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 spokesperson for McNaughton said the two elected officials want all turbine construction to halt until results of a federal health study on the impacts of turbines has been tabled. ...The spokesman said there is also growing concern about the devaluation of property as a result of the rapid proliferation of wind turbines in Chatham-Kent and throughout southwestern Ontario.

A CAMPAIGN group which aims to protect common land has hit out at plans to build up to 24 wind turbines in East Lancashire. The Open Spaces Society said the project, designed for the moors between Hyndburn and Rossendale, would be a "menace on the landscape". ...Because the site is common land the company will need special permission for the site. Kate Ashbrook from the conservation group said: "Haslingden is a wonderful oasis among the Lancashire towns. Here the public have the right to walk and ride over every square inch of the common. "The wind turbines with their associated paraphernalia would be a gross intrusion on the landscape and will be highly visible from the common and from further afield."

People living in Earthcott Green protested over plans for the wind farm, off Old Gloucester Road, at Alveston Parish Council's planning meeting last night. They told parish councillors, who were discussing Stroud-based power firm Ecotricity's planning application to South Gloucestershire Council for the first time, that the wind turbines were "totally inappropriate" for the village.

Alison Rodgers told how Palterton residents are "losing sleep" after Barlborough-based firm Banks Renewables submitted plans to Bolsover District Council to build three wind turbines on fields in the village.

Proponents of a proposal to locate a massive power transmission line through southern Blaine County faced an avalanche of criticism Tuesday night when they presented the plan to a standing-room-only crowd in the Carey High School gymnasium. Energy giant Northwestern Energy, based in Sioux City, S.D., would like to build a 500-kilovolt line through southwestern Montana and southeastern Idaho ...Another reason new transmission lines are needed is to serve the growing green energy market, Jensen said. "We have got to expand the infrastructure in the country," he said. "There aren't adequate lines going to where the renewables are going to be developed."

No doubt about it, green is good. So why is it that across the country, more and more people are seeing red over wind energy? Some say that in the rush to develop wind power, current government regulations aren't doing enough to protect human health, or the environment. ..."I think the government really needs to step up to the plate and make sure they do their due diligence and make sure they do their history checks on where they are putting these wind turbines because it's about location, location, location," said one member. "The government has made rural Ontario residents expendable in the name of green energy."

Voters at the annual town meeting have approved two moratoriums that will give the town time to develop ordinances to regulate communications towers and wind turbines. There has been commercial interest in such construction, particularly in communications towers, according to Code Enforcement Officer Judy Jenkins, and the town’s existing land use regulations include nothing to guide the siting of such structures.

Jerry McRae didn't mince words when talking about a high-voltage transmission line that will cross his land near here. "You're going to have a hell of a time building a power line in this community," McRae said. ...Construction on the line is scheduled to begin in March. "It can't be built without eminent domain in this community right now," McRae warned right off the bat.

Leesburg Mayor Edward Mackey addressed the commission before it voted on a few routine business items. "There are just too many red flags with this," Mackey said of the project. "Why should we have them here in the first place?" His short address drew applause from the crowd, several of them standing in the back of the room with the crowd spilling out into the hallway

The idea of looking out onto the foothills of the Blue Mountains from Highway 11 or Milton-Freewater and seeing wind turbines sounds like a nightmare for some people who look at that view every day. But not many of those people have had much of a chance to express their frustration. Citizen Richard Jolly hosted a meeting Thursday in Milton-Freewater where many people got a chance to vet their frustrations and discuss their concerns.

The debate over proposed windmills being placed in Randolph and Barbour counties came to the Elkins City Council meeting Thursday night. Although a proposed ordinance to express council's opposition to the AES' Laurel Mountain windmill farm project was on the agenda, council took no action. The resolution was not prepared for council to take a vote and a debate started within the crowd following a informational presentation by West Virginia Green Energy Alliance representative Joel Martin. "There has been a fairly focused campaign to distribute information that is not accurate," Martin said. "The project will not lead to a disaster on the mountains." ...Beckwith also asked Martin what affects the windmills would have on the ecology and environment. "I cannot guarantee that there will be no destruction," Martin responded.

City council voted Monday night to endorse a March 8 motion by Amherstburg council that calls on provincial and federal politicians and ministries to look into "the potential impact that offshore wind turbines might have on water quality, human health, along with animal and plant life." Amherstburg's resolution was endorsed by county council earlier this month.

The Altoona City Authority is asking Logan Township to enlarge its wind turbine zone by 775 acres, more than double the acreage expansion request the township turned down in May. Authority General Manager Mark Perry presented supervisors last week with aerial maps showing the township's wind zone and the authority's land. Perry asked for an expansion beyond the zone's Route 36 northern border to include a portion of the authority's land. Supervisors made no immediate decision, but Chairman Frank Meloy asked if arrangements could be made to visit the site...

Hearing of the map from her neighbor, Nan Cook couldn't believe it. Drafted by the city's former planning director, Nancy Colbert, last March, the map shows possible locations where wind turbines could be placed in the industrial park. There are about 22. ...Cook, who lives on Hill Street, called the possibility of adding 22 more turbines to the industrial park "insane."

How tall is too tall? That's a question the city of Woodbury has been studying and discussing for the last calendar year in relation to an alternative energy ordinance it is expected to vote on this summer that would regulate the size, scope and location of wind turbines in the city limits.

If industrial wind turbines start turning in Clarington, it's just a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt, predicts Barb King, who runs an equestrian school in Kendal and is concerned that proposed turbines are going to spook the horses and hurt a rider.

Will wind-generated power save the environment or sacrifice it? The answer depends on who you ask ..."Your senators are very brave in what they're doing," said Lisa Linowes of New Hampshire-based Wind Action. "The legislature already concluded when it adopted the Ridge ordinance that your mountains have cultural significance to the state. When asked now to consider whether that value is worth more - or less - than wind generated electrons on the grid, your mountain senators are doing what most politicians in the U.S. have not done. They're putting a cold eye to the options and deciding wind is not worth the sacrifice, at least for now."

Some residents are furious that the landscape that they have known and loved will soon be gone. "The skies are beautiful. You'll get the northern lights and you don't have all these flashing lights around. And now with the substation going in, the light off that at night, I'm going to need curtains in the house!" said LaClair

A $50 million wind farm will be built near Victoria's top coastal attractions, despite State Government promises to keep turbines away from the Great Ocean Rd. The Government says the Newfield wind farm, about 12km from the Twelve Apostles in the southwest, will bring jobs to Victoria and boost renewable energy. But residents say it could be the start of a flood of wind turbines near environmentally sensitive coast land. The Acciona Energy wind farm will include 15 turbines that are 110m tall.