For decades dairy farmers have wrested a living from the Tug -- accepting lives of wind-swept hardship with little prospect of much change. Then, a few years ago, change roared onto Tug Hill. Overnight it seemed, caravans of trucks trundled onto the plateau and for a couple of years the village was ablaze with activity. Today, 195 turbines soar above Tug Hill, 122 metres high, their 40-metre-long blades spinning at 14 revolutions per minute. The $400-million Maple Ridge wind project, the largest in New York state, brought money and jobs and a wondrous sense of prosperity. But the windmills also came with a price -- and not just the visual impact.

It will soon be easier for rural property buyers to find out if a wind farm is planned for next door. The Victorian Government this week agreed to let buyers know where they can get information on current wind farm proposals. Until now, prospective buyers were in the dark over how to get the information. ...The move followed calls by Nationals MP Peter Hall for more transparency on wind-farm proposals. Mr. Hall said property buyers had little hope of finding information about new wind farms, dozens of which are proposed for Victoria.

The Highland Wind Farm plan, which seeks to bring 41 500-foot-tall wind turbines to the rural landscape of northeast St. Croix County, is ripping the social fabric of the community apart. But besides agreeing on that point, the chasm between the backers of the idea and those opposed to it is huge.

HNWD was put on notice in May of 2010 that citizens intend to bring suit in federal court to seek compliance with the ESA if HNWD chooses to go forward without an ITP in the face of clear risk to endangered Indiana and Virginia big-eared bats. Construction was briefly initiated at the project site in late 2009.

Some will tilt at them, but it would seem a pointless exercise: a surge in windmill construction is set to recast the Victorian landscape. Two needs - offsetting the state's electricity-hungry new desalination plant and meeting an incoming national renewable energy target - are to trigger a huge expansion of wind power across the state.

That's because general plans for the 345-kilovolt route, known as the V-Plan and including a connecting line into Oklahoma, appear to take the line through prime nesting and breeding habitat for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken in both states. With an estimated two-thirds of the unique bird's original habitat already eliminated by development, officials warn that further encroachment could place the bird on the nation's endangered species list.

A quiet land rush is under way among the buttes of southeastern Wyoming, and it is changing the local rancher culture. The whipping winds cursed by descendants of the original homesteaders now have real value for out-of-state developers who dream of wind farms or of selling the rights to bigger companies. But as developers descend upon the area, drawing comparisons to the oil patch "land men" in the movie "There Will Be Blood," the ranchers of Albany, Converse and Platte Counties are rewriting the old script.

A proposed wind farm project for Higgins Mountain is causing some concern for the operators of Ski Wentworth and others in the Wentworth Valley-Folly Lake area. "I want to make it clear that we are in favour of renewable energy and all of the benefits that come with it, but we do have some concerns about the proposal that will see 400-foot (120-metre) turbines being erected right across the valley from the ski hill," Ski Wentworth spokeswoman Leslie Wilson said Monday. Ottawa-based 3G Energy Corp. proposes to build 66 turbines along a seven-kilometre stretch of the Cobequid Mountains. They would be on a ridge on the opposite side of the valley from the ski hill. The project is among the largest ever proposed for Nova Scotia.

"Hundreds of soldiers lost their lives on this battlefield. While I understand the imperative of energy independence, I also believe there are places where the benefits [of power generation] are not worth the trade-off, and this is one of those places."

The wind farm projects is already affecting the lives of Zapotec peoples, as well as our Ikoots communities, living in Isthmus - Mexico's windiest region. Zapotec communities that depend on agriculture and livestock farming have already seen their fields overtaken by wind turbines, limiting their food sovereignty and impoverishing soil fertility.

Emeritus professor Alan Mark, of Dunedin, gave evidence about the hurdles of revegetating native snow tussock at an Environment Court appeal hearing for the Project Hayes development yesterday. Prof Mark said trials of revegetation on site had so far produced less than satisfactory results, and he was concerned about whether it was possible to appropriately rehabilitate areas damaged during a five-year construction of the wind farm.

Action groups from across the Borders - and both East and West Lothian - have called for the current guideline of a minimum of 2km between wind turbines and homes and businesses to be made compulsory to mitigate the impact of wind farms on people's welfare.

The Adelaide environmental court has ruled in favour of AGL's Hallett 3 wind farm project at Mt Bryan. The landmark judgment that could set the precedent for community litigation against wind farm developments in South Australia has been hailed by developers and disappointed anti-wind farm campaigners.

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.

In the latest of a series about wind farms, Joe Willis talks to people about their experiences of living in the shadow of the giant turbines. FIGHT wind farm developments to the bitter end - that is the advice from angry residents who say they have suffered years of noise and light disturbance from two turbines.

Wind energy advocates want the Douglas administration to lift its ban on large-scale wind projects on state-owned land. The advocates say Vermont needs to explore all options as it looks for new energy resources. But Governor Jim Douglas remains opposed to the idea VPR's John Dillon reports:

Renewable energy advocates say Vermont lags behind other New England states in supporting large-scale wind projects. They cite a recent decision by developers to postpone a controversial wind project in Ira as evidence that the state is an unfriendly place to do business.

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.

In evidence to the Central Otago District Council last year Meridian acknowledged the turbines each of which will have a rotor roughly the size of a Boeing 747 would have an adverse visual impact on the nearby Paerau Valley. But it produced photographic mock-ups suggesting that from other vantage points the mountain block on which they would be arrayed would remain the dominant visual feature. However, Sydney says the windfarm will "industrialise" the landscape for vast distances. "What happens when you put that number of wind turbines of that size in the landscape is that they actually become the landscape. You don't see anything else really."

The state Fish & Boat Commission has been responsible for ensuring that wind energy development does not harm water or aquatic life since corporations began erecting turbines in Pennsylvania. But with the wind energy industry growing quickly - and showing no signs of letting up - Fish and Boat commissioners have decided to put the agency's regulatory policy in writing. The commissioners made the decision at their most recent meeting. They are accepting comments about the policy from the public. ..."Anytime there's encroachment on a ridgeline, you're dealing with headwater issues," Lichvar said. "If you have a problem where it begins, then you have a problem where it ends."