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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

B&W Pantex is partnering with West Texas A&M University to study the effects of wind turbines and associated infrastructure on wildlife at Pantex. The contract for evaluating the wind farm's effects on wildlife began this past fall and will continue through the next five years. The Pantex Site Office is in the process of designing, constructing, operating and maintaining a renewable energy source and its associated distribution infrastructure on Pantex property and nearby land. This makes this research project timely and necessary.

The federal government has concluded that building two wind turbines with 120-foot-long propellers atop Turkey Point does not threaten eagles, other raptors or bats. But some birding groups that missed the opportunity to weigh in on the project when public comment was invited believe the environmental impact assessment is flawed.

A lot of Westerners are watching whether the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is about to pursue Endangered Species Act protection for the greater sage grouse. A finding is expected by week's end and the oil and gas, livestock and wind energy industries _ to name the bigger interests concerned _ all have an enormous stake in whatever the agency decides.

The controversial Bald Hills wind farm that catapulted the endangered parrot to fame in 2006 is under renewed scrutiny, after it was quietly granted permission to make its turbines more than 20 per cent taller. ...''This is a significant change and there's no environment effects statement. All the modelling that's been done for approvals was done on a previous arrangement,'' he said.

Idaho and the federal government have signed an agreement that offers incentive and protection for ranchers and landowners who voluntarily take conservation steps to improve the plight of the sage grouse. ...Todd Tucci, attorney for Advocates for the West, said the bigger challenge is dealing with sage grouse habitat on public land, where wind energy development, oil and natural gas drilling and cattle grazing pose thornier policy questions.

The endangered desert tortoise and Mojave ground squirrel are frequent headliners in the local environmental debate whenever developers seek a piece of the High Desert. Now scientists are saying another population that's not quite so lovable also needs an advocate.

A recent federal court decision has some Western Maryland wind farm critics pushing state and local officials for increased regulation. On Friday, a letter signed by the four members of the District 1 legislative delegation was sent to Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler, seeking a formal opinion on the responsibility of state agencies "as it relates to the protection of the state's endangered species."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is gathering information for a review under the National Environmental Policy Act of the proposed Buckeye Wind power project in Champaign County, Ohio, and of a proposed Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) developed by EverPower Wind Holdings, Inc., to "conserve" the endangered Indiana bat.