Some want renewable energy fast; others want to slow down to check on birds.

Interest by California-based AES Wind Generation in establishing a large-scale wind energy operation in Gillespie County is being reconsidered, it was learned here Monday. According to a City of Fredericksburg official who asked not to be identified, a letter from a company officer stated that AES SeaWest Inc. of San Diego has decided to discontinue pursuing wind energy in an area north of Fredericksburg that generally stretches between U.S. Highway 87 and RM 965. Instead, the city official related, the company has decided to focus on other areas in Texas. Prompting the decision, he added, was AES' concerns that sensitive species and bat colonies living in the area could be incompatible with large-scale wind energy.

The Chestnut-collared Longspur winters in New Mexico and Texas, including parts of the Big Country, before migrating north to breed for the summer. The bird, however, has suffered a steep population decline, as have other species that follow the same migration pattern, according to a recent government report. The federal report says various factors - including energy production of all types, such as wind farms - have contributed to a 40-year decline in the national bird population.

Fifty miles south of Corpus Christi, a few miles offshore, as many as 170 wind turbines will tower over the water, generating enough electricity to power 125,000 homes, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said Thursday.

WASHINGTON - An unusual coalition of conservationists and coal advocates told Congress on Tuesday that before the nation continues its rapid expansion of wind power, an assessment is needed of how many bats and birds are maimed and killed by wind turbines' blades. That study should be followed up with regulations to protect those species, witnesses told a House Natural Resources subcommittee.

The dispute over construction of two wind farms adjacent to the famed King Ranch in south Texas entered the courts Tuesday when an alliance of conservation and related groups filed lawsuits to stop the projects. The Coastal Habitat Alliance, which includes King Ranch, filed separate lawsuits in state and federal court in Austin. The federal lawsuit claims the state has not done a thorough analysis of the impact the farms and their massive turbines will have on wetlands, habitat, endangered species and migratory birds. It seeks a declaratory judgment and, if needed, an injunction against the developers, whose combined initial investments are expected to top $1 billion. The state lawsuit claims the Texas Public Utility Commission illegally denied the alliance a chance to intervene in the PUC's hearings on transmission lines for the wind farms. ...But the alliance claims that because Texas receives federal funds to help protect the coastal region through the Coastal Zone Management Act, a thorough environmental review of the wind projects is required.

A divided Public Utility Commission shut the door Wednesday on conservationists' efforts to air concerns about the effect of planned Gulf Coast wind farms on migratory birds. ...Chairman Paul Hudson dissented, saying it would be in the public's interest for the commission to hear about the environmental impact and that denying the intervention would prevent the PUC from ever looking at the alliance's argument.

But what happens when a good idea is put in the wrong place? "You've gotta look at the ecological setting. And some settings are wrong for it," said Jim Blackburn, a Houston-based environmental lawyer working for the Coastal Habitat Alliance, CHA. Projects by two companies now underway would put 600 wind turbines about 400 feet tall along the South Texas coast. That's where millions of migratory birds must pass through to fly south for the winter. "It's a world-class worst site," said Blackburn. CHA and other coastal environmental groups say the blades will kill the birds, and project threatens valuable Texas wetlands. But the companies behind the wind farms don't need any state permits to build.

Plans to build what would have been the nation's largest offshore wind farm in South Texas have been called off because the multibillion-dollar project didn't make economic sense, the developer said Monday...Babcock & Brown Ltd. is moving on with an onshore wind farm in South Texas' Kenedy County, a $700 million-plus venture that calls for 157 turbines on thousands of acres, Calaway said. He noted the expense of building an offshore farm can be more than double the cost of one on land.

After years of battling environmentalists worried about the mixture of towering windmills and one of the world's busiest migratory bird flyways, Babcock & Brown opened its wind farm on the Kenedy Ranch. The wind farm will sport a bird radar detection system that company officials tout as the first of its kind. The system can automatically stop the blades if the potential for a mass bird kill is detected.

Environmental groups have teamed with the King and Armstrong ranches to try to stop plans for two wind farms that they claim will kill birds and damage habitat along one of the world's major migratory flyways. The Coastal Habitat Alliance includes the American Bird Conservancy, the Coastal Bend Audubon Society, the Houston Audubon Society and the Lower Laguna Madre Foundation, a local group dedicated to protecting the bay and native habitat. "This is a pristine area that's a very fragile habitat that's right in the middle of one of the most active bird migration pathways in America," said Elyse Yates, an Austin attorney representing the group. "We think this is an inappropriate site for a major industrial wind project like this. We think the harm is irreparable."

Wind turbines on the southern Texas Gulf Coast, and in Kenedy County in particular, could have a "catastrophic" impact on migrating and local birds, according to a new environmental review commissioned by the Coastal Habitat Alliance. Wind farm developers, however, maintain that the proposed wind projects on Kenedy Ranch will have minimal effects on birds. ..."In terms of potential harm to migratory and local birds and bats, the location of the proposed wind projects in South Texas is among the worst that can be found on any piece of private land in Texas and rivals the damage that could occur if a similar project were built on a wildlife refuge," the report states.

The environmental community is divided over a deal the state`s General Land Office signed with Wind Energy Systems Technology, or WEST. The deal is to develop 50 wind turbines off the coast of Galveston that would power about 40-thousand homes that wouldn`t rely on fossil fuels. The problem is that Galveston is beneath a critical migratory bird path that links North America to Central and South America wintering grounds.

A federal judge in Austin dismissed a lawsuit that sought to prevent further construction of two Kenedy County wind farm projects. The suit was filed in December by the Coastal Habitat Alliance, a nine-member environmental group that includes King Ranch, claiming the projects would cause irrevocable damage to the environment and birds. The alliance also filed a suit in state court that was dismissed earlier this year. The wind farm projects, by Australian-based Babcock and Brown Ltd. and Oregon-based Iberdrola Renewables, formerly PPM Energy, continued with site preparation and initial construction and erection of wind turbines

About 140 people got another look at the coming world of wind power Friday. Birds and bats were major topics, but the basic message was that there needs to be more study of the impact of wind farms and turbines. "We're kind of finding our way along with the industry," Kathy Boydston, a biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, told the gathering at the Ambassador Hotel in Amarillo. Experts are trying to find ways to deter birds and bats from hitting turbines, but the lack of information on how many fall victim and how it happens is lacking.

Alliance members said they had hoped to obtain intervenor status so they could request an environmental study be conducted, assessing the wind farms’ possible impact on migrating birds and habitat. The alliance earlier this week announced the preliminary results of an assessment it commissioned, which suggested the wind farms could prove harmful to migrating birds. ...“By refusing the participation of experts who have come to the table to offer their experience and assistance, the PUC is denying itself and our state the benefit of their knowledge and insight,” said Jim Blackburn, an Austin attorney and the alliance’s founder, in a statement.

A Houston-based environmental group with local ties has released an environmental impact study that it says might stop the construction of two proposed Kenedy County wind farms. ...EDM assessed the proposed sites and found "the operation of the projects could result in the largest and most significant avian mortality event in the history of wind energy. The associated negative repercussions to the expanding wind industry both in the U.S. and internationally could be significant, as well," according to its report. The study will be used in ongoing litigation seeking to prevent the construction of the wind farms, says alliance spokeswoman Elyse Yates. Officials for both companies say they have conducted studies for years and findings show there would be minimal impact to the environment and birds.

"There has been exactly zero reports that have been released to the public in Texas about environmental concerns in Texas from wind projects," said Michael Fry, director of conservation advocacy at the American Bird Conservancy. "The coastal plain of Texas is one of the most important migratory corridors for birds and we would like to see some kind of evaluation before projects are going on down there."

Similar to transformations brought by oil and agricultural industries in past decades, the [wind] industry's impact is more than skin deep. Some researchers have found going green through a new generation of windmills may not be what's best for the environment. "There's almost no understanding of the environmental impact of these wind turbines," said Ronald Kendall, director of Texas Tech's Institute of Environmental and Human Health. "I'm all for alternative energy, but I'm for getting it right."

Two wind farms, part of a $2 billion project, have been proposed near Hebbronville, just east of Laredo. Corpus Christi-based American Shoreline and its partner, San Diego, Calif.-based Eviva Spinnaker, plan to develop the 800-megawatt wind project. It calls for 400 turbines about 350 feet tall spread out over 35,000 acres in Jim Hogg, Webb and Zapata counties. The electricity that would be generated from the two wind farms would power about 220,000 homes. The project recently was announced and has not received vocal opposition. But if vocal opposition toward two Kenedy County wind projects is any indication, there soon will be. Kenedy County is about 100 miles south of Corpus Christi.