ST. LOUIS - The developers behind a commercial wind farm being built in northwest Missouri said Wednesday they are planning to build a second farm about 50 miles away.

Local members of the Sierra Club and the Southwest Missouri Citizens for Clean Energy have been working for a better permit since it was first released in the Autumn of 2004. The city’s own Power Supply Task Force recommended that any new plant that is built should be the cleanest possible, using the latest technology available. The existing permit does not meet that requirement, and CU is ignoring the recommendation in allowing construction to move forward.

While being grilled by Missouri regulators on the rising costs of planned transmission lines, Southwest Power Pool Inc.'s CEO and a senior vice president said Nov. 23 that they "don't know" why the initial cost estimates were not more rigorously examined for accuracy.

Officials pushing the bills say that energy prices soar and consumers suffer when utilities are required to allocate a certain percentage of electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar. Clean energy groups counter that lowering the bar on state renewable energy policies would stifle new investment and kill jobs.

KING CITY, Mo. - When one of northwest Missouri's leading employers decided to shutter a nearby manufacturing plant and ship 220 jobs to Mexico, the move was only the latest economic blow to a region accustomed to bad news. From a steadily dwindling population to the well-documented decline of family farms, hard times have been the norm all too often in the cluster of Missouri counties along the Nebraska and Iowa borders. Then came promises of economic salvation - or at least a step in the right direction - in the unlikely guise of a sharp-dressed St. Louis lawyer and scion of the one of the state's most prominent political families. His remedy was simple: look up to the sky. Farmers who once relied upon hogs or soybeans to make ends meet are now harvesting wind energy. By next year, more than 100 towering turbines are expected to rise above the skyline in Atchison, Gentry and Nodaway counties, generating enough electricity to power 45,000 homes across the state as part of Missouri's first set of commercial wind farms.

Landowners in Sullivan and Adair Counties stand to make a lot of money if Tradewind Energy decides to go ahead with the Shuteye Creek Wind Project and build wind turbines on their land. However, the company won't build if it doesn't win a contract with Ameren UE, and the development manager says they can't win the contract without some big tax breaks. Wednesday the Sullivan County Commission held a meeting to discuss just how many tax incentives it wants to give the company. Some elected officials were torn between bringing in the new business and giving away the tax base.