The whirling turbine blades at a wind farm planned in Champaign County would almost certainly kill endangered Indiana bats. The developer, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources all agree on that. They'll spend the next several months figuring out how to reduce the number of bats killed and working out just how many deaths are acceptable.

With no discussion and little fanfare, Thorndike residents voted at Saturday morning's annual town meeting to adopt a comprehensive, strict wind energy ordinance, which would require mile-long setbacks between wind turbine towers and homes. ...With the vote, Thorndike joins the nearby towns of Dixmont and Jackson in adopting ordinances that give towns high levels of control.

Coos Bay officials are predicting that wind turbines soon could join TV satellite dishes on residential rooftops. They see the potential benefits, but also possible pitfalls. They also don't have protocols to regulate the technology. So the city imposed a three-month moratorium on installations this week to give staffers time to write an ordinance.

A group of environmental organizations and opponents of wind energy projects say they likely will file suit if the federal government approves the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm. A 60-day notice of violations of the Endangered Species Act was sent this week to Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin and to the U.S. Interior Department and other federal agencies that have reviewed Cape Wind's plan to build 130 wind turbines in the sound.

Cape Wind critics threw up an eleventh-hour roadblock this week, accusing two U.S. government agencies that approved portions of the proposed offshore wind energy project of violating federal laws. "We put them on notice," said Lisa Linowes, executive director of the Industrial Wind Action Group, which tracks the benefits of wind energy projects. Her group and eight others filed a 60-day notice of violations with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Public testimony on the draft habitat conservation plan for the Kaheawa Wind Power II Wind Generation Facility will be taken at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the meeting room at the Pacific Whale Foundation at the Shops at Ma'alaea. The Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife will conduct the hearing.

Officials are going to talk next month about the draft ordinance that would regulate wind turbines within Austin city limits. The Austin City Council decided 4-2 Monday night to meet with the city Planning Commission at its next regular meeting in April. Council members decided they want to work with the commission to resolve the issue.

With the growth of the wind energy industry in Southern Alberta, the development of protocol to protect the province's migratory bat population is now underway. Lisa Wilkinson, a species at risk biologist with Alberta Fish and Wildlife and head of the Alberta Bat Action Team (ABAT), said Alberta was a North American pioneer in establishing pre-construction guidelines for wind farm operators.

Despite a federal government assessment that South Haven has "excellent" potential for generating wind power, the Lake Michigan resort community has no rules in place to regulate wind turbines that could alter its skyline. "We know that there is a potential big push for alternative forms of energy like solar and wind," said City Manager Brian Dissette.

The Burleigh County Planning Commission sent its draft wind tower policy to the county commission Wednesday after increasing noise limits and dialing back setback requirements. Sound limits were raised from 35 decibels to 45 decibels. The one-half mile setback for non-participating homes was decreased to 1,750 feet. Reverse setbacks were adjusted from the half-mile to 1.1 times the height of a tower.

A proposed wind farm in Ira could face opposition from the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, according to a state official. In a letter dated Dec. 22, Fish and Wildlife community ecologist Eric Sorenson told Vermont Community Wind Farm that the company's plan to put up as many as 45 turbines in the area would have "an undue adverse effect" on the area.

White-nose snydrome has the potential to devastate bats, which also are dying from impacts with wind turbines, Whidden said Feb. 25 during a lecture at Penn State Hazleton. Even before the new threats appeared to the nine species of bats regularly seen in Pennsylvania, one of them, the Indiana bat, was on the federal endangered species list, and that state listed the small-footed bat as threatened.

Huron County Planning Commission members on Wednesday reviewed a cyclone of ordinance amendments and voted to tentatively schedule a public hearing to garner input on proposed revisions to the county's wind ordinance. The hearing will take place April 7, provided the Huron County Wind Energy Subcommittee agrees with the recommended amendments to the county's overlay wind ordinance.

The future of Nevada is tied to the future of the sage grouse because the bird lives in a lot of the same areas that are expected to be used for wind, solar and geothermal energy. And although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided not to add the bird to the endangered species list Friday, it acknowledges that federal protection is warranted. The agency basically said it was precluded from adding the bird to the list because species that are more threatened are being given priority.

The finding shows the government is willing to protect sage grouse but not willing to do what's necessary, said Jon Marvel, executive director of the Hailey, Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project. "None of the actions proposed to date are mandatory, and that undermines the commitment for improving conditions for sage grouse," Marvel said.

The Portage Township supervisors are attempting to streamline the permitting process and reduce the local costs of having an on-lot residential or small-business wind turbine. A revamped ordinance based on an original statute adopted in 2005 will be advertised next week with plans for adoption in April, Supervisor Kenneth Trimbath said.

Wildlife conservationists and energy developers alike found some encouragement in Friday's announcement that the sage grouse won't be listed as a threatened or endangered species. Many agreed that such a listing would have had a chilling effect on the agriculture and minerals industries, which are the foundation of Wyoming's economy.

The iconic sage grouse that once roamed the western U.S. plains in great numbers ...will not be listed under the Endangered Species Act, but the department will put special emphasis on preserving the chicken-sized bird on lands where oil companies want to drill and wind companies want to erect their massive turbines.

The Interior Department said Friday that the greater sage grouse, a dweller of the high plains of the American West, was facing extinction but would not be designated an endangered species for now. Yet the decision in essence reverses a 2004 determination by the Bush administration that the sage grouse did not need protection, a decision that a federal court later ruled was tainted by political tampering with the Interior Department's scientific conclusions.

The conclusion of the state environmental quality review process has led developers to cut two turbines from the plan for Galloo Island Wind Farm. The state Department of Environmental Conservation, which has been the lead agency on the review, released its findings Wednesday. Those findings included the elimination of two turbines to preserve habitat for the upland sandpiper, a state-listed threatened species.