Residents - attending a public hearing on the project held by the California Public Utilities Commission - are riled over a Southern California Edison plan to enlarge and energize towers and lines that cut through the city. The entire 250-mile Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project, proposed by Edison, aims to bring green energy from wind farms in Central California to the Los Angeles Basin and is part of a state initiative toward using more sustainable energy.

A land conservancy from Oak Glen spent years amassing $45 million in private donations and negotiating the purchase of more than a half-million unspoiled acres in the California desert so it could be turned over to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for protection. Now, the BLM is considering applications for wind turbines and solar-energy arrays on thousands of those acres.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has proposed another route for its controversial Green Path North project that would bypass pristine desert land in the High Desert and closely parallel the 10 Freeway. The newly proposed route, about 80 miles in length, would run 230-kilovolt power lines westward from just below Desert Hot Springs in Riverside County to Lytle Creek. ...Environmentalists, however, still remain wary. The new route could impact about 370 properties along the 10 Freeway, 16 of which are homes.

Opponents of a wind power project planned for a ridge near Burney gathered outside of the Shasta County administration building Friday to voice their concerns about eagles that will be killed and land that will be altered by giant turbines on Hatchet Ridge. "That's our sacred land and it's going to go away," said James Hayward Sr., one of the protest's organizers and co-chair of the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites. The protest of the 103-megawatt Hatchet Ridge Wind Project drew about 100 people, many of them members of American Indian tribes, and lasted for about an hour.

Miller, who is president of Friends of Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, told the attendees that Los Angeles citizens are opposing the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's Green Path project, especially as it could be a threat to Joshua Tree National Park. One plan to foil the energy path is to legally declare Big Morongo Canyon Preserve as a protected wilderness attached to Joshua Tree National Park, where no power lines are allowed. That would disrupt the contiguous transmission towers in one Green Path North alternative proposed by the Los Angeles power company.

One of the world's leading turbine manufacturers is to make 11% of its workforce redundant as windfarm developers put on the brakes in the face of a global economic slowdown. Clipper Windpower said in a trading update that 90 staff would be laid off and production levels cut by up to a fifth but insisted that work on a giant turbine for the North Sea, which is supported by the Crown Estate, would be unaffected.

Should wind turbines hundreds of feet tall -higher than the existing Kumeyaay wind farm turbines- be allowed in the rural McCain Valley/Boulevard region in East County? Does the nation's critical need for "green" energy outweigh the concerns of residents seeking to preserve the rural character of their backcountry communities? With new industrial-scale wind farms proposed across America, East County Magazine's Gayle Early set out on a quest to explore these issues in depth for our three-part series on wind energy.

San Diego Gas & Electric Co.'s plan to build a transmission line through the backcountry has received approval from the federal Bureau of Land Management. ...Environmentalists have been vehemently against the project from the beginning. Opponents argue SDG&E could use the transmission line to import electricity generated by natural gas plants in Mexico, where environmental regulations are less stringent.

Last week, the Bureau of Land Management authorized the establishment of special offices in Wyoming and other Western states to expedite that renewable energy development on federal public lands. BLM officials said Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne issued a Secretarial Order on Friday that will allow the agency to establish coordination offices in Wyoming, Arizona, California and Nevada.

San Diego Gas & Electric Co. said it must build a $1.9 billion, 123-mile transmission line to harness solar, wind and underground heat from a distant desert. Critics question if the high-voltage power line will deliver on its promise of providing renewable power from California's Imperial Valley to the nation's eighth-largest city. They say it will blight the mountain landscape with 150-foot towers, and they emphasize that ratepayers will pick up the tab. Those views will clash Thursday when the California Public Utilities Commission meets in San Francisco to consider approving the power line.

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider an appeal of the Lompoc Wind Energy Project, a proposed wind farm of up to 65 wind turbine generators. ...Opponents, however, have raised issues about the effects of the nearly 400-foot tall turbines on views and quality of life in the area.

A Spanish-owned corporation wants to build a new wind farm in the East County with more than 100 wind turbines. Executives rolled into Boulevard recently to pitch their plan, and reaction was not too friendly. Executives from the Iberdrola Energy Company showed up with a slick Power Point presentation, colorful graphics and a few dozen chocolate bars - dark chocolate with a logo on the wrapper. All this to pitch a new wind farm project to the Boulevard Community Planning Group.

Electricity generated by a massive "wind farm" of giant windmills near Tehachapi will be carried through transmission lines to Southern California. ...But not everyone sees the rosy side of Edison's "green" project.

Lincoln County Commissioners, during their regular meeting November 10, said they were not opposed to the development of wind-generated power in the County, but would rather seek different locations than the ones being proposed. Mission Edison Group, a subsidiary of Southern California Edison, had approached the County about building wind generators on Mt. Wilson and Table Mountain, both a little north of Pioche. County Commissioners have said they do not think those locations are the best places for such large generators.

Whether San Diego Gas & Electric Co. should build a massive power line into the Imperial Valley goes to the heart of a debate that's gripping California and the country as it works to wean itself from fossil fuels. Is it better to rely on huge solar, wind and geothermal power plants far away or generate that power close to where it is needed?

If California expands its renewable power generation to be a third of electricity delivered in the state by 2020, it may cost $60 billion, the state's utility regulator said in a report issued on Thursday. It is more costly to make electricity with renewable power -- solar, wind, geothermal and other sources that emit no or low amounts of global-warming greenhouse gases -- than with natural gas, nuclear and coal power plants. ...On Tuesday, California voters overwhelmingly -- 65 percent of the vote -- rejected a statewide ballot measure that would have required 50 percent of power to be generated from renewables by 2025.

If state regulators follow through with an administrative law judge's recommendation to reject the Sunrise Powerlink, San Diego Gas & Electric Co. still has other options to get the transmission line it seeks. The California Public Utilities Commission decision may be appealed to the courts, or SDG&E could ask the federal government to override state regulators and authorize the big line. A 2005 law allows utilities and other power-line builders to go to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission if they want to build a line rejected by state authorities in areas where federal officials believe there isn't enough electric transmission.

On a day of big decisions around the country - election day - the Shasta County Board of Supervisors will be weighing approval of a 6 1/2-mile long string of wind turbines atop mountains overlooking Burney. While the Shasta County Planning Commission approved the 100-megawatt Hatchet Ridge Wind Project with a 5-0 vote on Oct. 3, a pair of appeals the following week now has the supervisors reviewing the plans. The appeal hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Two appeals have been filed against the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission's approval of the Lompoc Wind Energy project, according to county staff. Residents who live near the proposed project, George and Cheryl Bedford, and the California Department of Fish and Game appealed the Sept. 30 decision.

ACCIONA wants to build up to 65 wind turbines near Vandenberg Air Force Base. Supporters of the project said it would be an historic move to bring new forms of energy to the Central Coast. ...But opponents are not sold. The landscape around the proposed area is mostly rural agricultural land. Some want it to stay that way. "We bought here because of that beautiful view that we see," said homeowner Jane Fasold, who opposes the project. Among other concerns: birds and bats killed because of these windmills. The cattle ranch owned by Jennifer Cruz's parents sits right where the turbines would be built. Her neighbors are worried about noise and a drop in property value.