A major report just released in Denmark finds negligible impacts to birds, fish and mammals from the two largest offshore wind farms in the world at Horns Rev and Nysted.
Editor's Note:Jack Coleman is a freelance writer, editor, blogger and former media adviser to the pro-wind farm Clean Power Now non-profit based in Hyannis. A link to the original report is available at the end of this article.

A study released yesterday envisions a waterfront drive, bike path, marina village, housing and the opening for development of 350 acres that may be relinquished by the Navy. NEWPORT -- It is a plan that could change hundreds of acres along Narragansett Bay, transforming an area once dominated by the Navy into exclusive waterfront property open to public and private development.

WASHINGTON - Inside the Beltway, he's made his name as a champion for tapping oil resources in his own state - and for telling the federal government to butt out.

MILAN, Italy, May. 11 (UPI) -- In order to continue its high rate of growth, the wind industry has many opponents to convert and obstacles to overcome. From siting to operation, wind project developers face a barrage of challenges. First, though regulations vary, you can't put a wind turbine within a certain distance of an area of national, historic or natural value. Also, unless residents are offered a share of the project, locals sometimes oppose them, citing aesthetic concerns.

BEAR CREEK TWP. – A zoning battle over the use of public land for a potential wind farm project broke down into arguments between those wanting to live without turbines and conserve land and those who want to turn a profit and conserve energy.

President Bush might be talking about alternative energy, but he's not giving many types of green energy sources a financial boost. Bush's $2.9 trillion budget proposal released Monday includes no funding for geothermal technology, a prominent industry in Nevada, or for hydropower research and development. Bush's proposal also trims funding for wind energy to $40 million, nearly a 10 percent drop from last year's request. The 2008 request keeps funding levels stagnant for solar energy development: $148.3 million. But some alternative energy industries are winners under the president's budget plan. Biomass, hydrogen technology and carbon sequestration at coal-fired power plants would see increases in funding.

In the wake of a closed-door Senate conference committee decision that may doom the Cape Wind project, Sen. Maria Cantwell is calling for Senate hearings to focus more attention "on the federal role in siting offshore alternative energy projects."

A key federal agency said Monday that a proposed wind farm off Cape Cod would pose no major environmental problems, giving a boost to the project that has sparked a long and bitter public fight. A draft environmental report by the Minerals Management Service said plans by developer Cape Wind Associates to build 130 windmills across 25 miles of federal waters in Nantucket Sound would have mostly 'minor' or 'negligible' effects on wildlife, ocean navigation, fishing and tourism. ...A spokesman for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the leading opposition group to the wind farm, said the report underestimated the project's environmental threats. 'We're disappointed because there are still gaps in what's been put in the report,' said Glenn Wattley in a phone interview with The Associated Press. 'Statements that there is minimal environmental impact, we think are wrong. There are very important and serious impacts.'

The controversial and long-delayed Cape Wind project - which could become the first offshore wind farm in the United States - is inching forward. The next milestone is a decision by the Interior Department about whether to issue a lease for the project (something that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar discussed during an interview with The New York Times last week). But if Cape Wind does manage to leap over all of its hurdles, the question remains: who will make the turbines?

A plan to build what could become the first large offshore wind farm in the United States would be effectively killed by a proposed amendment to a Coast Guard budget bill now making its way through Congress, people on both sides of the issue say

Even as many politicians, environmentalists and consumers want renewable energy and reduced dependence on fossil fuels, a growing number of projects are being canceled or delayed because governments are unwilling to add even small amounts to consumers' electricity bills. Deals to buy renewable power have been scuttled or slowed in states including Florida, Idaho and Kentucky as well as Virginia.

In a battle over blades and breezes, the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday tightened rules regulating home wind turbines that produce electricity.

Wildlife advocates hoping for a stronger voice in regulations concerning wind energy development on land and sea are expected to testify Wednesday at a hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee in Washington, D.C. While the Cape Wind proposal isn't specifically on the agenda, you can bet that folks on both side of the proposal will be interested in the aftermath of the hearing. At issue will be the proposed "Energy Policy Reform and Revitalization Act of 2007," filed by U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.

-A Massachusetts company has perfected a way to measure wind speed by sending a digital chirp into the sky - lowering development costs and improving power predictions to make the siting of wind farms easier. Second Wind Inc. is introducing the Triton® sonic wind profiler, a device designed to address the limitations of sodar technology for identifying wind farm locations. The product was introduced today at North America's premiere trade event for the wind energy industry, WINDPOWER 2007 in Los Angeles.

Environmental impact of fast-tracked federal project one issue

Property in Franklin, Clinton and St. Lawrence counties could be seized in the interest of national security if the land is where a federal commission says power lines should go. The initiative is meant to improve the delivery of electricity to populated areas along the Eastern Seaboard. And it is designed to prevent the kind of wide-spread, rolling blackouts and power interruptions that California experienced - situations that experts predict will start in New York and other eastern states in 2011 unless system upgrades are made. But opponents, such as the Sierra Club and historic-preservation groups, contend that state and local governments would be stripped of the power to control what occurs within their boundaries under the plan and that host communities and land owners would get little compensation.

With more people showing interest in energy efficiency -- particularly renewable energy -- wind turbines are popping up to supply electricity to homes, businesses and even communities. But unlike the options of purchasing a hybrid car or installing solar panels, wind energy is not viable for everyone.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration has given the go-ahead to three Minnesota wind power projects after concluding they don't interfere with military radar.

Roule said changes in the law now permit all types of commercial equine operations to qualify for the farmland preservation program, but commercial electrical production such as a wind farm does not qualify.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - Apple trees have been planted, wood fences restored and power lines buried in recent years to transform the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg to the way it looked when Union and Confederate forces clashed on farmers' fields in 1863. But preservationists now worry that the national military park in Pennsylvania's picturesque fruit belt soon may be in the shadow of high-powered transmission lines. It is not just Gettysburg that worries them as a result of a 2005 law that gave federal regulators new authority over where power lines are built. They fear the law could place hundreds of national and state parks and other protected sites in the Northeast and Southwest in or near the path of massive power lines.