A Massachusetts-based energy company is running into roadblocks as it tries to develop a wind farm on the hills above this Columbia Gorge town. It has been nearly a year since UPC Wind first asked state regulators to review the 40-turbine project in the windy stretches of the gorge. Revisions promised more than six months ago, have yet to materialize. UPC is faced with problems trying to rearrange the turbines to make them less visible from a federally protected scenic area, but still in breezy enough spots to produce a moneymaking venture. The company also is also trying to mollify angry residents near the proposed site, on Sevenmile Hill. It is organized and strong.

A giant wind farm in northeast Weld County may be a groundbreaking model of how to generate clean, renewable energy while protecting wildlife occupying the same space. But it's also been on the receiving end of some environmental criticism. ...Ken Strom, director of bird conservation for Audubon Colorado, said he is disappointed that Cedar Creek's developers did not move all the turbines away from the escarpment. "In terms of the outcome of the hearings, I don't think (our concerns) were adequately addressed," he said. "I think they tried to meet a number of our concerns but they fought to move a minimum of the turbines." Strom notes that some birds will be killed as a result of having the turbines within their traditional nesting areas and others will simply avoid the area out of fear of the constantly whooshing towers.

Long before windmills festooned the San Gorgonio Pass, before Interstate 10 barreled through it and before homes and strips malls sprouted, animals rambled freely between the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains searching for food, mates and shelter. They still do, although they have to maneuver around some obstacles. The Pass and some of its mountain canyons are among the 15 wildlife linkages between the southern Sierra Nevada and the Mexican border that are considered key to keeping native species thriving and preventing their extinction ...

Plans for the UK's largest onshore wind farm on the Shetlands have come under fierce opposition from protesters, four years after the idea was proposed. A planning application for around 155 wind turbines, each up to 145 metres from blade to tip, is due to be submitted to councillors this summer. ...Opponents claim it will damage a landscape little changed since the last minor Ice Age. They are concerned that the turbines will be visible from almost every vantage point on the islands and beyond. They also fear that, once the sub-sea cable is installed, other developers will want to make use of every hillside in Shetland, turning it from an island community into little more than an offshore UK wind factory.

In addition to killing birds, wind turbines at other sites have been found to kill bats, said Rick Lambert, a member of the Virginia Highlands Grotto of the National Speleological Society and local bat enthusiast. At the Mountaineer Wind Energy Center in West Virginia, 47.5 bats were killed per turbine annually, he said. In addition to common bats, there are 41 Indiana Bat caves within 50 miles and 23 Virginia Big-eared Bat caves within 30 miles of the proposed wind farm, Lambert said. Both species of bats are endangered and the turbines will be well within their migratory distance, he said.

A controversial proposal to build 30 wind turbines in an ecologically sensitive watershed containing a wilderness trout stream on Shaffer Mountain in northeastern Somerset County has been judged deficient by the state. A Feb. 22 letter from the state Department of Environmental Protection identifies more than two dozen deficiencies and concerns in the wind turbine permit application of Gamesa Energy USA, a Spanish wind power developer and turbine manufacturer. It requests additional information. ..."This is an untouched area with a cluster of environmentally sensitive issues," Mr. Buchan said. "We hope to get Gamesa to see the light. If not, we'll fight it for as long as it takes."

The complaint claims that unique natural habitats in the north-eastern Kaliakra region have been destroyed in the process of building a wind farm. It has been backed by 12 other environmental and civil non-governmental organisations. The environmentalists believe that Kaliakra "is emblematic of how innovations and investment are used to mask criminal encroachment on bio-diversity". The complaint package includes documents, photos and maps showing the damage that the wind farm projects have done to nature.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has issued a letter of deficiencies about the controversial Shaffer Mountain Wind project, The Tribune-Democrat has learned. The nine-page technical review letter, dated Feb. 19, raises a list of concerns about Gamesa's post-construction stormwater management plan, required to gain DEP's national pollutant discharge elimination system permit. It reiterates many of the issues raised by citizens in hearings and in comments to the DEP. ...The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also has questioned the company about impacts to Indiana bats and bird migration. DEP also recommended that Gamesa respond to 22 questions gathered through the department's public comment period. Many of them deal with concerns about water quality, forest fragmentation and wildlife habitat. Gamesa has 60 days to respond.

The government wants 45% of the country's electricity to come from renewables such as wind, hydro, and solar by 2010. And that's just a start. "This challenge will create a new industrial revolution," Portugal's economy minister, Manuel Pinho, told the BBC. ...The campaigners are torn between their concern about climate change and their love for the wildlife. "We should have renewable power but not at any price," Joao says.

"We're stunned that Mainpower is even considering this site as they claim to be environmentally responsible and there are alternatives nearby," said Dr Murray Parsons, chairman of the board, which represents the community interest in the work of the Department of Conservation. "The Mount Cass ridge where Mainpower wants to build ... is covered in dense bush extending down gullies on either side, and is a unique limestone landscape with its own special ecosystem." ...Mainpower was proposing to bulldoze a 10m wide access road, up to and along the mountain ridge, and to construct concrete footprints of up to 240sq m to support the construction of wind generators up to 80m in height.

Two Adirondack-based environmental groups have come out against the installation of windmills atop Gore Mountain. The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks and the Adirondack Council say their reasons for opposing the windmills range from aesthetic concerns to setting a poor precedent. ...David Gibson, executive director of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, and John Sheehan, spokesman for the Adirondack Council, said they are waiting for the Barton Group to submit a complete application to the Adirondack Park Agency before making more specific comments on the project. The Residents Committee to Protect the Adirondacks is also waiting to see specifics before taking a position, said Michael Washburn, the North Creek-based organization's executive director.

The need for proper setbacks in Chatham-Kent between wind turbines and homes and natural settings was voiced loudly Tuesday by Chatham businessman Harry Verhey. Verhey told Chatham Sunrise Rotary Club members - of which he is a member - that he isn't challenging the use of wind turbines, but is convinced there is an urgent need to determine setbacks that are right for the municipality. "The recent proliferation of industrial wind projects will have a negative impact on the community," he said. "The massive size of industrial wind turbines conflicts with the scale and character of the Chatham-Kent landscape." ...Verhey said ads run in local papers by the proponents of wind farms aren't enough - "for the most part the public is unaware of turbine developments and locations."

A controversial plan to build a wind farm on a sensitive habitat near the Pentland Hills was thrown out by councillors yesterday. Energy company E.ON UK wanted to build 18 turbines on a raised bog at Auchencorth Moss near Penicuik, but the scheme attracted about 2,400 objections and opposition from groups including the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Friends of the Pentlands and the Butterfly Conservation Society. Naturalist David Bellamy described the plan as "an act of international vandalism"

The Acquisition and Restoration Council, a state agency that oversees the use of public conservation lands and makes recommendations on new lands for purchase, will discuss Florida Power & Light Co.'s turbine project Thursday and make its decision Friday. FPL wants to put nine wind machines on the island, six on its own property and three on state-owned land that is leased by the county. The county learned of the state meeting Friday and added the turbine discussion to Tuesday's morning commission meeting agenda. The county apologized to residents for the late notice, but felt it was important to have the discussion prior to the Tallahassee hearings, said Erick Gill, a county spokesman. ..."It's unfortunate we're forced to react on such late notice, but we have to move forward," said Commissioner Doug Coward, who has opposed putting the turbines on public conservation land.

Conwy councillors yesterday voted to oppose a 250-turbine windfarm off the North Wales coast. They also urged the Government to do the same when it rules on the scheme this year. Developers npower Renewables Ltd had reduced the size of its proposed Gwynt y Môr offshore windfarm but Conwy council's Cabinet nonetheless rejected it. The Cabinet also objected to the fact that the final decision would be taken outside Wales. ...Cabinet member Coun Keith Toy said: "I believe decisions about Wales should be made in Wales." The council voted to object to the proposed windfarm and recommend the Government refuses it due to visual impact, scale, siting, noise and possible adverse effect on tourism.

A nationally important Cornish landscape is at risk from a £5 million wind farm, a packed public inquiry heard yesterday. In what could be a landmark case, the hearing was told the plan for turbines at Morwenstow could seriously damage adjoining areas, one designated as of great landscape value and the other an area of outstanding natural beauty. The first day of the appeal, by Crimp Wind Power Ltd against a decision by North Cornwall District Council refusing planning permission, also heard the turbines would threaten the habitat of several rare species of bat. Moira Hankinson, a chartered landscape designer who carried out a visual assessment and audit for North Cornwall District Council said the development would be "entirely out of character with the narrow wooded valleys and winding lanes". She said: "It is a fragile landscape which needs care. ..."

But the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound cites more than a few environmental impacts in the DEIS that it believes the Minerals Management Service and the rest of the agencies reviewing the massive project need to pay closer attention to. Impacts on birds, scenic views, navigation, fish species, fishing and boating all received a moderate rating from the MMS. The Alliance also calls into question what it terms the excessive cost of Cape Wind's wind energy and air travel hazards over Nantucket Sound in proximity to the wind farm. Alliance President and CEO Glenn Wattley said the Alliance is working now to examine each impact that was given a moderate characterization by the MMS and figure out ways to address them. "We've been retaining experts," he said. "We have 40 experts on these topics, they are going over the topics [and] we're spending quite a bit of money putting together a professional response for the public comment period," he said.

The Liberty Gap wind energy project planned for the border of Pendleton and Highland counties did not get approval from West Virginia's Public Service Commission last year, but that doesn't mean the company is giving up. According to Pendleton County residents opposed to the project, the developer is moving ahead, attempting to get its application rewritten for a better chance of approval. The West Virginia Public Service Commission had noted several deficiencies in the company's application, including insufficient information on historic resources, site maps, and environmental protect. The grassroots effort to stop the Liberty Gap project was spearheaded by Friends of Beautiful Pendleton County, and according to one of its members, Larry Thomas, it cost $87,000 to challenge the company's application. But Liberty Gap has regrouped and learned from its mistakes, and the next round might cost opponents as much as $250,000.

There's an energy boom going on in the "oil patch" region of Oklahoma and Texas the likes of which has not been seen in decades. This time around, though, the prize isn't under our feet, it's in the swirling currents above our heads. A rapidly growing number of domestic and international energy companies have targeted western Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle with plans for massive wind farm projects. Nowhere is this more evident than on the sage-covered prairies of northwestern Oklahoma. Hundreds of wind turbines stretch like a giant picket fence across the landscape, towering above the game-rich high plains. At first glance it would seem to be a win-win for both the environment and society ...When it comes to energy production, however, you never get something for nothing. Case in point: as a result of this boom, one of the nation's top public land bobwhite quail hunting destinations may soon be covered with a network of roads, high-tension power lines, and wind turbines.

So many people have flooded the Maryland Department of Natural Resources with emails, calls and letters about a proposal to build wind turbines in state forests that the agency has been forced to find a larger venue for its public hearing. "We've had a lot of interest expressed, so we changed the date," said Olivia Campbell, spokeswoman for the state wildlife agency. "We are making it easier for the public to participate. We realize a lot of people have passion on both sides." ...Some people have expressed strong opposition to the idea of letting developers rip up state forests and build tall industrial machines. Others strongly support the idea of using state property to generate clean, pollution-free electricity.