Dozens of community activists, public officials and environmentalists Thursday criticized a plan that sets the stage for the federal government to overrule state decisions on new power lines. At the same time, several elected officials and business leaders supported giving the federal government power to solve Southern California's electricity problems if the state fails to adequately address the challenge of keeping lights and air conditioners on.

A wind project that would add dozens of 327-foot turbines in and around Palm Springs moved forward Wednesday when the county approved turbines on one of the project's three parcels. The Riverside County Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve the Dillon Wind project with its associated variances for unincorporated county land north of Palm Springs and west of Desert Hot Springs.

A federal agency is proposing to open up thousands of acres of McCain Valley for wind turbines, a prospect troubling environmentalists who say the pristine desert in San Diego County's backcountry should remain undisturbed. The federal Bureau of Land Management included the proposal in a draft resource management plan covering more than 103,000 acres in eastern San Diego County from Boulevard to Julian. The agency is accepting comments on the draft plan until May 31.

Erasmo Nunez spent Mother's Day close to his mom, Esperanza. But instead of a quiet dinner, the two protested Sunday night against windmills proposed near their Indian Avenue homes. "This is about the windmills," Esperanza Nunez said. "We're completely against them," her son added.

PALM SPRINGS - Out here in the desert two hours east of Los Angeles, the weather is so blustery that NASA once declared the San Gorgonio Pass "one of the windiest spots in North America." No wonder it's also the birthplace of many of the world's first power-producing windmills. Today, 3,000 of the so-called wind turbines have sprouted up from the desert floor and lined many of the mountain ridges along the freeway that ushers the rich and the famous into the legendary California oasis, Palm Springs. The sprawling wind farm generates enough electricity to light up a city the size of San Francisco. But there's trouble on the horizon. A plan to erect even more windmills is meeting with vocal opposition here.

Residents of Whitewater, North Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs are planning a protest march against the proposed windmills this coming Sunday evening at 6 p.m. at the corner of Thomas Avenue and Indian Avenue in North Palm Springs. "The locals who have everything to lose will be there," said Chuck Wolf, resident of the affected areas where Dillon Wind plans to construct windmills almost 400 feet tall. "And now they must march to protect the life savings they've shed sweat and tears to."

The Altamont windmills spin fast this time of year. So, too, spin the minds of scientists charged with weighing the pros and cons of wind energy. A congressionally mandated study released last week says that as more states attempt to harness the wind, government should control more closely where windmills are allowed to sprout - perhaps saving birds and bats from being chopped up by blades as big as airplane wings.

Among the rolling grassy slopes of the Montezuma Hills, statuesque wind turbines loom over wheat fields, cattle and sheep. The approximately 700 turbines, each with three blades atop 400-foot towers, whirl amid the Delta breezes. Thus, a couple thousand blades lumbering through circles of air 200 feet in diameter, are hard to miss. Especially on radar. That detail has Travis Air Force Base officials doing a double take at plans to expand the wind farm, which chews up the air east of the base. Air Force officials say a proposed plan to install more than 100 additonal turbines in the Montezuma Hills could cause problems with future aircraft-control radar at Travis. And they know this because the turbines already whirling away are causing problems.

Ducks in the Dakotas, tanagers in Texas and grosbeaks along the Gulf of Mexico could all be hit by the rapid growth of wind power unless the renewable electricity farms are carefully sited, experts said. "The first three rules of avoiding impacts with wind turbines are always going to be location, location, location," Mike Daulton, a spokesman with the National Audubon Society, said in a telephone interview. Clean-energy wind farms are cropping up rapidly in the United States on rising concerns about greenhouse gas carbon dioxide emissions and flat output of natural gas, which fires most of the power plants built since the 1990s. U.S. wind power is expected to increase by 26 percent in installed generation this year, after similar growth last year. A study by the National Academy of Sciences released late this week found that wind energy could reduce the energy sector's carbon dioxide emissions by 4.5 percent by 2020. But federal and state governments should take environmental impacts of wind energy more seriously as part of the planning, locating and regulating turbines, it said.

Wind turbines flourishing in California's Altamont and Tehachapi passes need tighter federal regulation, environmentalists told lawmakers Tuesday. Wind energy officials disagree. Thus the battle is joined, at a politically sensitive time. With tax credits up in the air and a long-awaited study arriving on how wind turbines kill birds and bats, strong opinions are blowing across Capitol Hill. As often happens, the central policy question pits rules against recommendations.

A new federal proposal to help electricity flow more freely could help the energy-choked East Coast. But it could also infuriate landowners, who have traditionally gotten their way in fights against utilities in Delaware. U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman last week named Delaware as part of his proposed eastern National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor. It would run from New York to Virginia, and west to Ohio. A second corridor would run through California, Arizona and Nevada.

Alameda County supervisors approved a one-year monitoring system that would study the impacts of the Altamont Pass windmills on scores of birds, including golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, burrowing owls and other protected species. The $1.4 million price tag for the deal caused concern among the supervisors, who are afraid the cost of the study has spiraled out of control, but saying the study was necessary, they approved it unanimously Tuesday.

California and the city of Los Angeles have set an ambitious goal for ‘greener' power: obtain 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2010. But to do that difficult decisions need to be made. Wind, solar, and geothermal electric power produced in the rural reaches of the state must be somehow be transported to faraway cities - meaning some transmission lines must cut through national forests, wildlife refuges, and other treasured land areas. Solar panels require the expanse and cloudless climes of desert areas, wind requires the funneling effect of mountain passes, and geothermal power is derived from hot or steamed water underground. But how does the city get the energy to where it's needed without spoiling the pristine environments that it's trying to preserve?

A continued rapid pace of wind power development in Texas has firmed up its claim to the title as the state with the most wind power capacity.

A 6.5-mile stretch of wind turbines proposed for the Hatchet Ridge area, about 35 miles northeast of Redding, will be discussed at a public scoping session Wednesday. Shasta County planners will host the meeting to find out what people want studied in an environmental impact report on the project, Senior Planner Bill Walker said.

California's innovative financing plan to help relatively small renewable energy firms get their power to market over high-voltage transmission lines won approval from federal regulators on Thursday. Developers of new power plants generally pay the cost for building high-voltage "trunklines" to connect their plants to utilities that deliver the power to consumers. But most renewable energy companies are smaller firms that develop wind, solar or geothermal resources in remote locations that need new lines, which they often cannot afford to build. The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave the OK for the California Independent System Operator to spread the cost of building the new lines among the utilities that receive the power.

A plan to install more than 100 additional wind turbines in the Montezuma Hills has been shelved for at least six months, and possibly longer. The proposed location of the turbines, which are similar to some 700 currently operating in the hills, is one which would pose problems to the aircraft control radar used by Travis Air Force Base.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval of a new California Independent System Operator transmission policy will make connecting renewables easier. The ISO was approved Thursday and will help states with renewable portfolio standards meet their goals, according to the American Wind Energy Association. "We recognize that Commission policy with respect to allocation of transmission interconnection costs can present a barrier to entry to renewable energy," said Joseph Kelliher, chairman of FERC. "The California Independent System Operator's proposal should make it easier for California and other states to meet their targets in various state renewable portfolio standards."

The Riverside County Planning Commission largely ignored arguments from Desert Hot Springs officials Wednesday who asked that the county stop a 45-turbine windmill project just south of the city. "I have a difficult time dealing with the opposition of the city of Desert Hot Springs when they have (planned for windmills in that area in) a general plan," planning commissioner John Porras said. "It's inconsistent." The City Council had passed a resolution and written a letter to the county in opposition to the project. The city, which hopes to annex the land, believes that if windmills are built there, the land will be useless for future development and property taxes.

A last-minute letter from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service prompted the Riverside County Planning Commission to postpone a vote Wednesday on dozens of 327-foot wind turbines proposed for land north of Palm Springs and west of Desert Hot Springs. While many property owners spoke out against the project and commissioners unanimously decided to delay the vote until May 16, most commissioners expressed support for the project.