If you want to put up a wind turbine in Columbia you might need an environmental study, shadow analysis and simulated model of what the turbine will look like before you can legally install one. These stringent permit requirements are part a new draft ordinance that would regulate wind turbines. The ordinance was presented to the Columbia Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday night.

The rolling ridges of the countryside aren't the only pieces of Northwest Missouri real estate ripe for wind power development. With its hills and tall buildings, St. Joseph holds potential for residents or businesses interested in generating their own electricity. The problem: The city does not have a set of rules available to grant a permit for or regulate where wind turbines may go. Not yet, at least.

Land in northern Jasper County near a site once eyed for a landfill now is being evaluated as a possible wind farm location. Representatives of Iberdrola Renewables met Thursday at Carthage Memorial Hall with about 200 landowners about potential property leases. "We are looking at Jasper County and meeting with interested landowners," said Paul Copleman, communications manager with the company. "But, it's very early in the process."

It took a St. Clair County jury less than an hour last month to find Wetzel guilty on four counts of forgery for falsifying a building permit on a 120-foot wind turbine he wanted to construct at his business, which sits near Illinois Route 157 and Interstate 64. Village attorney Duane Clarke, who did not prosecute the case, said each of the forgery charges resulted when Wetzel presented a demolition permit to the police and zoning departments to make it appear he also had permission to build the structure.

COLUMBIA - The City of Columbia is looking for new ways to generate electricity. The search is part of a new plan to add a little green to the city's power. The City of Columbia wants to start working with the University of Missouri to measure wind speed so local wind energy might someday be used to power parts of the city. The City Council gave the green light to install wind measuring devices called anemometers to track wind speed in the area.

It might be worth showing up at the Columbia City Council meeting tomorrow night just to hear folks try to pronounce "anemometer." That's the device the city wants to put on top of the KOMU-TV tower south of town to measure wind speeds. City officials want to find out whether there's enough wind to generate electricity for local use. The city council is slated to vote on a resolution recommended by city staff calling for the city to pay $11,626 to the Department of Soil, Environmental and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia to install the device and record the data.

CAMBRIA, Wis. -- With empty storefronts on the main drag and corn stubble stretching for miles in the surrounding hills, this fading farm town seems like a natural stop for the ethanol express. Not to John Mueller, though. The 54-year-old stay-at-home dad has led a dogged battle to prevent a corn mill from building an ethanol plant up the hill from the village school. Concerned about air pollution, the water supply and the mill's environmental track record, Mr. Mueller and his group, Cambrians for Thoughtful Development, have blitzed the village's 800 residents with fliers, packed public meetings and set up a sophisticated Web site. The mill has fought back with its own publicity campaign and local corn farmers have taken to the streets in tractors to show support. Now, as the mill races to build the $70 million plant, the matter is headed to the federal courthouse in Madison, 40 miles southwest.

The Sierra Club and Kansas City Power & Light Co. have signed an unusual accord in which the utility agreed to offset all the greenhouse gas emissions from a new coal-fired plant by adding wind power and taking steps to conserve energy on a large scale. The Kansas City utility, which serves half a million customers in western Missouri and eastern Kansas, also pledged to cooperate with the Sierra Club on legislative and regulatory changes that would reduce the company's overall emissions of carbon dioxide by 20 percent by the year 2020. In return, the Sierra Club will end its campaign against the utility's 850-megawatt coal-fired plant under construction in Missouri.

Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative announced Nov. 22 that the Wind Capitol Group, along with John Deere, Missouri’s electric cooperatives and local landowners will take part in a Missouri wind farm project. The project farm will be in northwest Missouri, along with two other wind farms.

For the third time, Wind Capital Group, John Deere and Missouri cooperatives have announced plans to build another utility-scale wind farm. The $75 million wind farm is slated to operate in northwest Missouri by the end of 2007.

Two wind farms in northwestern Missouri are expected to generate enough electricity for up to 64,000 homes — a power source Columbia plans to tap. The wind-swept farm fields near King City don’t seem to be a likely place to find a miracle of 21st-century engineering. Cows graze behind barbed-wire fences. Ponds reflect the late-summer sky, and local history is on display at a living history festival just down the road. A mile north of town, gargantuan white cylinders and sleek, aerodynamic blades rest on the ground beside massive cranes like a collection of NASA spacecraft. The scale of Missouri’s first wind farm has to be seen to be appreciated. Just as impressive is the speed at which this project is coming together. Only three months ago, Missouri had no utility-scale wind farm. By the end of 2007, 51 wind turbines will begin pumping power into the grid of lines and towers that feeds the Midwest’s hunger for electricity.