House lawmakers are expected to debate this week a hotly contested effort to require electric utilities to produce more power from renewable sources such as wind and biomass. The proposal is strongly opposed by the utility industry's biggest trade group, the Edison Electric Institute, and by Atlanta-based Southern Co., a major coal burner that has made defeating the measure a priority. In a letter sent to lawmakers last week, Thomas Kuhn, the trade group's president, said the industry is "deeply concerned" by the proposal, arguing that it would discriminate against utilities in places without lots of wind or other renewable resources.

Matthew Sinclair, director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Taxpayers are paying enough for investment in extremely expensive and inefficient wind turbines here in the UK without having to finance expensive energy abroad as well."

AIM will argue in its appeal that approval of the National Grid/Cape Wind deal by the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) was "arbitrary, capricious," an "abuse of discretion and not otherwise in accordance with the law." AIM believes the agreement sets a dangerous precedent for allowing utilities to negotiate expensive power agreements outside of the competitive bidding process and to allocate the costs of those contracts unfairly to commercial and industrial customers.

WHILE a stick-figure army of windmills is set to invade the landscape thanks to the State Government's new renewable energy policy, there is growing evidence that wind power will have little impact on the greenhouse crisis.

How much money wind projects blow into local communities is still up in the air - and it could be changing as the state Senate and Assembly work on Article X, a bill to regulate energy production in New York. State Sen. George Winner, R-Elmira, is part of the conference committee comprised of Senate and Assembly members to come up with a joint bill. He said the two bodies are "very far apart" in terms of coming to terms on a joint offering. The bulk of the bills deal with natural gas and clean air standards, but wind energy could be impacted as well.

Alberta will lift a cap on the amount of wind-generated electricity on the provincial grid, a move aimed at kick-starting about C$6.6 billion of planned projects, industry officials the western Canadian province said on Wednesday. Scrapping the limit of 900 megawatts will help the booming province achieve a long-term goal of boosting wind-power's percentage of generation to 10 percent to 15 percent from the year-end 2007 estimate of 4 percent, Energy Minister Mel Knight told reporters.

The Alberta Utilities Commission's approval Tuesday of the proposed Montana Alberta Tie Ltd. line was the final Canadian permit needed for the 240-kV AC line, which would interconnect electricity markets and carry 300 MW north and south. The commission said the proposed line satisfied its conditions, including a process for negotiating disputes with landowners. ...Wind farm developers in Alberta and Montana have fully subscribed the line for marketing power both north and south.

Billions of dollars in upgrades to Alberta's power transmission network will hit consumers in the pocketbook. The province's electrical operator says the average consumer will see power bills go up by $8 a month to pay for the first phase of projects, which have an estimated price tag of $8.1 billion.

CALGARY - The Stelmach government foresees nearly doubling the amount of wind-power generation allowed in Alberta, says Energy Minister Mel Knight, even as the province remains the only jurisdiction in Canada to cap the production of wind energy. Industry groups are demanding the province go further than raising the amount of production permitted and remove the cap.

Wind power advocates are unhappy with the Alberta government for suggesting that the current cap on wind energy in the province might be raised, rather than eliminated completely. Last year the province's energy operator set a "threshold" of 900 megawatts for wind power production, because of concerns that amounts above that level could destabilize the power grid. As wind is intermittent and requires backup, anything above that level could be a problem, the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) said. About 500 MW of wind power is generated in the province already, and many more projects in the planning stages would push past the 900 MW mark.

The First Minister told MSPs last month around 18,000 people were employed in the renewables industry but even the trade body that represents wind farm companies put the total at around 11,000. ...Opposition parties said the First Minister had "shamed his office" and "lies instinctively", questioning how voters could trust him to run a separate Scotland.

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today told the American Enterprise Institute that he "challenges ... the idea that deliberately raising energy prices will somehow be good for job growth and the economy" ...instead of a clean energy policy or even a clean, renewable energy policy, what we have in practice is a national windmill policy."

Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander warned today that utility bills could jump dramatically in the state and its mountains might be threatened if a proposal to require every state to generate a certain amount of wind power is included in an energy bill being considered by the Senate.

“Over the next 10 years, the wind production tax credit will cost the American taxpayers more than $26 billion….In fact, the tax breaks for the five big oil companies we have been debating on the Senate floor this week actually cost less than this one tax credit for Big Wind. The tax breaks for the five big oil companies amount to about $21 billion over 10 years.”

Allco Renewable Energy Group made official its plans to develop up to four offshore wind projects in Rhode Island at sites including two south of Little Compton. Although it filed preliminary applications with the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council on Nov. 21, the firm did not publicly announce its intentions until Monday, Nov. 26. ...Four of the permit applications submitted to the CRMC request permission to place meteorological masts in four of the offshore districts identified in the governor's wind siting study. The masts would analyze winds strengths for at least a year and a half before. The other four permit applications submitted relate to the actual building of wind projects in each of those areas.

Four windmills may line a portion of the horizon near the Allegheny and Stonycreek townships border by the end of 2009. At their meeting on Monday, township supervisors said that Airtricity Inc., of Connecticut, plans to construct a farm of between 20 and 30 windmills in Allegheny, Stonycreek and Shade townships. During the meeting, the supervisors reviewed a sketch plan of part of the farm drawn by Musser Engineering Inc., of Central City. The four windmills planned in Allegheny Township are to be built on property owned by the New Baltimore Sportsman's Club.

In a bid to block two large wind energy projects on the South Texas coast, an alliance of environmental groups and landowners is taking aim at the high-voltage transmission line required for the project. The wind farms represent a $1 billion investment in a remote corner of the Kenedy Ranch.

In a letter to Governor-elect Deval Patrick, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound has outlined a five-point energy plan for the state. The first of those five points is the selection of an alternative site for Cape Wind Associates’ proposal to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound.