Having dodged wind farms near Enchanted Rock, those intent on preserving the beauty and property values in and around this Hill Country city are now focused on power lines. About 250 people met here Wednesday night to hear Texas Wildlife Association speakers discuss major new power lines planned to deliver electricity to metropolitan areas from huge wind farms being developed in West Texas and the Panhandle.

Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, announced yesterday that planning rules would be changed to make it easier for 6,000 onshore wind turbines to be built. Britain's "default position" would be to accept new onshore turbines, he said. The expansion in wind farms was included in the Government's Renewable Energy Strategy, which aims to cut energy use and carbon dioxide emissions, and reduce Britain's dependence on fossil fuels.

Plans to build a wind farm near a Shropshire town have been refused following a public inquiry. Nuon UK's proposals for seven wind turbines up to 360ft (110m) high at Bearstone, near Market Drayton, were considered at a public inquiry in May. ...However, the Planning Inspectorate said the scheme would mean a "marked and unacceptable reduction" for nearby residential areas.

Though the Mineral County commissioners heard from US Windforce on the Pinnacle project on Green Mountain last month, the Allegheny Front Alliance got the chance Tuesday to try to refute some of the wind developer's claims. The group's nearly hour-long presentation included sentiments that the energy provided by the project was not needed in West Virginia, but in the other states on the PJM grid.

Residents of Benson say they are not opposed to having a wind farm in their community but would prefer them to be at least a mile and half outside the village limits. At a meeting of Woodford County's Conservation, Planning and Zoning Committee on Tuesday, a Village Board representative presented a letter asking the county to insert a 1.5-mile setback radius surrounding Benson to the wind farm permit.

In Huron County, the local federation of agriculture is calling for a moratorium on projects pending results of an epidemiological study on wind power's health effects. Alternative energy companies, such as the one proposing the Middlesex project, are paying close attention to the rising opposition. "It has kind of taken off across the country."

At the latest public information meeting on July 7, they were saying the same thing, but this time with a brand new plan aimed at being implemented starting August 2009. The plan unveiled to people in St. Joseph called for a decrease in turbine power from 2.4 to 2.3 megawatts, and an increase in numbers, from 120 to 130.

A plan to bring energy from West Texas wind turbines to population centers in East Texas has some Hill Country residents crying foul. KUT's Mose Buchele has details on what's got them worried.

"If you have a turbine going up near a cotton field, no problem: farmers will take money and be happy with it. But if you want to put up a turbine near Enchanted Rock, that is a different deal," says David Langford, Texas Wildlife Association's CEO and owner of a six-generation ranch in the Hill Country. "Is the potential benefit worth the probable negative impact on scenic views, tourism and land values?" asks Robert Weatherford.

A Kerwood area woman is appealing to other Adelaide-Metcalfe residents to join her in a last minute effort to stop wind turbines from being erected in the township until more information is known about possible negative health effects. "Just stop until we get some studies done," said Esther Wrightman, who recently produced a pamphlet and a website to try to increase awareness of possible health risks.

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.

The secretary of state for energy and climate change Ed Miliband has responded to a set of challenging questions on energy and the landscape from the Campaign to Protect Rural England. Among questions he has answered, Miliband clarified his controversial statement that it should "be socially unacceptable to be against wind turbines in your area - like not wearing a seatbelt or driving past a zebra crossing."

A group of residents in the countryside west of Port Rowan is looking for help now that the McGuinty government has conceded that wind turbines and people don't mix very well. The McGuinty government proposed last month that new wind turbines in Ontario be at least 550 metres away from the nearest residential dwelling.

It seems likely that any expansion of Tasco Engineering Inc.'s proposed wind farm on scenic White Mountain in southwest Wyoming -- from the 36 wind turbines already permitted by the county to possibly 237 wind towers -- will hinge on whether a some sort of deal about the placement of the turbines and their visibility from town can be reached.

The scale of public opposition to Europe's largest onshore wind farm proposed for the Shetland mainland has been underlined after about 70 campaigners handed in a petition of more than 3600 signatures demanding the plans be scrapped. ...The signatures, representing almost 20% of Shetland's population over the age of 12, were given to Shetland Island Council convenor Sandy Cluness.

The board voted 8-2 today, after two hours of public comment, in favor of Public Service Electric & Gas Co.'s proposed 45-mile, $750 million high-voltage power line project that opponents testified would ravage the land -- hurting flora and fauna -- and damage the region's natural beauty.

Officials from Vermont Community Wind have organized a bus trip to a wind farm in New Hampshire to try and build support for a large scale wind farm they're proposing in and around the Rutland County town of Ira. Company officials say about 35 residents from the area will travel to Lempster, New Hampshire, on Saturday where a 24-megawatt wind farm has recently been built.

A National Park Service official says a wind project proposed for a Skamania County site just outside the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area would intrude on the experiences of people traveling two national historic trails. Both the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and the Oregon Pioneer Historic Trail pass through the Gorge, and both also pass within five miles of where turbines would rise at the Whistling Ridge Wind Project, said Rory D. Westberg, the Park Service's deputy regional director for planning and resource management.

The Umatilla Planning Commission is considering a proposal to keep wind turbines out of the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon. The "No Turbine Zone" would amend the county's plan. Proponents say it was a result of secrecy about plans for the developments.

Xcel Energy and the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association have filed with the commission for a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the lines, which the companies say will increase the reliability of the grid in the valley and increase their ability to export electricity generated from wind and solar farms in Southern Colorado. ...An administrative law judge will hold a pre-hearing conference Friday in Denver to consider the intervention requests. The utilities commission has until Jan. 26 to decide on the applications by Xcel and Tri-State.