SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. (CP) - The city of Summerside plans to complete a bird migration survey in coming months as part of the environmental assessment for its proposed wind farm. Greg Gaudet, chair of municipal services, explained the study would provide supplemental information to the original assessment document prepared for the project that is proposed to be built near the Prince Edward Island city. The information will also be used to make recommendations on how to construct the wind farm so it has minimal environmental impact.

Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe will sign cooperative, voluntary agreements with seven companies to avoid, minimize and potentially mitigate any adverse impacts the development of wind energy may have on the state's wildlife resources at a public signing ceremony at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 18, in the auditorium of the Game Commission's headquarters.

The 420 wind turbines now in use across Pennsylvania killed more than 10,000 bats last year -- mostly in the late summer months, according to the state Game Commission. That's an average of 25 bats per turbine per year, and the Nature Conservancy predicts as many as 2,900 turbines will be set up across the state by 2030. This is a bad time to be a bat.

A utility company on Friday agreed to a settlement of more than $10 million following the electrocution of dozens of eagles, hawks, owls and other birds in Wyoming. PacifiCorp pleaded guilty to 34 violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Shickich in Casper ordered the utility to pay a $510,000 fine and $900,000 in restitution.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a July 1 letter to the company called for a more thorough analysis of potential wildlife threats from the wind farm. The federal regulators said that bird "collisions with turbine blades are often fatal, and usually resulting in the animal being effectively eliminated from the breeding population."

WASHINGTON-Migratory birds have a relatively safe trek across the Midwest, but unless the government intervenes thousands of those birds could be reduced to puffs of feathers drifting down from the blades of wind power turbines, wildlife advocates say. The birds often fly headlong into wind power devices, leaving behind victims with "severed beaks" and "mid-body separation," said Michael Daulton, of the National Audubon Society.

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.

A National Park Service official has warned the Bureau of Land Management that approving dozens of solar power plants in southern Nevada could dramatically impact water supplies across the arid region. An estimated 63 large-scale solar projects are proposed for BLM lands in the region, and the plants are expected to use a large amount of groundwater to cool and wash solar panels.

SCIENCE, not politics, was behind Environment Minister Ian Campbell's decision to place the orange-bellied parrot on Australia's critically endangered list, the minister said today. The parrot, which played a key role in Senator Campbell's controversial decision to reverse approval for a wind farm in Victoria, was reclassified this week as critically endangered.

THE Bald Hills wind farm proposal that Environment Minister Ian Campbell has agreed to reconsider will be identical - in size and location - to the project he has already scuttled. However, the company behind the contentious 52-turbine wind farm in Victoria's South Gippsland will come up with a survival strategy in a bid to allay Senator Campbell's concerns over the fate of the orange-bellied parrot.

What is your main concern right now with a wind farm on Ice Mountain? My main concern would be the noise levels of the wind mills, based on the noise problem at the Allegheny Ridge project right now. Gamesa doesn't say there's not a problem, they admit there is a problem and they're working on it, but until they get that problem fixed, I'm pretty much a "no" until I hear that. If Gamesa fixes that problem, and the opponents up there that told me they don't like the noise are happy, and the noise is not there anymore, I can't think of anything standing in my way of a wind farm, in just my vote, coming here.

THE COMPANY behind plans to build a massive windfarm in Shetland intends to wait until next summer before submitting a planning application to allow a second study of the islands' peatlands. Viking Energy had initially hoped to have already submitted its planning documents, but the huge number of responses to a public consultation scuppered the company's timetable. ...During the initial consultation in spring this year, many local residents were concerned about the amount of peat which would have to be cleared to erect up to 192 turbines, each measuring up to 145 metres in height. There were also worries that disturbing the sensitive peat habitat could pollute burns and inshore waters.

Opinions remain mixed over the O'Malley administration's proposal to lease state park land for wind power turbines. ...for Peter Skylstad and Kevin Dodge, wildlife biologists and professors at Garrett College, the loss of 400 acres just for the turbines makes them wary of things to come. Skylstad said he is worried that it is something that would set a precedent for other permanent impacts and the continued shrinking of the size of the forest ecosystem. He added that as the property proposed is public land, he doesn't feel it is something the state can make a profit from. "The public should make that decision," Skylstad said. "At least they should be informed. One of the reasons I came here is I appreciated what Maryland had up here, and they keep inching into that environment."

Residents upset about recent state approval for a wind power project in a neighboring town have launched a petition drive to change the town plan to prohibit commercial wind power development. “This petition basically reinforces that we don’t want to look at the ones at the end of Crystal Lake, and we don’t want the construction coming through,” said Liz Butterfield, owner of the Barton Village Corner Store. “And in the future, we don’t want wind development in the town of Barton.” ...“I think a 420-food wind tower at the end of a state park is a travesty,” Butterfield said.

Ed Jasulevicz had a point to prove when he donated the framed photograph he shot at Meadow Run Lake to the township in May. His point? Bald eagles are here. If anyone didn't believe him, he needs only to look at the 12-by-14-inch framed picture of a bald eagle sitting on the iced lake that now hangs in the municipal office. "Oh, they're here," Jasulevicz said later. "You'll see the eagles flying around by the water. We see lots of hawks by the lake." The controversy over the bird started brewing during township meetings months earlier. Some residents disputed eagles are anywhere near the township. Other residents debated wind farms and whether the turbines would harm eagles or other birds. The Pennsylvania Game Commission is wondering the same thing. The commission is set to hire a new employee who would investigate mortality rates in birds and bats caused by wind turbines.

Calling it "our baby," the panel overseeing the Department of Water and Power moved forward Tuesday with the Pine Tree Wind Project, approving a pair of environmental and construction deals related to the $278 million initiative.p The venture has been held up as an example of both the promise and peril associated with the growing use of "green power," which is one of the top priorities of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's new Board of Water and Power Commissioners.

Windmills have also caused an influx of rats in and around her home, she said, because the turbines are killing the birds and hawks that feast on them. "I have trapped over 100 rats in and around my house in the last year and a half," Manley said. "We celebrate when we see a hawk. We used to see them all the time."

A planned wind project near Hanna in Carbon County has raised concerns from some about how it might affect natural and cultural resources in the area. The Medicine Bow Conservation District and the Hanna Historical Society asked Horizon Wind Energy not to harm natural or cultural resources when building its 154-turbine wind project.

Nature conservationists are expected to raise concerns over potential plans to place four wind turbines close to an internationally important bird reserve. ...Martin Kerby, RSPB planning officer for the North-east said: ... "When the planning application is submitted we will be looking very carefully at it. It depends on how many birds are passing through. "It's about 1km from Saltholme but of most concern is the North Tees mudflats."

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.