Although the 400-foot turbines can sometimes delay air medical rescues, emergency personnel are trained to cope artfully with such situations, said Claire Rayford, spokesperson for Flight for Life ...The pilot decides what is safe and makes a decision based on many different factors at the time of the incident, Rayford said.

Growers and ranchers in the southern reaches of California are posing the latest obstacle to the state's push for green power. Facing the possibility of losing land to power transmission lines, they have urged state commissioners to avoid their property when selecting a route for a project linking consumers on the coast to renewable energy operations in the Southern California desert. ...The dispute is part of a growing conflict between farmers and utilities, as California's mandate for power providers to boost their use of renewable energy prompts new projects across the state.

They won't be as tall as some; and they won't power many homes. But by spring, two wind turbines could rise more than 125 feet above the Lakeshore landscape. The Zeeland Board of Public Works is planning to become the first West Michigan utility to bring electric-generating wind turbines online. The effort comes amid a flurry of efforts to turn wind into electricity, from a proposal announced last week that would power thousands of homes in the Manistee area to much smaller efforts such as Zeeland's.

Saying it's only fair, Michigan lawmakers plan to raise residential electricity bills and drop business rates so all customers are charged the true cost of their power. But when it comes to figuring out who should pay what for new renewable energy requirements, the playing field wouldn't be even. Though residents account for one-third of Detroit Edison's electric sales, they would contribute nearly two-thirds of what Michigan's largest utility could collect from customers for wind and other sources of alternative power under bills that have passed the House and Senate.

At the Blue Ginger Cafe, several residents who talk about a plan for a major wind farm on Lanai are worried the new technology will lead to the end of game hunting on their island. "If they going to stop hunting, that's going to be a bad thing to do," said Sam Shin, a retired pineapple worker. "It's going to cause problems." Castle & Cooke Resorts LLC is developing a plan to build a 300-megawatt wind farm on its land in northwestern Lanai, an area frequented by hunters.

Locals in north Kerry are up in arms at the alleged role of a wind energy firm in the landslide that destroyed a river's salmon and trout stocks. Before the facts of what caused last week's landslide in a north Kerry river network were known, a nearby wind energy firm taking the brunt of the local anger. Prior to the landslide, Tralee-based company Tra Investments had begun site works for an eight-turbine wind farm in the Ballincollig Hill-Maghanknockane area. Within 24 hours of the slide, the company announced that it would commission an independent review into the incident, which it promised to make public.

Two months of recording wind data from a 60-meter tower south of Blissfield has officials of Great Lakes Wind LLC feeling encouraged. The company is moving early to lease farm property where commercial wind turbines could eventually be built, said chairman Larry Gould. Work on lining up leases was prompted more by other developers showing interest in a wind project in the area than the preliminary results from weather equipment, he said. ...Wind data available so far all encourages continued exploration of a commercial project, he said. Numbers are confidential at this point, he said.

Rural communities are splintering over plans to build dozens of wind turbines in southern NSW. Landowners opposed to the 132-metre high turbines are devaststed their lifestyles, landscape and land values could be destroyed by neighbours allowing turbines on their farms. At Conroy's Gap, north of Yass, 15 turbines are planned. ..."It's split the community down the middle. "My mother is dead against these things and her brother, my uncle, has been promoting them," Mr McGrath said.

Hill Country residents have raised multiple concerns about new transmissions lines that will be installed to deliver wind energy across Texas. In July, the Public Utilities Commission approved a plan called "Scenario 2" that maps out the general route companies will follow when installing transmission lines. The lines will carry energy from wind farms in West Texas to Austin, San Antonio, Dallas and Ft. Worth. ...Final proposals from interested companies must be submitted by Sept. 12. The PUC will make their final selections in January 2009.

Skeptics in the crowd scanned visuals of wind farms proposed for Prince Edward County on display last night and said the only thing green about them is the money the proponent stands to make. Others came to a public meeting at the Crystal Palace eager to learn more ...Gilead Power Corp. unveiled more details of its plans to erect up to 12 turbines in an area west of Ostrander Point Road. Gilead is one of several companies exploring the county for wind turbine potential.

An MP has joined a chorus of opposition against the UK's largest wind turbines. Weaver Vale MP Mike Hall has spoken against the cluster of four 410ft-high turbines, 100ft taller than Big Ben, and would even dwarf the Fiddlers Ferry Cooling Tower if they were built at Aston Grange. After giving evidence at a public inquiry into the proposals he said: "The developers Tegni Cymru have said that a specific planning policy gives them the right to build the wind farm.

Homeowners in Aberdeenshire hoping to install domestic wind turbines in built-up areas are likely to have their applications rejected unless manufacturers provide the council with information detailing their impact, a councillor warned yesterday. Garioch area committee chairman Martin Kitts-Hayes made the comment following the "very reluctant rejection" of proposals to erect a turbine at a home at Kinmuck, near Inverurie. The committee is now planning to write a letter to companies who make the machinery, urging them to provide facts and figures on expected noise levels.

About 150 landowners and concerned residents met in Harper Thursday to discuss possible construction of a private electric transmission line through Gillespie County. "We basically wanted to get together and pool our information," Martha Stevens, who helped organize the meeting, said. "We live in an awfully pretty part of Texas, and there are important questions we need to ask." Landowners are concerned, Ms. Stevens said, that construction of power lines will diminish property values and harm the Hill Country's appeal to tourists.

Tra Investments Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lee Strand Co-operative Creamery in Tralee that had begun site works for an eight-turbine wind farm in the Ballincollig Hill-Maghanknockane area, said that it had instructed geotechnical consultancy AGEC Ltd to undertake a study into the cause of the landslide and that it would make the findings public. In a statement, the company said that they had planning for the wind farm and that "initial site works have taken place over the past two weeks".

"We've been really derelict," Specter said of Congress' response to the energy issue. "We're gonna have to go to alternate forms of energy, and I've been supporting that." Virginia Deeter from Somerset County told Specter her home of 30 years soon would sit between two wind turbine facilities: one 1,400 feet away from her back door and the other 1,800 feet away from her front door. "Our home is going to be worthless," she said she was told by real estate agents. "Where do we turn?"

Communities in North Cornwall are battling to stop the county's biggest wind farm from dominating the skyline over Bodmin Moor. Emergency meetings have been called by Camelford Town Council and parish councillors following a similar move last week by Davidstow parish council which saw 200 angry residents pack Otterham village hall. That meeting was attended by people from a number of moorland villages who are opposed to a plan by energy company Community Windpower to site 20 turbines near Crowdy Reservoir.

White Pines Wind Farm, a subsidiary of BP Alternative Energy, has applied for a special land use permit with the U.S. Forest Service to place 20-28 wind turbines, each 420 feet tall, in the forest north of Forest Trail. The road leads from U.S. 31 to the Lake Michigan Recreation Area. Huron-Manistee National Forest spokesman Ken Arbogast said the number of wind turbines depends upon further investigation by the company and the forest services. "Basically it will depend on how many they need to make the project economically viable," Arbogast said.

Forty pages of health and safety information surrounding the proposed wind turbine project in town may never have been created had it not been for some anxious residents. Ron Pitt, chairman for the health and safety subcommittee that researched and wrote the report, said interested and concerned residents, including members of the group Citizens Wind Watch, should be credited for pushing forward the process of learning more about wind turbines and the issues that surround them. ...Mr. Russo said the recent health and safety report spelled a certain end to the likelihood the turbine would be constructed at the high school.

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.

Kerr County may soon play a part in transmitting wind energy from West Texas and the Panhandle to other parts of the state. But what it will take to transport the "green" energy may have some Hill Country residents seeing red. Four companies have shown interest in building a large, double circuit 345-kilovolt transmission line for the Public Utility Commission of Texas project. ... According to Robert Weatherford, president of Save Our Scenic Hill Country Environment Inc., another transmission line might be in the works.