Fed up with federal inaction and convinced of the dangers from global warming, five governors from Western states agreed Monday to work together to reduce greenhouse gases. Their promise to target global warming was the latest of a rush of new ideas shared this week as states push ahead on climate change and clean or alternative energy.

Farming the wind — a catchy phrase from the early days of wind tower projects on the Buffalo Ridge — appears to be jumping back into the mainstream of Minnesota energy talk. Recent proof was a 63-to-3 vote by the Minnesota Senate on Feb. 7 in favor of S.F. 4, known as the Renewable Energy Standard. The bill says most Minnesota utilities will be required to generate 25 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2025. That move would be even greater — and quicker — for the state’s largest electricity provider, Excel Energy Inc., which would be under orders to draw 30 percent from those sources by 2020.

More than 100 wind turbines could be built in northern Mower County if a power company constructing a meteorological tower there finds good conditions. Depending on the wind data, construction could begin in late 2008 or 2009, said Jeff Broberg, an official with the Rochester-based McGhie & Betts Environmental Services Inc., which is working with Renewable Energy Systems. RES, based in Austin, Texas, and with an office in Minneapolis, gained approval Tuesday from the Mower County Board for a conditional-use permit to build and operate a 190-foot tower in Sargeant Township for wind data.

Residents in Anoka and 10 other cities across the state could soon be looking up to the whipping blades of a wind turbine towering over their communities. The turbines are part of a project by the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (MMPA), an electricity cooperative made up of metro and outstate cities that hopes to bring wind power off large turbine farms in rural areas and into homes. While plans for the turbines are in the early stages, the project's leaders are beginning to approach the member cities to determine appropriate sites.

Up to 39 wind turbines could be spinning across Goodhue and Belle Creek townships as early as next December. Goodhue Wind, LLC. will file a permit application with the Minnesota Public Utility Commission in coming days, said Tiff Thompson, wind energy developer with Goodhue Wind. The proposed project is a large one capable of producing 78 megawatts of wind power on approximately 22 square miles of Goodhue County land. ...Thompson said officials expect 60 percent of the Goodhue Wind project to be locally owned.

The wind turbine is a symbol of an alternative to an oil-based economy. But on radar, it looks like a storm. That has raised concerns that a proliferation of wind farms could result in the appearance of severe weather where there is none, and even false weather alerts. That collision of weather and wind technology adds some new dimensions to this year's tornado season, which officially kicks off this week with Severe Weather Awareness Week.

The United States is expected to be home to an anticipated 49,000 MW of installed wind-power capacity by 2015, making it the world's largest wind-power producer, according to a recent report. Developers are expected to invest more than $65 billion between 2007 and 2015 in wind-power facilities, researchers say.

A 306-megawatt wind farm proposed for 77 acres in Brookings and Deuel counties would nearly triple the state's total production of wind energy - adding enough capacity to power 148,000 Midwestern homes. Oregon-based Iberdrola Renewables Inc. wants to build Buffalo Ridge II close to its two existing farms near White. Buffalo Ridge II would join the 54-megawatt Minn-Dakota farm that came online in April and the 55-megawatt Buffalo Ridge I, which should be completed in early 2009.

He doesn't want to stop the wind project, but he'd like the county to take more time to make a decision that could do more harm than good. Scott Riddlemoser lives about a mile from at least one of the wind turbines proposed as part of a nine-tower project in Lyon County, about seven miles south of Minnesota Highway 23, near Lyon County Road 2 by Russell. "I hate to see the county be reactive and that we don't look at everything that impacts people like me," said Riddlemoser, who owns about 10 acres with his house in the county. Lyon County's planning and zoning commission will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the county boardroom at the courthouse to discuss the conditional use permit applications for the four proposed projects. The county's existing wind energy project regulations do not very well address his specific concerns of setbacks, noise, wind wake and easements and visual impact, Riddlemoser said. County zoning administrator John Biren said the county ordinance does address setbacks, noise, wind wakes and other issues. Still, input from residents such as Riddlemoser will be considered by the planning and zoning board and the county, Biren said.

Voegeli eventually drifted back to an acronym-littered update. “We need a CUP for the PUC,” he said, meaning that the turbine needs a conditional use permit before the Public Utilities Commission, which oversees Xcel Energy, will vote on approving any agreement.

It's back to the '70s for the south metro, as a new generation of major powerlines is being proposed for rural land -- and activists and farmers begin to meet. ...The companies are seeking state approval for a cluster of major lines. Two of them -- 345-kilovolt lines with towers as high as 150 feet, one stretching 230 miles west to South Dakota and the other 150 miles southward to Wisconsin -- would cross Dakota County. No specific pathway has yet been laid down, but the general outlines of the corridors -- mostly 10 to 12 miles wide -- are clear. Points of controversy are expected to include whether the lines are needed, whether they pose health risks and how much landowners should be paid.

A new wind energy project was introduced to officials and Mower County residents Tuesday night at the Mower County Planning Commission meeting

The Afton City Council continued its wind turbine talk during a work session last month. During a Sept. 8 work session two experts in the field, Brian Ross from CR Planning and Sean Wagner from the architecture firm Meyer, Schere & Rockcastle, spoke to the council about wind turbines and turbine ordinances. “We need to hear how the community feels about this issue,” Afton City Council member Bill Palmquist said.

When it came time to start repairing a wind turbine at the ethanol plant on Oct. 15, the project had to be put on hold. ..."The blade has been cracked all summer. It's been frustrating," says Dan Moore, director of project development for Renewable Energy Solutions. When the broken blade was discovered, the turbine furthest from the ethanol plant had to be shut down. All three blades needed to be replaced, says Moore, because we couldn't find one to match the other two.

The Otter Tail County Board is scheduled hear from a property owner regarding a proposed wind farm near Parkers Prairie. ...The discussion on the wind farm, proposed by Prairie Wind Energy LLC, is scheduled to take place at 9:45 a.m. The company is proposing to build a 40-turbine wind energy project.

Johnson was among dozens of area residents seeking answers about the proposed CapX2020 project during an open house at Grandpa's Event Center in Cannon Falls. Earlier in the day, about 100 people stopped in for an open house for the project at the Oronoco Community Center. CapX2020 is a joint initiative of 11 utility companies -- including Rochester Public Utilities and Xcel Energy -- to build a $1.7 billion power line from Brookings, S.D. to La Crosse, Wis.

The Mower County Board approved a permit for a new substation to be built near Grand Meadow. The new substation will allow for more electricity to be created through the use of wind turbines.

"I was contacted [by the Minnesota Department of Commerce in 2005] about the two turbines in question," said Jim Nichols, a farmer, and wind-energy competitor to Jaunich and former Minnesota agriculture commissioner. "It's pretty easy to cheat and we don't need cheaters in this industry," Nichols said in an interview. "Those two turbines were hardly running during the period that he claimed they were and I said I would be willing to testify to that."

Denouncing a proposed $45 million Minnesota Power rate hike as "exorbitant," Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson on Friday encouraged the Duluth utility's customers to attend public hearings and make their opposition known. "Families and small business are struggling to make ends meet in the face of rising prices for energy, health care, gas, food and a troubled economy," Swanson said in a news release, which characterized the utility's proposal as unnecessary.

Concerned residents have relentlessly questioned how far wind turbines should be set back from other structures in rural Goodhue County. Commissioners learned Tuesday that addressing those concerns locally regarding two proposed wind farms could be difficult. ...[County Attorney Stephen] Betcher said state law now allows counties to step in and regulate wind farms between 5 and 25 megawatts as well with PUC's help. In doing so, commissioners could impose stricter standards - including for setbacks - than the state currently does on mid-range and larger projects.