Opponents of a planned Mineral County wind farm have appealed to the West Virginia Public Service Commission to reconsider its decision to allow the project to go forward. On Jan. 11 the PSC approved a permit allowing developer US Wind Force to move forward with its plans to build up to 23 wind turbines atop Green Mountain in Mineral County.

The Allegheny Front Alliance has appealed the West Virginia Public Service Commission's approval of the Pinnacle Wind Farm, delaying construction of the 23-turbine project atop Green Mountain. The Alliance, which represents opponents to the Pinnacle project, filed its "petition for reconsideration" late last month, submitting a 13-page appeal that raises a number of issues with the approval.

Tazewell County Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance that prevents wind farm construction on specified locations. Wind industry supporters say it's an example of how the "anti-wind agenda" is gaining steam. It's one of the latest ordinances in the country adopted by local government that prevents wind farm construction as the federal government is pushing for cleaner greener technologies.

Construction of the Beech Ridge wind farm will proceed immediately, following the approval Tuesday by a federal judge of a settlement between the project's developer and environmentalists who sought to derail the Greenbrier County venture. U.S. District Judge Roger Titus approved an agreement between Chicago-based Invenergy Wind LLC and wildlife groups to protect endangered Indiana bats.

A Maryland developer has agreed not to build 24 turbines and will abandon 31 proposed sites at a West Virginia wind farm, settling a lawsuit by environmental groups worried about potential harm to the endangered Indiana bat. Under the deal announced Wednesday, Beech Ridge Energy of Rockville will seek incidental take permits from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Tazewell County officials say they will attempt to make a decision Feb. 2 on a controversial wind turbine farm for East River Mountain. However, they aren't guaranteeing at this point that the board will be able to reach a consensus decision on the proposed ridgeline construction ordinance at the Feb. 2 meeting.

Members of the Tazewell County Board of Supervisors are considering a ridge line ordinance that would restrict the development of tall structures along certain protected ridge lines, including Burkes Garden and East River Mountain. Local aviators who use airplanes for business travel say they are concerned that the proposed wind farm could inhibit plans to create a second flight path for landing at the Mercer County Airport.

Construction on the Pinnacle Wind Project in Mineral County could begin, at the earliest, in fall 2010, but the first turbines probably won't be installed until summer 2011, according to David Friend, vice president of project developer US Wind Force. On Jan. 11, the West Virginia Public Service Commission approved a permit to allow the project.

The West Virginia Public Service Commission on Monday approved a permit to allow up to 23 wind turbines to be built atop a 3.5-mile stretch of Green Mountain in Mineral County, a few miles west of Keyser. Pinnacle Wind Force, a subsidiary of Greensburg, Pa.-based US Wind Force, filed the permit application on March 17, but the project has been in development since 2002.

The controversy surrounds the proposal from two energy companies. The proposal is to build nearly 60 windmills to along the ridgeline of East River Mountain. Some residents support the project, while others say it is not a construction it is a destruction of the ridgeline and its natural beauty.

The Public Service Commission approved plans today for a 23-turbine wind farm in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle, citing the hundreds of jobs and more than $1 million in state and county tax revenue it could generate. The decision on the Pinnacle Wind Farm at NewPage in Mineral County came on the last day of the agency's 300-day review period.

The West Virginia Public Service Commission is scheduled to issue a decision in the next few days on a wind energy developer's application to build wind turbines in Mineral County. The deadline for the decision is Monday, but it could come as soon as the end of this week, according to commission spokeswoman Sarah Robertson.

Wisconsin's business community is divided over Gov. Jim Doyle's clean energy plan that calls for increasing the use of renewable fuels and opens the door to nuclear power, with opponents saying the new mandates will weaken Wisconsin's already struggling manufacturing sector.

After several years of study, many months of local debate and nearly a year of intense review by the West Virginia Public Service Commission, the proposed Pinnacle Wind Farm is approaching the decisive "no" or "go" vote from state regulators. If approved, however, actual construction of the wind farm may be delayed beyond 2010, as the project developer negotiates with the University of Maryland.

The concept of going green took on a whole new meaning in 2009 for the region. With the Obama administration pushing new clean energy sources, the scenic beauty of East River Mountain was suddenly threatened, and the greater Bluefield region was divided by a towering controversy.

A federal district court judge in Maryland placed a huge roadblock in the path of a planned industrial wind facility in northern Greenbrier County, saying construction of the wind turbines would violate the Endangered Species Act. Judge Roger W. Titus issued an order Tuesday afternoon granting an injunction, which halts the $300 million project in its tracks.

Despite a federal judge's ruling that limits any immediate expansion of the Beech Ridge wind farm, a company official says Greenbrier County tax revenues will receive a needed boost from the project next year, as promised. Invenergy intends to honor the commitment to pay at least $400,000 in property taxes.

A Maryland federal court ruling last week put a severe crimp in an industrial-scale wind project in West Virginia. Could it do the same for smaller projects planned in western Maryland? ...Invenergy issued a statement after the Dec. 8 ruling saying it would seek such a permit, according to The New York Times. In the meantime the judge said the turbines already up could only be operated in winter, when the bats are likely to be hibernating.

West Virginia is the third-largest producer of wind power in the eastern United States, but as a judicial decision in Maryland this week shows, developing the resource isn't easy. ...Titus ordered the project halted until Beech Ridge and Invenergy, its corporate parent, obtain a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Titus also said the company cannot operate any of the project's 40 existing turbines between April 1 and Nov. 15.

a federal judge in Maryland has halted expansion of a West Virginia wind farm, saying its massive turbines would kill endangered Indiana bats. U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus ruled that Chicago-based Invenergy can complete 40 windmills it has begun to install on an Appalachian ridge in Greenbrier County. But he said the company cannot move forward on the $300 million project -- slated to have 122 turbines along a 23-mile stretch -- without a special permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.