Residents of Owls Hollow Road gathered Saturday to share their opinion on the proposed wind farm on Lookout Mountain by Austin, Texas-based Pioneer Green Energy. Their opinion was simple and to the point - not here, not now, not ever.

The bill, which also is known as he Alabama Wind Energy Conversion Systems Act of 2013, is in trouble because of a filibuster by Democrats that has locked it up past the required introduction deadline. That forces the bill to get unanimous approval before it could be introduced.

Williams' bill calls for ADEM to establish a permit application process that would have to be completed by any company wishing to build a wind energy project in Alabama. The permit would be both a construction and operation permit. Williams said he is skeptical of the project proposed for Cherokee County, officially known as the Shinbone Wind Energy Project, mainly because it would exist "in my own backyard."

A Baldwin County commissioner told representatives of a wind energy company today that he is skeptical of their project, and he has concerns it will be bad for tourism. "The risk to me is too big to take a gamble on this," said Tucker Dorsey, who is the chairman of the four-member Baldwin County Commission. Two representatives of APEX Wind Energy met with the commission to provide details and answer questions about the company's proposed wind farm.

Although the project here does not need any type of approval from the commission, a group from the commission and some Cherokee County officials visited an existing wind farm in upstate New York last week.

The county has concerns about the project, which includes the size of the turbines, the noise they will generate and if a wind farm will be a danger to migratory birds. APEX Wind's project calls for turbines that could be 520 to 590 feet tall from the tower's base to the tip of a blade at the 12 o'clock position.

The project faces a 180-day moratorium in Baldwin County that prohibits the construction of wind farms and other wind-operated facilities that can produce energy in excess of five kilowatts. The Baldwin County Commission unanimously passed the moratorium Feb. 19 due to concerns about APEX Wind Energy's potential project in the county.

Despite the recent promotion and discussions about the benefits of wind energy to the Cherokee County area, there are still many residents opposed to having wind turbines on Lookout Mountain and possible one in the Cherokee County Rock Village area.

Leesburg Mayor Ed Mackey and residents of Cherokee County came to the Cherokee County Commission meeting Monday night to protest the proposed wind project on Lookout Mountain. "There's too many red flags," Mackey said. "I, for one, would like to keep the mountain just as it is."

Leesburg Mayor Edward Mackey addressed the commission before it voted on a few routine business items. "There are just too many red flags with this," Mackey said of the project. "Why should we have them here in the first place?" His short address drew applause from the crowd, several of them standing in the back of the room with the crowd spilling out into the hallway

One of the founders of the Texas-based firm studying the feasibility of a wind farm on Lookout Mountain first cast his eye on the area over a decade ago, a company spokesman said recently.

One of the founders of the Texas-based firm studying the feasibility of a wind farm on Lookout Mountain first cast his eye on the area over a decade ago, a company spokesman said recently.

Six of the nation's 10 largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions are coal-fired power plants in the South, but year after year Southern lawmakers balk at pushing utilities toward cleaner renewable energy. Last month, Republican senators from the South provided about half the votes that defeated federal legislation to require power companies to get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Nationally, almost half the states have adopted their own renewable mandates, but only one, Texas, is in the South. Southern lawmakers -- responding to heavy lobbying from local utilities -- argue their region isn't conducive to solar or wind power like the sun-baked Southwest or the open plains of the West.

According to Friday's Nuclear Market Review (NMR), many market participants were left stunned by the recent record jump in the weekly spot uranium price. The market has increasingly diverged between those who have U3O8 and those without. Utilities with existing supply contracts "are heaving a sigh of relief," NMR editor Treva Klingbiel wrote. And those trying to find uranium in today's climate "are forced to face the reality of a seller's market," she said.

H.R. 5427 provides funding for research into a variety of alternative energy technologies, including biomass, hydrogen, solar, wind, and clean coal. It contained a $200 million reduction in earmarks compared to last year's bill..... Among other things, H.R. 5427, will provide the following: € $24.37 billion dollars for the Department of Energy, including fully funding the American Competitiveness Initiative and $2 billion for energy supply and conservation programs.

Minnkota and Square Butte also would underwrite $5 million in renewable energy development projects, including wind power projects in North Dakota and Minnesota to save energy and cut pollution further.