Amid turbulence about the possibility of a wind energy project on top of Ragged Mountain, a citizen group has formed with the intention of stopping any further research into the possibility of placing turbines on the mountain.

Walkers fear too many wind farms will be built in exceptionally beautiful areas of countryside, in particular parts of Yorkshire, the Ramblers Association has said. It said ramblers will see a trebling in the number of large-scale wind farms in the countryside in the next three years. In a response to the Department for Business's draft Renewable Energy Strategy, the association complained onshore wind farms would be erected at the expense of developing other renewables.

Ramblers have condemned a decision by Peak District bosses to approve a wind turbine on National Trust land. The Derbyshire Ramblers' Association say the decision to allow the turbine on White Edge on the Park's eastern moors is "astonishing" and would seriously detract from the character of the landscape. Officers had recommended the application should be refused because it wouldn't fit in with the landscape - but councillors felt the demand for renewable energy was just too important. ..."It is even more astonishing that the Park's Planning Committee should vote for the application to be approved. We would describe it as a betrayal of all the National Park is intended to stand for."

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.

Rare earth metals are key to global efforts to switch to cleaner energy -- from batteries in hybrid cars to magnets in wind turbines. Mining and processing the metals causes environmental damage that China, the biggest producer, is no longer willing to bear.

Arthur and Pamela Dodds are upset with the West Virginia Public Service Commission's approval of the wind turbine facility along the Laurel Mountain ridgeline in Barbour and Randolph Counties. "I was very disappointed that the wind turbine complex had been approved. I feel there was an improper balancing of the information that the opposition gave," says Pamela Dodds, a Barbour County resident.

The foundations of a new source of electricity are being laid at White Hill, near Mossburn, that by May will transform the landscape into a towering army of marching windmills, each stretching more than 100m into the sky. The wind turbine project, a first for Southland, is being built for electricity generator Meridian Energy at a projected cost of $110 million and, when all 29 turbines are commissioned – scheduled for late next year – their combined output would be capable of powering most of Southland, including Invercargill City. Meridian expects that the first of the turbines will be running by May.

Among those the Chamber is very concerned about are the Thanet extension, Greater Gabbard and extensions, and three projects in Scotland that threaten to block approaches to the Forth, he says. The map of Round 3 proposals shows the full extent of offshore wind farms: "If that was to be proposed on land, people would be on the streets. But that is the problem - out of sight, out of mind, do what you like."

The 92sq km area of the Lammermoor Range where Meridian Energy wants to build its proposed $2 billion Project Hayes wind farm was not recreationally unique, an Environment Court appeal hearing was told yesterday. Former New Zealand Institute of Economic Research chief executive officer Dr Brent Layton, of Wellington, appearing for Meridian, said Central Otago had a lot of open landscapes used for recreational purposes, which lessened the overall value of the proposed Project Hayes site.

Spanish multi-national Iberdrola unveiled a slimmer version of the Jordanville Wind Project before a packed town-hall meeting Monday, Nov. 10. It was unclear, though, if anyone has changed his or her mind on an issue that divided the townspeople of Warren and Stark, where the wind project is planned, and Herkimer from Otsego counties; the northern county gets the benefits, and two counties share the impacts.

A plan for a wind farm on land owned by businessman Mohamed Al Fayed has been refused by Highland councillors. Almost half the council’s 80 members took the unusual step of visiting the site at Invercassley near Lairg in Sutherland. Councillors decided the 23-turbine plan was outwith the local authority’s renewable energy policy and would be visually unattractive. An appeal against the decision refusing the planning application is expected.

Campaigners have called for the Government to safeguard North East beauty spots as The Journal reveals hundreds of wind turbines could blight the region. Our wind map reveals nearly 250 turbines could pepper the North East landscape in the next year if planning chiefs give them the go-ahead. Information provided by the region's councils indicates an influx of turbines could begin to dominate the landscape within a few years.

A Press Conference has been scheduled for 12 noon on Monday September 17, 2007 in the rotunda of the Capitol in Harrisburg to protest the statewide push by the Rendell Administration to turn hundreds of miles of Pennsylvania's forested ridge tops into industrial wind facilities. Groups from across the state will be addressing the various concerns that wind power facilities pose to Pennsylvania's wild areas, wildlife, tourism, historical resources, and viewscapes.

Victorian Nationals Energy spokesman Peter Hall has called on the Government to acknowledge that windfarms devalue properties surrounding the land on which they are sited, and to review planning guidelines to reflect the drop in value. Mr Hall said that irrefutable proof of property devaluation was contained in conditions attached to a recent planning permit issued by South Gippsland Shire Council. The condition, attached to a permit to subdivide land adjoining the proposed Bald Hills wind energy facility, requires future land owners to be advised that "residents on the lots may experience detrimental amenity affects arising from the facility such as noise, blade glint and blade flicker." ..."The Government's renewable energy policies should be targeted at those renewables that have less negative environmental impacts such as solar, geothermal and bio-fuels," Mr Hall concluded.

The Rendell administration is considering opening state forests and state parks to wind turbine development. Michael DiBernardinis, secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said today that a decision will be made in the next six months on what he admitted would be a controversial issue.

Wind farms and solar power plants may offer free fuel costs and no carbon-dioxide emissions, but don't assume there's universal support from environmentalists, according to industry observers. "The world is changing," said Andrew Spielman, a partner at the Denver office of Hogan & Hartson LLC who works on renewable-energy projects. ..."There are more complexities with renewable projects," he said, "and it's no longer an assumption that the environmental community will approve and support renewable projects."

The board "does not support further industrialization of ridge tops until a prudent and reasonable public policy has been created and enacted that will provide protections to those who will be adversely impacted," Chairman Gregan Crawford said in the letter.

Growers and ranchers in the southern reaches of California are posing the latest obstacle to the state's push for green power. Facing the possibility of losing land to power transmission lines, they have urged state commissioners to avoid their property when selecting a route for a project linking consumers on the coast to renewable energy operations in the Southern California desert. ...The dispute is part of a growing conflict between farmers and utilities, as California's mandate for power providers to boost their use of renewable energy prompts new projects across the state.

A rush to build environmentally friendly renewable energy in the windy, sunny Inland region has stirred up some unlikely foes: environmentalists. They say the projects mean new transmission lines and towers across some of the very mountains and desert vistas people have fought to protect. ...It's not just environmentalists who are objecting. A Riverside County supervisor said he opposes plans to erect 400-foot-tall wind turbines for the first time on the 4,000-foot elevation of Mount San Jacinto, near Palm Springs. And a San Bernardino County supervisor has strongly urged Los Angeles to abandon plans to string new transmission lines to carry renewable energy through the Morongo Basin east of Joshua Tree National Park.

The proposed construction of massive wind and solar energy projects on public land in the California desert would hasten destruction and further fragment land that is home to 17% of state's rarest plants, botanists said Saturday. "Most of the solar and wind projects currently under review are in the wrong places," said Greg Suba, conservation program director for the California Native Plant Society.