The county looks close to approving an ordinance that would allow noncommercial turbines up to 40 feet tall on most lots in the county except the mountain overlay district (which includes many hillsides) and the county's scenic corridor. That corridor is defined as anything that can be seen from five feet above the centerline of Idaho Highway 75 from Glendale Road north. For lots larger than five acres, the county's planning staff would approve the application for a turbine.

Federal biologists are still researching what effects a 185-turbine wind farm would have on the desert southwest of Rogerson. But the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is now asking for more public comment on the proposal, this time on a modification to the resource management plan that governs whether the agency can even consider allowing a wind farm in its Jarbidge Field Office. The China Mountain project would place turbines generating up to 425 megawatts in parts of a largely federal, 30,700-acre area.

Ridgeline Energy is starting from scratch. The company that has been working since 2006 to build a wind farm on 20,212 acres west of Shelley has withdrawn its permit application with Bingham County's planning and zoning department. The wind farm isn't being abandoned altogether, though. ""We will be refiling a new application,"" project manager Randy Gardner said.

It's an on-going saga still spinning with controversy. Idaho Falls business mogul and Melaleuca CEO, Frank Vandersloot, gets deeper into the Bingham County windmill debate. He's known for strongly opposing the Wolverine Canyon windfarm project east of Blackfoot on the grounds it'll ruin the area's natural beauty. Recently, one of his companies called Natural Guardian sent out a survey to people living in Bingham County to see where they stand on the issue.

On Wednesday, August 19th, a Bingham County judge released a 38-page document overturning a Planning and Zoning Committee's approval to move forward with the proposed Wolverine Canyon wind-farm. The judge cited several areas in which he felt Ridgeline Energy's application for a special use permit was filed improperly.

Mounting opposition from private landowners has prompted federal regulators to take an additional five to six months in the analysis of the Gateway West Transmission Line Project. The proposed high-voltage transmission line would span 1,150 miles from Glenrock to Melba, Idaho.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal praised in separate press releases July 16 a decision by electric utilities and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to look at alternative routes for the Gateway West transmission project proposed by PacifiCorp and Idaho Power Co. The decision came in response to mounting concerns from constituents.

A Boise wind-farm developer plans to build a number of new farms this year in southern Idaho - a sign that the winds seem to still favor Idaho's renewable-energy industry. Boise-based Exergy Development Group's last Idaho project - Fossil Gulch - was the state's first "utility-scale" wind farm when it was built near Hagerman in 2004.

After nearly two years of planning, Utah's largest electric utility announced Tuesday that crews had begun constructing a $600 million, 135-mile high-voltage transmission line from a new substation near Downey, Idaho, to an existing substation near the Salt Lake City International Airport. Rocky Mountain Power spokesman David Eskelsen told the Deseret News that work on the Populus to Terminal transmission line is under way, with the first segment in PacifiCorp's Energy Gateway transmission expansion scheduled for completion in 2010.

Imagine spending $13 thousand dollars on a windmill that's supposed to save you money, but in the long run you install it and it only ends up only saving you a few pennies. "It's just really aggravating because we were led to believe that we were going to lose $30, $40, $50 dollars off our power bill every month. It's not going to happen," says Taylor. The Taylor's bought their windmill back in October and haven't seen a change in their bill.

Now Lucas is gearing up to fight the development of wind and solar alternative energy plants in the middle of the remaining sagebrush desert habitat that is the home of species ranging from sage grouse to antelope. He's not against the technology. And he is as concerned about reducing greenhouse gases that cause climate change as the next environmentalist. ..."I think there's a chance that these big solar farms and wind farms will be obsolete almost as soon as we develop them," Lucas said. "We need to somehow get people engaged directly in producing our own energy."

Greener energy sources such as geothermal wells and sprawling wind farms are being touted as the nation's environmentally friendly answer to energy independence, but so far, alternative energy developers are finding that they face many of the same conflicts as traditional generation plants.

Rocky Mountain Power is asking landowners for their input on the route of a major transmission line proposed to run across southern Wyoming from the Casper area to the Idaho border. Representatives of the Salt Lake City-based utility told the Carbon County Commission last week that it has identified a 2-mile-wide corridor for its proposed Gateway West transmission line, which would carry 500 kilovolts of electricity.

Dave Parrish, the former Magic Valley regional supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, has challenged his demotion earlier this year following a letter he wrote to the Times-News. Meanwhile, department officials have chosen a habitat manager from north Idaho as Parrish's permanent replacement.

Supporters of a highly controversial wind farm project said Tuesday they believe they're being targeted and have now become victims of ruthless crimes over the summer. The Thompson family found nine cows -- the most they've ever seen -- shot and killed on their property. This after they got the green light to plant 66 wind turbines on about 5,000 acres of their private ranch just east of Shelley.

According to Sierra Pacific Power Co. spokesman Fay Anderson, there are several locations in Nevada being studied for wind-generated electricity projects, the farthest along outside of the Virginia Range project being in Elko County. There also are projects proposed for Lincoln, Clark and White Pine counties. ...

Fish and Game officials informed state employees on Aug. 4 that David Parrish of Jerome would no longer serve as regional supervisor for the area, which covers the eight counties in south-central Idaho. Parrish had been in the position for eight years. The decision came one month after the Times-News printed a letter Parrish wrote in response to an editorial endorsing the 185-turbine China Mountain wind farm project. After discussing the letter with Sen. Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, Idaho House Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, contacted Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter with the concern that Parrish had violated the governor's office's media policy.

David Parrish, who spent 16 years in the Magic Valley office of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, including the last eight as supervisor, has been demoted and transferred to Boise as the agency's fisheries program coordinator. ...Idaho House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, said she is concerned that the state's agencies are not given the opportunity to assess issues as experts. Rather, the rank-and-file uniformity mentioned in Warbis' e-mail indicates that the state's leading experts must now opine as politicians.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has demoted David Parrish as Magic Valley regional supervisor a month after he publicly criticized an estimated $500 million wind project south of Twin Falls. Parrish's comments prompted a high-ranking legislator to contact Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and express concern that Parrish had violated the governor's office's media policy. Fish and Game announced the demotion Monday to state employees - but did not do so publicly.

At the end of April, we told you about the Bingham County Planning and Zoning commission's approval of an application to build a wind turbine farm in the Wolverine Canyon area. Monday was the deadline for people to submit appeals to the decision. According to those that work in the Planning and Zoning office, two appeals were filed.