After about two hours of listening to his neighbors object to his plans to erect a wind turbine on his property, village resident Paul LaBarbera decided not to do it. With an ordinance allowing wind turbines - an alternative energy source - in town approved by the Village Board in March, LaBarbera was at the village's planning and zoning committee meeting Tuesday night seeking support for a special use permit to erect the turbine on his Prairie View Estates property.

The massive planned expansion of renewable energy may produce far fewer jobs than the government has claimed, a study has found. Producing enough renewable energy to meet government targets would create about 36,000 jobs in the wind energy sector by 2020, according to a study by Bain & Company for the British Wind Energy Association, to be published today. ...In its renewable energy strategy, published over the summer, the government claimed it would create 160,000 new jobs by 2020.

Jim Meenagh, with John Deere’s corporate office, said the times are a-changing, fuel costs a fortune, and “many progressive people” are looking at alternative energy sources such as wind power. One example is John Deere Credit (JDC). The company is looking to support and expand wind power — and there are many opportunities in the Midwest, Meenagh said.

There won't be any battle lines drawn in the effort to stop the construction of new above-ground, high-powered transmission lines through Oswego and Jefferson counties. The two government agencies are hoping to pass a joint resolution to ask Upstate Power relocate the proposed lines to the bottom of Lake Ontario. ...Lawmakers are urging the lines be buried underground, and preferably under water, to preserve the aesthetics and economic-development potential of their communities, and further claim that there is no benefit to the counties for hosting the lines.

It takes less than five minutes to walk from the church at one end of Moreleigh to the pub at the other but the small community living in the cottages in between have a range of opinions on whether Jonathan Dimbleby is welcome in their Devonshire village. To some, he is an arriviste whose plans to erect a wind turbine in his garden will spoil their view across the South Hams.

A Kane County judge has assigned himself to a case in which a citizen's group is trying to halt construction of a wind farm in southwestern DeKalb County. But no firm date has been set for arguments in the case. Citizens for Open Government wants a judge to issue a temporary restraining order to stop work on the wind farm project.

A judge on recently denied a request from neighbors of a wind turbine in Libertyville to have it immediately turned off, but they vowed to keep fighting. Village officials applauded the ruling.

Judge Charles Reynard has denied a requested delay by wind farm opponents, allowing the McLean County Board to discuss the matter at this morning's meeting, but he said opponents do have a right to appeal on alleged rule changes made during the Zoning Board of Appeal hearings. The opponents had an emergency hearing yesterday with the judge, asking him for a temporary restraining order to keep the board from making a decision on the wind farm until the opponents had had a chance to read through all related documents. Reynard said the opponents didn't have a legal time frame in which to review the documents, because the zoning board was only making a recommendation and the County Board would make the final decision. The timing applies only to the body making the final decision.

Quechan contends the project will cause irreparable harm to hundreds of cites including burial and cremation sites, as well as tens of thousands of artifacts. Forensic dog teams hired by tribes last week found six new cremation sites. Tribal members, who in modern times have continued to use the site for ceremonial purposes, also sought to protect views of mountains sacred in their religious beliefs of creation.

A McLean County judge has dismissed members of the County Board and zoning board of appeals from a lawsuit filed over a $250 million wind farm in McLean and Woodford counties. The suit, against Invenergy Wind LLC and county officials who approved special use zoning permits for the wind farm, was filed by Information is Power. The not-for-profit group is composed of residents who oppose the wind farm near their homes.

The Baileyville Wind Farm took a small step forward last week when a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the farm’s opponents more than a year ago. United States District Judge Philip Reinhard dismissed a 12-count lawsuit filed Jan. 23, 2006 by attorney Mark Muscarello on behalf of his wife, Patricia Muscarello, of Fountain Hills, Ariz. Patricia Muscarello owns 237 acres of farmland at the corner of Pecatonica and Oak Grove Roads in Leaf River Township. Her property adjoins the proposed wind farm but is not part of the project. Reinhard granted Muscarello 30 days to refile the lawsuit, which sought to stop the wind farm from being built in Ogle County. Reinhard’s decision could also be appealed in the federal appellate court. The case was dismissed in part over jurisdictional issues, as well as the number of plaintiffs.

Judge Gerald Grubb nipped farmer and wind farm advocate Wallace Ramsay’s class action lawsuit in the bud. According to Ramsay’s counsel, Rene Hernandez, Grubb denied the complaint because he deemed it an equity claim. Ramsay and his wife, Jean, had filed the lawsuit on behalf of all Boone County taxpayers.

Urbana- Champaign County Common Pleas Judge Roger Wilson heard arguments Wednesday in the appeal of permits that allowed construction of wind test towers in Union Township. The test towers could lead to the construction of wind turbines in the area.

The group trying to stop a proposed a 100-turbine wind farm straddling the McLean and Woodford county lines will likely have to wait a while to find out if there are successful. McLean County Judge Charles Reynard has denied a second attempt the get a lawsuit thrown out. McLean County Assistant State's Attorney Brian Hug says he still plans to argue at a hearing planned for September that he county board has legal immunity when it comes to passing laws. While it appears no resolution is in sight, Hug says the county isn't trying to run out the clock while construction starts. A group of wind farm opponents, Information is Power, sued to have the wind farm halted in March, claiming they weren't give a fair chance to speak out at the 12 zoning hearings that were held before the county approved the wind farm.

He found that Stony Creek mapped numerous small dwellings in Orangeville to meet setback requirements. But it failed to seek a variance for White's cabin because the company failed to discern its existence and location - not because the structure wasn't a dwelling, as the developer maintained.

Opponents of a wind farm project in McLean and Woodford counties have been spared the added costs of filing a new lawsuit to try to stop construction. McLean County Judge Charles Reynard has rejected a motion filed by attorneys for the White Oak Wind Energy Center and the McLean County Board, which argued that the lawsuit was already settled in March. That’s when the judge allowed the project to continue because the full county board hadn’t issued the special use permit yet.

URBANA - Two wind test towers built in Champaign County this year can stay up for now after a decision Friday in a case filed by neighbors of one of the towers. Champaign County Common Pleas Judge Roger Wilson Friday ruled that the towers, on Talbot and Ault roads, can stay up while the permits that allowed them to be built are appealed. Wilson Friday also declined to grant motions from two power companies' attorneys to dismiss the case.

The Zoning Board of Appeals decision not to recommend it is deemed "logically inconsistent".

BELVIDERE - A judge sided with Boone County by rejecting a proposed wind farm on unincorporated land. In a memorandum filed Thursday, Judge Gerald Grubb ruled that the county justifiably denied a request to construct wind turbines on farm land north of Caledonia and Poplar Grove in Boone County.

A judge ruled Monday that a trial date should be set sooner rather than later in the civil lawsuit involving a proposed wind farm along the border of McLean and Woodford counties. Judge Scott Drazewski set Oct. 27 for a bench trial for a lawsuit filed by Information is Power, a citizens group that opposes construction of the 100-turbine White Oak Energy Center wind farm by Chicago-based Invenergy Wind. The lawsuit contends the McLean County Zoning Board of Appeals denied property owners their rights by limiting testimony during hearings on a special use permit for the project.