It wasn't her place to speak, but Tignish resident Mary Rae Lambert managed a one-word response Tuesday when Tignish Municipal Council voted against allowing wind turbines in the community. "Hallelujah," Lambert gasped before showering the council with applause. They voted 5-0 against a proposed official plan amendment to allow windmills in Tignish. It was Lambert who was most vocal against windmills during a public meeting two weeks ago.

The answer is blowing in the wind, at least for the provincial government. Local residents aren't so sure, if a meeting held last week in Walkerton is any indication. And now they're getting backing from MPP Bill Murdoch, who announced he plans to ask for a moratorium on wind turbines until health impacts are looked at. The province's Green Energy Act, passed on May 14 of this year, streamlines the approval process for wind turbine projects. The provincial government is committed to eliminating its coal operated electrical generating plants, and promoting green energy projects is a key part of the plan to make that happen.

The province has turned down a request by Entegrity Wind Systems for an additional $350,000 loan. Jim Heath, the U.S. president of Entegrity, wanted the loan from P.E.I. Business Development so he could pay his employees the thousands of dollars they're owed in back pay. The troubled wind turbine company already owes P.E.I. taxpayers $370,000. The information came to light during a Supreme Court hearing Friday in Charlottetown.

Some independent energy producers in Nova Scotia were cheering Friday after the Dexter government announced a delay of the province's green energy plan that threatened them and Nova Scotia Power with potential fines. ...The change adds a year to the deadline that required Nova Scotia Power to obtain five per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by Dec. 31, 2010. The utility now has until Dec. 31, 2011, to meet that target.

MPP Leona Dombrowsky already knew opposition was growing to industrial wind turbines in Prince Edward County. But as she gazed upon the packed, standing-room-only community centre in Picton last week, the scene likely reinforced how difficult wind energy will be to sell in this community- particularly to those who earn their livelihood from the natural beauty of the rural, island landscape. Certainly since Wolfe Island has been transformed by 86 40-storey turbines, there has been a spike of concern in this community about the impact a similar alteration of the landscape might have on the health and prosperity of County residents.

Energy Farming Ontario has blown into the City of Kawartha Lakes to trumpet wind farms, but the lack of details of the proposal has frustrated residents and the fact that the company has been quiet about itself. "They were very vague last night," Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Rick Johnson told The Lindsay Post regarding Energy Farming's answers at a public town hall held by Ward 16 Coun. Dave Marsh on Sept. 28.

Two Calgary, Alberta-based companies, TransAlta and Canadian Hydro Developers, appear to have made amends with a sweetened deal. The companies jointly said today they have entered into a definitive pre-acquisition agreement. TransAlta plans to amend its existing share offer to acquire all the issued and outstanding common shares of Canadian Hydro for C$5.25 per share in cash, for a total value of C$1.6 billion.

With the very audible rapid whirring of two ceiling fans overhead a constant reminder of the issue, about 500 people jammed into the centre to learn more about proposed industrial wind turbines in the area. Ward 16 Coun. David Marsh told the audience he was holding the town hall meeting as a means to get clarification from the private company Energy Farming Ontario about its intention to build up to 30 of the turbines. He also raised concern that the provincial government's new Green Energy Act ...removes residents' and the city's right to appeal the towers going in to their neighbourhoods.

Neither of the companies that announced the transfer of development rights for a massive wind farm on Lake Erie owns those rights, Ontario authorities told The Associated Press on Thursday. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources disputed accounts offered the day before by a U.S. company, which said it had acquired and was selling the rights to operate giant wind turbines on the Canadian half of Lake Erie, and a Canadian company that said it was buying those rights.

Opinions varied as much as the wind during a special council meeting on industrial wind turbines at the Prince Edward Community Centre Tuesday evening. Nearly 300 crowded the hall, with more than 30 people taking the podium for 10-minute deputations. With the legislation of the Ontario Green Energy Act in May, municipalities now have little power in the decision of allowing wind turbine projects to proceed.

An information meeting came close, at times, to transforming into a witch hunt, after more than 400 people crowded into the Manvers Arena to voice concerns over a proposed wind tower project. Monday (Sept. 28) night's meeting was called by Ward 16 Coun. Dave Marsh after many area residents felt they were treated poorly and did not receive important information on the project during an open house hosted by Energy Farming Ontario in Pontypool on Aug. 27.

Entegrity Wind Systems of P.E.I. has been given another 10 days to complete its financial restructuring and avoid bankruptcy. The company faced a deadline Monday, but all parties involved in the proceedings — shareholders and creditors — agreed in P.E.I. Supreme Court to the extension Monday.

Ontarians need to know exactly how provincial government contracts for wind-generated electricity will impact their hydro bills, Tory energy critic John Yakabuski says. "I think we need full disclosure on these contracts when they're signed with wind developers," he said yesterday.

More than 100 people packed both Leamington and Kingsville council chambers Monday night as the councils asked for a full environmental assessment on a proposed wind farm in Lake Erie. "There's a lack of detail," said Leamington Coun. Rick Atkin. "No management plan? I was just blown away by that," he said.

Giant conglomerate Samsung is apparently pondering a wind farm comprising 200 turbines on the north shore of Lake Erie but the Ontario government would only confirm Sunday that talks with the Korean-based company are in advanced stages. The proposed wind farm, part of Samsung's new push into renewable energy, would stretch about 25 kilometres from Port Maitland toward Nanticoke, an area considered to have excellent wind potential.

Ontario released the much-anticipated regulations for its new Green Energy Act Thursday, including minimum setback distances for windmills from roads and houses. Under the new rules, turbines in an industrial wind farm must be built at least 550 metres from the nearest home. That's a problem for the first wind farm planned for Niagara, said Tom Rankin, who has partnered with Niagara Region to build five turbines in Wainfleet capable of churning out 10 megawatts of electricity.

Manitoba's new wind farm -- Canada's biggest -- is facing more delays because its original financial backer is broke, and national wind advocates say the recession has cramped the booming wind industry. Babcock & Brown, the Australian investment firm that was financing the new wind farm, is being liquidated by creditors and has sold off its North American wind power division, including Manitoba's project, to an American investment firm.

The operators of New Brunswick's first commercial wind farm have diverted parts of a wind turbine destined for Alberta to New Brunswick in order to repair a unit that caught fire last month. A new nacelle, which holds the wind turbine's power generation components, was expected to arrive in the province Saturday, while three new 45-metre-long blades were due to arrive at the Kent Hills wind farm today.

The 20-metre long steel entrance and base section of the tower, which has crossed the Canada/US border, is a part of the 65-metre wind turbine slated for the top of Grouse Mountain. ..."We have the last piece of the puzzle that will make this engineering marvel a reality commencing with the placement of this important section," project manager Julia Kossowski stated in a press release.

Wary of what a wind turbine farm might do to rural parts of Northumberland, a group of citizens has come together to hold a public meeting of its own. The Alliance for the Protection of the Northumberland Hills was formed shortly after Energy Farm Ontario held an open house in late-July about its ongoing study of rural properties near Grafton as a possible location to construct up to 20 wind turbines.