A Schuylkill County judge on Friday rejected a Gilberton company's appeal of the Butler Township Zoning Hearing Board's rejection of its plan to build 27 windmills along the top of Ashland Mountain. In a 17-page opinion, Judge Charles M. Miller ruled Broad Mountain Development Co. LLC did not show the board erred or abused its discretion in revoking its zoning permit for the wind turbines on 1,110 acres.

During Thursday's hearing, the residents' lawyer, Ann M. Ponichtera DeNardis, defended her clients' case and their right to bring the lawsuit. She said the lease had undergone dramatic changes, officials did not act transparently, and there is clear evidence of harm, including loss of property values.

BEAR CREEK TWP. – A plan to build a 25-turbine wind park on Penobscot Mountain was stalled by township supervisors two months ago, but a county judge has put the plan back in motion.

A judge ruled late Thursday that visitors camping out on land in Lowell near where Green Mountain Power Corp. is blasting rock to make room for a 21-turbine wind project have to stay clear of the blasting, at least until another court hearing is held.

Discussions between the BRSA and the Union Beach Borough Council began in December 2008. BRSA contends that they have held proper and sufficient public hearings on the proposed project while the borough council has charged the hearings lacked adequate transparency.

The tower built by Orisol Energy U.S. Inc. is in violation of Fairfield Township zoning ordinances, ruled Lenawee County Circuit Judge Margaret M.S. Noe. She granted a motion by the township to affirm a February decision by Fairfield Township's zoning board of appeals that the tower violates zoning requirements.

Carol Overland, attorney for Goodhue Wind Truth, said the request was an attempt to intimidate members and did not fall into the narrow scope of the case. Chuck Burdick of Goodhue Wind, however, said the information would help the company determine a better layout for the project site since the opponents would likely not allow the project on their land.

Permission for the wind turbines was refused due to noise levels A decision to refuse planning permission for a Denbighshire wind farm has been overturned by a High Court judge. ...Permission was refused for several reasons, including noise levels. However, the High Court ruled the decision-making process was flawed.

Now top judge, Mr Justice Wyn Williams, has overturned the council's refusal of planning consent, on the grounds the inspector who investigated the noise impact of the site didn't give sufficient reasons for reaching the decision that sound levels generated would be unacceptable. ...He said the Inspector failed to provide adequate reasons for his conclusion that the noise impact of the proposed development was unacceptable

Legal proceedings have been postponed in a civil lawsuit challenging the Ellis County Commission's decision to approve a wind farm development southwest of Hays. According to Russell attorney Dennis Davidson, who represents the county commission, proceedings for a case management conference will continue at 3 p.m. Nov. 25. ...The process was postponed in light of a disagreement about how much evidence the plaintiffs are allowed to gather, he said.

The December agreement was passed short weeks after two pro-Ecogen board members were defeated by wide margins in their bid for re-election in November. Within days of the defeats, Ecogen had threatened to sue the town if a settlement was not reached by the year's end.

Goodhue County's wind power ordinance should not be applied to a project proposed by Goodhue Wind, a judge said Friday in her recommendation to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. Administrative Law Judge Kathleen Sheehy said that she found good cause not to apply many provisions of the county ordinance, passed last October, to Goodhue Wind's 78 megawatt, 52-turbine project.

Although the judge reiterated in his decision an earlier finding that the town's claims can only be reviewed based on the parts of the project in state waters, the move nonetheless opens up the state's decision to approve Cape Wind to further scrutiny. ...McLaughlin said the main questions in the lawsuit are whether Bowles had all the necessary facts in front of him when he made his determination and whether he applied the law correctly.

A judge dismissed a lawsuit between Sinton I.S.D. and the City of Sinton over a controversial wind turbine project Thursday, likely ending the months-long dispute that bitterly divided school officials and the city council.

Walla Walla County Superior Court Judge Donald W. Schacht denied a petition Friday for review of a Columbia County conditional use permit for construction and operation of a 90 megawatt wind farm project. Petitioners Eric and Elizabeth Thorn, Gary and Joann Grendahl and James Peterson filed the petition in the Walla Walla court May 23.

Shawn and Trisha Drennan have a reasonable fear that their health will be harmed by 12 industrial wind turbines proposed to be built within two kilometres of their home just north of Goderich, argued lawyer Julian Falconer in superior court today.

Xcel Energy (XEL), the largest utility in Colorado, is trying to settle a case with the state over allegations that it oversold wind energy credits between 2005 and 2007. An administrative law judge is looking at the $2.6 million proposed settlement, reported the Associated Press. Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission said Xcel sold more credits for wind energy generation than what it actually produced from wind farms in its Windsource program.

Citing violations of the state's open meetings and environmental laws, a state Supreme Court justice has annulled special-use permits that would have allowed private electric utility Iberdrola to erect 49 wind turbines in the towns of Stark and Warren in southern Herkimer County. Locally, wind-turbine proposals have been a divisive political issue in numerous towns in Delaware and Otsego counties, including the town of Meredith, where Democratic Councilman-elect Ron Bailey said after winning election last month, "We campaigned from the beginning on the promise to ban the big turbines." ...Iberdrola issued a statement declaring disappointment with the judge's ruling for the 136-megawatt project. ``The decision ruled against the conclusions reached by the host towns of Warren and Stark following a multi-year examination of the project that included thousands of pages of study and public input," the statement read. "These same conclusions had been confirmed by the Oneida-Herkimer County Planning Board.''

A group opposing the construction of wind turbines in Riverton and Summit townships will have its day in court following Mason County Circuit Court Judge Richard I. Cooper Thursday's ruling that Citizens Alliance for Responsible Renewable Energy (CARRE) does have standing to sue to stop Consumers Energy from constructing seven 300-foot-tall meteorological (met) towers in the area.

In his initial lawsuit, Huber said the designation of waters off Monhegan as a test site violates his constitutional rights to practice his religious stewardship of Penobscot Bay.