Six California renewable energy facilities proposed by AES Corp. (AES), FPL Group Inc. (FPL), BrightSource Energy Inc. and Germany's Solar Millennium (S2M.XE) are being fast-tracked for government permits needed to start construction, a federal official said Thursday. Together, the renewable power plants would generate nearly 2,500 megawatts of electricity, and occupy more than 28,000 acres of land, said U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. ...To be eligible for federal stimulus funds renewable energy developers must begin construction by December 2010.

Fifteen years have passed since the historic California Desert Protection Act set aside millions of unspoiled acres as wilderness, elevated Joshua Tree and Death Valley to national park status and created the Mojave National Preserve. The legislation was the largest land conservation bill in the continental United States, hailed for its safekeeping of a long-ignored 6.37 million acres of landscape that counts "singing" sand dunes, volcanic cinder cones and world-class climbing boulders among its attractions. ...Now, proposals are pending for desert landfills, airports, housing developments, renewable energy projects and water harvesting, pushing a new generation to find ways to balance such pressures with the need for open space.

The dirty little secret about the windmill farm at Altamont Pass is that it slaughters thousands of birds every year while politicians turn a blind eye. Four years ago, environmental groups filed suit after the Alameda County Board of Supervisors effectively allowed the farm's several owners to keep killing birds despite evidence that the deaths could be greatly lessened.

The thousand of birds killed by the wind turbines at Altamont Pass tainted the reputation of the renewable energy source. But according to a recent report by the Ventana Wildlife Society and the Stanford Solar and Wind Energy Project, smaller wind-power projects may be able to harvest energy in some parts of Monterey County without harming the endangered California condor. "The condor is the main thing that's been holding up the development of wind-power projects in Monterey County," said John Roitz.

Texas cares little for environmental niceties. Its governor, Rick Perry, bashes the Environmental Protection Agency at every opportunity, and recently branded the climate bill that passed the House of Representatives a "legislative monstrosity." Yet the oil-and-gas state has nonetheless emerged as the nation's top producer of a commodity prized by environmentalists: wind power. Eager developers are covering its desolate western mesas with giant turbines. The world's largest wind farm began operations in Texas this month, and the state now has close to three times as much wind capacity as Iowa, the second-ranked state.

The proposed construction of massive wind and solar energy projects on public land in the California desert would hasten destruction and further fragment land that is home to 17% of state's rarest plants, botanists said Saturday. "Most of the solar and wind projects currently under review are in the wrong places," said Greg Suba, conservation program director for the California Native Plant Society.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state's governor, has supported controversial proposals by the California's energy commission to impose strict energy consumption limits on TVs with screens that are more than 40 inches wide. The commission claims that California's estimated 35 million televisions and related gadgets account for about 10 per cent of household energy consumption in the state.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a pair of renewable-energy bills late Sunday, saying that an alternative plan he is pursuing to boost the state's percentage of renewable power sold to 33% is preferable. ...Unlike the vetoed legislation, the new rules won't limit the amount of renewable power California utilities can buy from out-of-state facilities that are too far away to deliver the electricity in real time. Mr. Schwarzenegger agreed ...that restricting out-of-state renewable energy purchases would make it nearly impossible for utilities to meet the 2020 deadline.

An energy company filed a permit application Friday with San Diego County to develop a wind farm near the community of Boulevard. Iberdrola Renewables said its proposed Tule Wind Power project includes 12 wind turbines, access roads, and a 138-kV transmission line on 1,600 acres of private land near Boulevard in East San Diego County.

A Lompoc couple's attempt to impede an alternative energy project has been denied by the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. The board unanimously denied an appeal Sept. 22 that took issue with temporary meteorological towers that are part of a renewable wind-energy project southwest of Lompoc.

In Utah, state officials are fielding various combinations of energy proposals, a list that includes solar and geothermal installations and an energy storage project ...Scores of projects - some speculative, others well-funded and a few quirky - have surfaced with energy companies eager to take advantage of loan guarantees and tax breaks being promoted by President Barack Obama.

The flurry of recent renewable power decisions in Sacramento could have far-reaching - even contradictory - results. ...Renewable power advocates are still trying to assess the effects of all the things that Sacramento did and didn't do. But they see several likely results.

A possible second major wind power project for eastern Shasta County is at least a year away from being proposed, but the Southern California company behind it is building temporary towers to check wind patterns in the area. Padoma Wind Power of La Jolla doesn't have plans to build wind power towers yet but is testing the potential for such a project, said spokesman David Knox.

The announcement ended a long-running dispute between backers of renewable energy and environmentalists ...The acrimony even triggered a nasty public squabble between Robert Kennedy Jr., a senior adviser at VantagePoint Venture Partners, which raised $160 million for BrightSource, and David Myers, executive director of the Wildlands Conservancy, which raised $40 million to buy the railroad lands and protect them from development.

A business venture led by a friend and advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa outmaneuvered the city last year to buy land in Kern County that the Department of Water and Power wanted for a wind farm. The purchase of Onyx Ranch, which covers nearly 68,000 acres east of Bakersfield, highlights the dual roles played by J. Ari Swiller, an entrepreneur whose field, renewable energy, has received a significant boost from the mayor's pledge to make Los Angeles "the greenest big city in America."

California's push to supersize its renewable energy standards could drive electricity rates higher for Northwest consumers, strain the west's transmission and hydroelectric systems, and create a host of thorny policy issues. The California Assembly passed a pair of bills Friday to create the nation's most aggressive renewable energy mandate. It would require utilities to meet one third of their customers' needs with green energy such as wind, solar and geothermal by 2020.

Shell Wind Energy's proposed wind turbine project for Bear River Ridge may be moving forward. Humboldt County Community Services Director Kirk Girard is recommending at Tuesday's meeting that the supervisors authorize hiring a consultant to prepare an environmental review. The company's project proposes installing about 30 wind turbines roughly six miles south of Ferndale.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office said Saturday that he would veto legislation requiring a third of California's energy to come from renewable sources by 2020, choosing instead to mandate the change through an executive order. The Democratic bills that passed the state Legislature just before the end of the legislative session Friday would have set up the most aggressive renewable energy standards in the nation. But they also sought to limit the amount of energy from sources such as wind, solar and geothermal that could come from out-of-state.

California lawmakers approved one of the world's most aggressive renewable-energy mandates early Saturday in legislation that would require the state's utilities to use renewable sources like the sun and wind to generate a third of the power they sell by 2020. The proposal is a centerpiece of the state's 2006 plan to combat climate change, which has broad public support. And although it's more aggressive than a similar federal proposal pending in Congress, the legislation could influence decisions in Washington.

Boulevard residents are upset about a proposed electric substation despite promises by San Diego Gas & Electric Co. officials that it will provide more reliable electricity for the backcountry. A 58-acre substation to be built near Jacumba would take electricity from wind projects in East County and northern Baja California and put it onto the Southwest Powerlink, a power-transmission line that runs along the U.S.-Mexico border.