumlumon hills above Machynlleth, straddling Powys and Ceredigion.

People opposing Record Hill Wind LLC's proposal to site 22 wind-power turbines in town have launched a petition drive to rescind approved ordinance changes allowing such facilities. The petition asks selectmen to call a special town meeting to amend the comprehensive plan by deleting all language and sections referring to wind power that were added by a majority vote at a special town meeting Jan. 15.

A wind turbine proposed for a countryside location at Hooksway would damage an area of outstanding natural beauty and the setting of a listed building, district councillors ruled. The northern area development control committee voted 6-4 to refuse planning permission for the turbine, at Hooksway Lane.

The board overturned the decision after the granting of planning was recommended by An Bord Pleanala's own inspector who recommended the development go ahead with 21 conditions. The inspector gave the go-ahead because of the general suitability of the site for wind power electricity generation, the absence of amenity or conservation designations and the distance from existing housing.

Several Maxdale and Ding Dong residents are opposing a proposed power line project for aesthetic and financial reasons. "I live in the country; nobody out here wants this," said Sherry Fisher, a landowner with 450 acres of pristine ranch land that may be disturbed by the new towers. Two weeks ago, Oncor sent newsletters to landowners whose land could be crossed by towers.

At 20.6 metres, the tower, with its distinctive black bands on the three sides facing the water, is the tallest structure along the coast. It is, however, dwarfed by the 80-metre towers in the nearby West Cape wind farm. This wind farm is still growing; some of the towers haven't been completed.

Comments on the proposed Galloo Island Wind Farm submitted to the state Department of Environmental Conservation criticize the project's effects on birds and animals and ask for public access. DEC collected 22 written comments on the draft environmental impact statement submitted by Galloo Island developer Upstate NY Power Corp. Oral comments were taken at two public hearings May 18. As lead agency, DEC collects comments and then determines whether the draft statement is complete.

New rules proposed by the Ontario government would forbid the placement of large wind turbines closer than 550 metres to a residence, a distance that could affect the economic viability of many wind projects across the province. The province-wide regulation would create for the first time a minimum setback distance for wind turbines from dwellings, roads, railway lines, wetlands and other environmentally sensitive lands or airspace.

More than 150 people gathered tonight in Georgia to debate a proposed five-turbine wind farm on Georgia Mountain. Some 30 speakers and the broader audience seemed split on the project as they participated in a hearing before the state Public Service Board, which would have to approve the development for it to proceed.

Nine landowners concerned about OG&E putting transmission lines in bar ditches along their land voiced complaints to the Woodward County Commission Monday, saying the county needed to hold the energy company accountable. ...According to another land owner, concrete bases 20 feet deep are being constructed to hold the poles for the transmission lines. Klick said, "These poles are 80 feet tall. They have a detrimental value to everybody's land."