The concept of public welfare is broad and inclusive. … The values it represents are spiritual as well as physical, aesthetic as well as monetary. It is within the power of legislature [to have] determined that the community should be beautiful as well as healthy, spacious as well as clean, well balanced as well as carefully patrolled. …

“The County found that placing the complexes of wind farms, of the size and scope necessary to accomplish their intended purpose, would have a dramatic, and adverse, effect upon all of the general welfare issues found in the comprehensive plan. …

“The Court finds there is substantial evidence which a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support the conclusions reached by the County.

“[I]n the County’s denial of placing wind farms in the entire county[,] [t]he County didn’t take any existing rights away but only refused to expand the existing rights including wind rights.”

In filings with the state, Wal-Mart said the high prices set by Cape Wind's first contract to sell electricity will lead to higher costs for the retailer. Wal-Mart already pays more than $2 million a year to power 28 Massachusetts stores served by National Grid, which negotiated the deal with the offshore wind farm.

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.

"We warned everybody two years ago that this is a big pot of money that is ripe for the plucking, and that's exactly what happened," said David Juvet, the organization's vice president. Indeed, the raid happened without any real debate at all. In fact, the only other RGGI-related proposal - backed by Republicans - was to take even more money from the fund.

A Drefach-felindre Action Group has called on planning chiefs to turn down an application for three new turbines at Blaen Bowi windfarm.

Unless advanced economies adopt more ambitious reduction targets and are willing to use CDM to fulfill them, demand for carbon credits cannot easily recover. But uncertain economic and industrial production outlook in developed economies and a huge oversupply of carbon credits do not bode well for the market.

Carpinteria CEO envisions a future powered by turbines. With oil and gas prices relentlessly rising -- and the cost of producing power from sustainable energy sources continuing to fall -- it appears the time is fast approaching when alternative energy begins to make good economic as well as environmental sense.

Westar is seeking the rate approval to recover $282 million for ownership of turbines at two proposed wind farms and for costs in purchasing energy from a third farm. The 300 megawatts of electricity would come from the Central Plains Wind Farm in Wichita County; Meridian Way Wind Farm in Cloud County and Flat Ridge Wind Farm in Barber County. ...Westar expects energy demand to continue growing among customers and while new wind energy can put off purchase of new "baseload" or constant power sources, for now, the utility expects it will need to build a new power plant between 2016 and 2018. ...Moore told commissioners Westar would walk away from the wind projects if they weren't allowed to earn at least a small profit from them.

A $230-million wind farm near O'Leary could be in jeopardy. The P.E.I. government says Ventus Energy, which is developing the 55 wind turbines, is seeking concessions to a four-year deal it signed last year - concessions the province says are unacceptable. The two sides are still talking, but Environment Minister George Webster said he has no intention of agreeing to a deal which he says gives the Island's resources away. He described those resources as P.E.I.'s "oil and gas'' and added the concessions being asked for by Ventus would cost the Island "significantly.'' He would not disclose exact figures.

Wind farms generate a lot of electricity, but not a large number of permanent jobs once the construction phase is over. And although the projects are desirable because they use an abundant renewable natural resource, the only significant revenue the units are generating in Wyoming at this point is through property taxes in the counties where they are located. Their property tax bills so far are modest.

A heated national debate is now occurring over whether renewable energy projects, such as wind farms, create a substantial number of jobs for Americans. A controversial analysis recently undertaken by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University alleged that stimulus money intended to bolster the renewable energy industry continues to flow overseas. The analysis also claimed that "while some construction jobs are created when a wind farm is built, they last, on average, nine months."

The Glenfiddich distillery in Dufftown will host a major public meeting in Moray against plans to site a wind farm in the heart of the whisky trail. ...Tourists have flocked to Moray's famous whisky trail for decades, but owners of the distillery fear visitor numbers could dry up if the plans for nearly 60 turbines get the go ahead on the nearby Glenfiddich estate which is owned by London financier Christopher Morran.

As Congress prepares to tackle global warming, Americans are nervously fingering their pocketbooks. Projected cost increases associated with a proposed cap-and-trade program have ranged from $175 a household in 2020, calculated by the Congressional Budget Office, to an annual average of $2,979 in Heritage Foundation estimates.

This may be a better time than ever for renewable energy. The climate for passing laws that would create subsidies for it are promising: last year, the Production Tax Credit for wind power was extended, along with a hefty longterm-Investment tax credit for solar power. ...But Bruno Mejean isn't feeling the winds of change just yet. The managing director and deputy general manager of Nord/LB, New York, a German financial institution, ...anticipates obstacles for the wind-energy sector in particular, and the biggest drag on developing renewable-energy projects, he says, is the prospect of a longterm low price for natural gas.

No, the big stimulus plan won't "save or create 3.5 million jobs," as the president and congressional Democrats claim - at least not this year. The economy will remain feeble through 2009, analysts warn, and businesses will keep shedding jobs ...The stimulus agreement, heading for final votes in the next day or so, goes to the heart of President Barack Obama's strategy to revive the economy and will go far in shaping how Americans view his economic leadership. What it won't do is quickly snap the country out of the painful recession, now in its second year.

Since the city joined the 15-municipality agency in October 2008, Ames has paid more than $197,000 toward feasibility studies for a yet-to-be-developed wind farm near Ridgeport in Boone County. Assistant City Manager Sheila Lundt said staff "cringe" at paying about $56,000 more to IAMWind to exit from the agency, but "We just don't want any more financial entanglements than we already have."

Hoping to stabilize a $150 million annual electricity bill, Houston officials have negotiated a contract to ensure that a third of the city's power is generated by wind. If approved, the contract would make Houston a leader among local governments across the country using renewable energy.

Ontario shouldn't take the head office decision as a slight, said Laferrere. "The reason we chose Montreal is that it is already the centre of the wind industry in Canada," he said, pointing to the existence of other wind-turbine manufacturers around the area. "It's good to be in the same place as the others if you want to hire people." Laferrere suggested the concern was overblown. "This isn't a huge announcement here, it's just a structural and organizational announcement."

The credit crunch and falling oil prices threaten to hold up some of Britain's renewable energy projects just as the UK has raised its commitment to green electricity, financiers said yesterday. While large projects backed by the bigger utilities are generally thought to be safe, smaller and more speculative developments are facing funding problems as backers adjust their lending criteria or, in some cases, consider withdrawing it altogether. "The debt is just not there," said John Dupont, head of renewable energy finance in the UK for Nordbank.