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.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously today to make it easier for energy firms to test for suitability for wind turbines in rural areas. ...

California increasingly is depending on solar energy to meet its commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the state's landmark 2006 global warming law. According to regulators, utilities received 30% more bids for solar power projects in 2008 than in the previous year while wind farm proposals dropped by half and "very few" geothermal tenders were filed. The fact that utilities received 24,000 megawatts' worth of renewable energy bids last year (more than enough, if built, to meet the 33% renewable energy target) speaks to the frothy state of the market.

The Lompoc Wind Farm was on the supervisors' plate this Tuesday after neighbors of the project site, George and Cheryl Bedford, and the California Department of Fish and Game filed appeals of its unanimous approval at the County Planning Commission last fall. The latter objected to the undeniable impact that the wind turbines, with their 135-foot blades approaching 200 miles per hour at the tip, would have on bird and bat populations. The former was more concerned about the desecration of viewsheds and noise pollution.

Santa Barbara County's first renewable wind-energy project, which proponents say could provide enough electricity to serve up to 50,000 homes, was given hands-down approval Tuesday by the county Board of Supervisors. The supervisors agreed that the benefits of having a wind farm southwest of Lompoc far outweighed the unavoidable environmental impacts it will bring. ..."I look at these monsters and I don't like them, but they're part of making wind energy, and I guess they're needed," said 5th District Supervisor Joe Centeno.

The proposed wind energy project is before the board because two appeals were filed - by Lompoc area residents George and Cheryl Bedford and the California Department of Fish and Game - after it was approved by the county Planning Commission in September. As it stands, the project was given the green light for a maximum of 65 wind turbines.

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.

Diana Hofman thought her frustrations with Murrieta city government would be whooshed away by her backyard wind turbine. Instead, the wind energy pioneer said she's fuming over the city's determination that the 40-foot-tall windmill is too bright. Hofman said the city told her they won't make a final inspection of the galvanized steel windmill until it loses its luster.

City officials continue to investigate and keep tabs on how a Florida power company is meeting requirements for repairing their damaged and malfunctioning windmills here. ...FPL/NER owns and operates approximately 60 wind turbines in question. It's astonishing that there is a reported 40 percent that are malfunctioning, in disrepair, or need maintenance.

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.

In March 2007, April Sall, the conservationist overseeing the Pipes Canyon Preserve in the San Bernardino County desert, got a call from an employee at the federal Bureau of Land Management. The caller wondered if Sall knew of a plan to run 85 miles of electrical transmission lines through the Morongo Basin, on the edge of Joshua Tree National Park, and through parts of the 20,000-acre private preserve northeast of Yucca Valley.

The Palm Springs Planning Commission approved about 50 windmills on Wednesday. ...The turbines would be about 3,000 feet from the Mountain Gate housing community and 2,000 feet from where College of the Desert's west valley campus is planned.

Opponents of the Sunrise Powerlink are vowing to keep on fighting despite Thursday's vote by the California Public Utilities Commission approving the big power line from Imperial County to San Diego. Groups representing consumers, environmentalists and backcountry activists say the process was unfairly tilted in favor of San Diego Gas & Electric, which proposed the line in 2005. They are weighing legal options, such as asking appeals court judges to review the decision to make sure it was done properly.

The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday cleared the way for construction of the Sunrise Powerlink, a contentious transmission line that promises to bring more reliable and renewable power from the Imperial Valley to San Diego. The 4-1 vote allows San Diego Gas & Electric Co. to move forward with the 123-mile, $1.9 billion power-line project, which could deliver enough electricity to serve 650,000 households.

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 board votes to grant more time for ongoing discussions between the parties involved. The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted 4-0 (Supervisor Joni Gray recused herself) to continue a hearing on appeals of the Lompoc Wind Energy Project to a date in February 2009.

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.