Greenpower users will be double billed if changes to the new greenhouse gas reporting system are not made, says University of Adelaide climate change Professor Barry Brook. This could cause the GreenPower national accreditation scheme to "implode" when an emissions trading scheme is introduced in 2010. Professor Brook said the almost 750,000 households and businesses using GreenPower nationally would be penalised once an emissions trading scheme was introduced as they would be paying extra to buy power from renewable sources.

Wind is always available and it doesn't pollute the planet. But as wonderful as it sounds, using the resource for energy could come with a hefty price tag. ...But there's a big problem. The Texas Public Utility Commission [PUC] hasn't approved a way to funnel all the power from the wind farms in West Texas and eventually the panhandle, into the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Ross points out, "The only impediment we have right now is the construction of transmission lines. We've got to construct the wires to move the power back to Dallas/Fort Worth." According to the PUC, that could cost at least $1 million per mile to get the power into the local area.

More families will be driven into fuel poverty as a push to generate more electricity from "green" sources like wind, wave and solar power sharply increases household fuel bills, the Government has said. Electricity bills could rise by 13 per cent and gas prices could go up by as much as 37 per cent as consumers are made to pay more to subsidise green energy production, ministers said in a new Renewable Energy Strategy. ...The Renewable Energy Strategy says: "It is likely that the measures we need to use to increase renewable energy will add to the challenges we face in combating fuel poverty."

Delmarva Power signed a landmark offshore wind power deal with Bluewater Wind on Monday, agreeing to buy enough power to light 50,000 homes in Delaware for the next 25 years. The long-awaited, $800 million deal could make Delaware the first state in the nation to build a wind farm off its shores. An array of as many as 70 towering windmills would rise in a tract east of Rehoboth Beach by 2012. ...Both parties agreed the contract will cost average residential customers about $5 a month more -- over the 25 years -- than they would have paid for electricity without offshore wind power. With volatile fossil fuel prices, no one can predict how much additional cost -- or savings -- customers may see over the life of the contract.

Glacier County Commissioners are discussing how to use nearly $190,000 in impact fees from a planned wind farm near Cut Bank. Commissioners were supposed to approve allocation of the fees June 9, but a decision was tabled until Glacier County attorney Larry Epstein could attend the meeting, according to the Cut Bank Pioneer Press.

Texas billionaire and wind energy developer Boone Pickens said at a hearing in Washington Tuesday that the U.S. is exporting about $700 billion a year to feed its oil addiction, as he joined the call from energy leaders to use nuclear, natural gas, coal, wind, biofuels and solar to wean the country off imported crude. According to the Department of Energy, an investment of $60 billion in new transmission capacity is needed between now and 2030 to enable wind power to supply 20% of U.S. electricity.

About two-dozen unemployed millwrights set up a picket line Thursday to slow trucks delivering massive wind turbine parts from Windsor to the $200-million Kruger Energy project. Rick Anderson of Millwright Local 1244 said the erection of the 80-metre-high steel towers and 45-metre-long blades should be done by his union's skilled trades workers. He warned that if bolts loosen because of improper tightening techniques the towers could topple. ...About seven truckloads of turbine parts are sent daily from Morterm Windsor docks. Ships from Denmark and China bring in the turbine sections.

"The math is simple and indisputable," IECA President Paul Cicio said. "The EIA's natural gas price assumptions used to determine the cost of S. 2191 are about one-half of today's real-world forward prices." The IECA recalculated the study using forward price figures as of May 30. EIA found that, if passed, the legislation would increase average annual household energy bills between $30 and $325 in 2020 and between $76 and $723 in 2030, excluding transportation costs. EIA found that the increasing cost of using energy reduces real economic output and purchasing power and lowers demand for goods and services, causing real gross domestic product to fall $444 billion to $1.308 trillion over the 2009 to 2030 period.

Consumers face years of rising gas and electricity bills as the UK heads towards an energy crunch, according to the chief executive of one of Britain's biggest power companies. Paul Golby, of E.ON UK, said it was time for the industry and Government to come clean about the extent of the UK's energy needs - and what it will mean for domestic prices. ...Mr Golby, who was launching E.ON's energy manifesto, said his call for an "honest debate" about Britain's energy future must include a recognition that new coal-fired generation "will play a significant role in restraining prices". He said: "Without coal, bridging the energy gap will mean allowing gas to dominate our energy mix and a second "dash for gas" is something we need to avoid." But new power stations must include carbon capture and storage technology.

The road to economic prosperity is paved green. That's the pitch the town's business and political leaders will hear at an economic summit next week. ...It's not clear if the town is ready for a green revolution. Businessman Lori Collazino ran into considerable opposition with his proposal to turn toxic General Chemical lands into a wind farm. ...While some towns in the county have set up their own rules on wind farms, all are waiting for countywide policies that go to county council for approval on Wednesday. More than a dozen wind farm projects have been proposed, but there is also considerable resident opposition.

Colorado has lost out on a bid for a Vestas Wind Systems research center. Vestas, which opened a major blade-manufacturing plant earlier this year in Windsor, announced Monday it will locate the research facility in Houston. Colorado was the other finalist, according to Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.

A study paid for by a group that represents oil refiners found that the global warming bill, co-authored by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.), would raise pump prices by around 48 cents (in 2007 currency) by 2030. It also found that the bill would increase gas prices by as much as 13 cents over the next four years. The debate highlights the difficulty lawmakers will face in trying to tackle global warming as they simultaneously try to provide economic relief to the nation's drivers. ...Opponents will use more than costs to lobby against the Warner-Lieberman bill. The NPRA study also questions whether the emissions curbs called for in Warner-Lieberman are achievable.

A couple who have been forced out of their home by wind turbine noise have found out their house is unsaleable. Jane and Julian Davis moved out of their Deeping St Nicholas home in Christmas 2006 after months of sleepless nights due to what they believe is noise and vibration from wind turbines, which are around 900m from their property. They have long believed it has no value, and their fears have now been proved justified, after estate agents Munton and Russell refused to market the property at Grays Farm.

County commissioners unveiled a draft agreement Thursday for a tax-increment financing district that could bring the county up to $4 million over 20 years to use for economic development in unorganized territories. ...But Carrabassett Valley Town Manager Dave Cota said the draft agreement would shift more of the county tax burden to organized towns and let the company get away with not paying its fair share of taxes. Mitchell said the purpose was to reach a balanced agreement that would benefit all of the county directly and indirectly. The TIF would capture 75 percent of the new tax revenue for the first 10 years and 50 percent for the latter 10, with the county keeping 40 percent and TransCanada getting 60 percent. The remaining tax revenue gained would go into the state's unorganized territory fund.

Apparently hoping that a proposed agreement between the staff of the West Virginia Public Service Commission and Allegheny Energy would put a better face on the utility's proposed Trans-Allegheny Interstate Power Line project, the Hampshire County Commission received an e-mail request to reverse its opposition to the project. Commissioners Don Cookman, Steve Slonaker and Robert Hott, however, all agreed that would not happen.

Industry analyst Emerging Energy Research projects wind energy generation in the United States to grow nearly five-fold by 2015. But a Bay City company that built thousands of wind-turbine blades found the industry holds perils as well as promise. ...A variety of reasons caused the company to exit the business, President and CEO Robert Monroe said, and it's unlikely to resume making blades. "It was way too much of a boom-bust for us," Monroe recalled. "We were taking on people who had the savvy to make blades, we'd come up to speed and then all of the sudden we were laying people off. So it was very cyclical." ...And even if turbine makers decide to manufacture in Michigan, they may only be active for a limited time, Monroe believes. "So many people want to put up blades, but once Michigan is saturated, those jobs will go away," he said.

Two area wind energy opponents filed a lawsuit Monday against the Taylor County Commissioners Court for granting what the plaintiffs say are illegal tax abatements to wind farms developed within the county. According to the lawsuit, wind energy equipment is not eligible for tax abatements under the state tax code. In 2004 and 2006, Taylor County commissioners granted five tax abatements potentially worth $5 million to $10 million to three companies that have built farms of wind turbines in rural areas of the county. "That's my money the county is giving away illegally. We're asking the court to rectify this," said Dale Rankin, one of two plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

By the time federal regulators stopped accepting public comments about the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm on Monday, two of the letters had already raised some eyebrows among the project's critics. That's because the two letters were signed by the same person, state Division of Marine Fisheries director Paul Diodati, but they struck noticeably different tones. ...Diodati's first letter [dated Feb. 20] spells out the loss of access that fishermen could face as well as concerns about rescue crews reaching a troubled boat in the area. But the second letter, dated March 7, tones down the rhetoric considerably, reducing the section that lists the potential impacts to fisheries to just a few sentences. The section also mentions a couple of possible benefits, such as certain species becoming attracted to the newly built tower foundations.

Unreliable renewable generation contributes to high spot prices. "The flaws in the policy to ban new thermal power stations are being graphically illustrated by current high electricity spot prices," said Ralph Matthes, Executive Director of the Major Electricity Users' Group (MEUG). "Yesterday provisional spot prices at Haywards averaged 19 c/kWh. These are extremely high prices reflecting relatively tight supply. Yet there was no security of supply risk yesterday, just generators pricing their output to reflect current and possible future scarcity. The existence of unreliable and intermittent renewable generation such as wind did not mitigate the high spot prices. ..."Yesterday the Te Apiti wind farm had peak generation of approximately 30 MW. Installed wind turbine capacity at Te Apiti is 90 MW. Average wind generation for the whole day from Te Apiti was approximately 12 MW. Just when we need as much supply as possible to cover known outages and hence put pressure on spot prices, wind has been missing.

Offshore windfarms in Morecambe Bay may be producing green energy - but they are killing off traditional trawling fleets, experts say. And the problem could become more drastic for all inshore fishing unless the Government takes action, according to the North Western and North Wales Sea Fisheries Committee. The latest report of the committee highlights the plight of trawler fishing in the bay, and says that the local industry has been decimated by the proliferation of wind farms and gas storage facilities. When local vessels, mainly fishing out of Fleetwood, are sold on they are now very rarely replaced in the bay.