If wind power works for St. Peter schools, Gustavus Adolphus College and the city of Mountain Lake, can it work for the city of Mankato? ...[Mankato Councilman Mark Frost] cautions that profitability is a must: "This isn't one of those, ‘Boy, we're gonna do it no matter what' programs," he said. "I'm just askin' questions." But the success - though it has been decidedly mixed - of other public entities has piqued his interest. During the past few months, he's learned wind energy is more like a puzzle than a straightforward path.

KTVO has discovered a conflict of interest in the Sullivan County wind project. Commissioner James Howard is on the list of landowners that stand to profit financially from having a wind mill on their property. Plus, KTVO has obtained an eight-pages of document show that Howard and his wife Linda signed a lease option agreement on the Shuteye Creek Wind Project. Howard confirmed that he has an interest in the project.

Senate leaders hoping to salvage the $700 billion financial bailout package accepted a higher limit for insured bank deposits - and tax breaks for businesses and alternative energy - in a bid to win House approval and send the legislation to President George W. Bush by the end of the week. ...The lawmakers were gambling that the tax package would appeal to lawmakers who helped sink the measure in the House on Monday, without driving off Democrats who have opposed extending tax incentives without offsetting spending cuts elsewhere.

In the past two years, solar energy has become an especially hot spot in the clean energy sector. In 2007, solar energy start-ups raised the lion's share of new investments in the sector, or roughly $600 million in capital raised in 39 deals. And then came the credit crisis. Already companies have pulled IPOs, and worry is growing that the nascent industry could be choked off just as it is starting to take off. The question now: How bad will the hangover be? Or, more important, how long will it last?

So are federal subsidies still a life-or-death question for the industry? Maybe not anymore. Richard Morrison, chief executive of Molded Fiber Glass Companies, which makes wind-turbine blades for General Electric, told us: "The failure of the U.S. Congress to extend the production credit is not a good thing. Now how bad of a thing is it? It's hard to predict because things are a little bit different now in 2008 than back in the 1990s when it was a fledgling industry. There is a real business here and a big business and a growing business."

A tax credit driving the wind industry seemed to be on its way when the Senate approved it overwhelmingly this week, but a measure to extend it hit a speed bump Thursday in the House. The fate of the wind energy production tax credit expiring Dec. 31 is uncertain as lawmakers wrangle over two versions of the latest bill including an extension. An industry advocate found lawmakers' arguments over paying for the legislation absurd in light of billions spent to shore up crumbling Wall Street titans and a $700 billion proposal to stave off economic collapse.

The Democratic-led House today approved a $60 billion tax package designed largely to spur investment in renewable energy, and funded in part by assessing higher taxes on oil and gas companies. But by refusing to go along with a carefully crafted Senate bill, the House has thrown into question whether a final tax package will be approved before lawmakers recess this weekend until after the November elections.

Officials in Sullivan County agree a wind farm would be a positive addition, but they don't agree on how much they should do to accommodate the company that would bring it there. The county commission wants to create an enhanced enterprise zone to give Tradewind Energy the tax incentives they say they need. County Clerk Mike Hepler and Assessor Karen LaFever say the enhanced enterprise zone would leave the county short changed. "To sell out too cheap is not representing the public interest, it's representing the private interest. I was elected to represent the public interest," Hepler says.

Denouncing a proposed $45 million Minnesota Power rate hike as "exorbitant," Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson on Friday encouraged the Duluth utility's customers to attend public hearings and make their opposition known. "Families and small business are struggling to make ends meet in the face of rising prices for energy, health care, gas, food and a troubled economy," Swanson said in a news release, which characterized the utility's proposal as unnecessary.

Cattaraugus County has retained its ability to tax alternative energy systems - including wind farms, solar energy systems and on-farm methane digesters - with a 16-2 vote for passage of a local law Tuesday. The law applies to facilities within the county, including as many as four potential wind farm projects under consideration, and effectively disarms a state tax code provision exempting these energy sources from taxes. ...The vote came after residents and elected officials from the towns of Freedom, Machias and Farmersville stated their opposition in a 45-minute public hearing. Most said they were told the IDA's payment-in-lieu-of- taxes (PILOT) agreements will unfairly take a share of the wind farms' monetary payments.

What's "green," 18 stories tall and trashes property values? A wind turbine next to the new East Ridge High School in Woodbury - according to developers. Plans for a wind turbine roughly 200 feet tall hit a snag last week when developers balked at the idea of building houses nearby. They said buyers of high-end homes would be spooked by the noise and visual distraction of huge whirling fan blades. City officials are taking the threat seriously.

By a 3-0 vote Tuesday, Nicollet County commissioners approved a request from New Ulm Public Utilities (NUPU) to erect a 198-foot meteorological tower in Lafayette Township. ...Earlier in the meeting, commissioners unanimously approved a one-year moratorium, effective immediately, on Nicollet County wind turbine projects. Beatty told The Journal the moratorium was created so commissioners could gather more data on the issue for the health, safety and welfare of county residents and ensure "we're doing the right thing." Speaking on behalf of concerned citizens, Jeff Franta read a petition against the project signed by 77 rural residents he said was sent to the NUPU Commission more than two months ago.

The Senate today is expected to approve a $17 billion measure that would extend tax credits for renewable energy sources by hitting up oil and gas companies for higher taxes. ...The Bush administration opposes the language that targets the oil and gas industry. "At a time when consumers are already struggling with the high price of gasoline and diesel fuel, Congress should not put additional upward pressure on fuel prices," the White House's Office of Management and Budget said in a statement.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved about $18 billion of renewable-energy tax credits after repeated failed attempts to do so this year. The 93-2 vote cleared a major hurdle for extending a set of tax credits for businesses and residents investing in renewable energy, from building and operating power plants to installing small wind turbines on residential properties. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have tried and failed numerous times this year to extend the tax incentives, which are set to expire at the end of 2008.

The U.S. Senate could vote as early as Thursday on an energy bill that would provide $17 billion in renewable-energy tax incentives. Solar, wind and other renewable-energy investors and executives have been anxiously waiting for Congress to extend a set of investment tax credits that would offset 30 percent of the cost of a solar or wind-farm project. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have tried and failed numerous times this year to extend the tax incentives, which are set to expire at the end of this year.

After more than two hours of discussion Monday night, the Nicollet County Planning and Zoning Advisory Commission approved a Conditional Use Permit for the New Ulm Public Utilities to erect a 198-foot meteorological (met) tower several miles southwest of Lafayette. The resolution came on a 49-11 criteria vote with 13 conditions. ..."I seriously believe you're seriously impacting the lives of many people here," he told NUPU. In their Findings of Fact criteria votes on 10 questions, Commissioners voted 4-2 that given the nature of the land, the requested use was not compatible with the general welfare, public health and safety, the surrounding area and will depreciate nearby properties.

A major high-voltage power line proposal is generating organized opposition. The CapX 2020 project would bring more electricity -- including wind-generated power -- from remote parts of Minnesota closer to the Twin Cities. It calls for three 345-kilovolt lines that could cost between $1.4 billion and $1.7 billion and a fourth, smaller line farther north to be added later.

Dozens of Lafayette and West Newton Township property owners surrounding the New Ulm Public Utility Commission's planned wind farm have signed a petition opposing the project. Petition signers said they sent a copy of it to the Nicollet County Planning and Zoning Board scheduled to meet at 7 p.m., Monday, Sept. 15 in the Nicollet County Government Center. In Letters to the Editor of The Journal, "concerned area land owners and residents" stated they were not opposed to wind energy but think there are places better suited than their property.

A proposed wind turbine outside the new East Ridge High School in Woodbury is in the planning stages. While it would mean big energy savings for the school, some nearby landowners don't want a turbine near their homes. The school, located on Bailey Road, will be open by fall of 2009. The plan is to build a 170-foot-tall wind turbine at East Ridge that would produce up to 70 percent of the school's electricity.

The head of GE Energy, the conglomerate's unit that makes everything from wind turbines to nuclear reactors, flew down to Washington again today to plead with senators to extend tax credits for renewable energy. The credits, still crucial to making clean energy competitive, are set to expire at the end of the year, despite at least eight tries so far to renew them. ..."I'm prepared to come down every week to say the same thing," he told us. "If the production tax credit expires in the U.S., the wind industry will collapse. As the clock ticks, you put jobs at risk."