The problem, Dasho said, is in the amount of energy that MISO will allow in the electrical transmission system. The 7 megawatts of wind power would put the Southwest Power Pool's system, which is tied to Associated Electric's system, over capacity by 0.3 megawatts.

The bill encourages the development and utilization of technically feasible and economical technologies, creating cleaner and more sustainable forms of energy for the residents of Missouri. It sets targets for electricity generation from renewable fuel sources and features an amendment allowing citizens to generate their own energy to offset overall energy consumption - a process called "net metering."

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.

Local voters approved a law in 2004 that requires Water and Light to devote part of its energy portfolio to renewable sources such as wind or landfill gas. The law requires that 2 percent of the city’s electricity come from renewables by 2008. Power from the wind farm should account for about 1 percent of the city’s output, a spokeswoman for the city utility said. The city should start receiving energy from Bluegrass Ridge early next year. "I’m proud of Columbia for its commitment to sustainable, renewable energy," Mayor Darwin Hindman said. "This city already has had a good record of programs dedicating to conserving energy, … but that will only go so far."

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.

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.

Lipp Properties has received a $20,537 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help pay for two wind turbines the company plans to install. Lipp Properties is an orchard and livestock farm on 18 acres just outside Edwardsville to the northeast, owner Terry Lipp said Tuesday. He bought the property in January.

MONTICELLO, Mo. — The Missouri Wind Resources Steering Committee wants to add value to one of the state's renewable resources, wind, by using the example set by another. "What we're trying to do with the wind project is create an ethanol-style property," said committee member John Wood, a Monticello farmer. "Like a farmer-owned ethanol plant, it will be a farmer-owned wind energy plant where we can control the production and selling it into the grid." The first step is matching a $100,000 federal grant with locally-raised funds — or finding 1,000 people in the Tri-States to give $100, Wood said — to study the project's feasibility. But Wood and committee members offer no promises to contributors beyond trying to determine which locations in the state can support a commercially viable wind energy facility.

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.

Renewable energy advocates are providing consumers with ways to lend their financial support to the cause. Renewable energy certificates, also called “green tags,” are being sold across the United States by several companies that produce alternative energy. Some of these companies own wind farms; others own a variety of renewable energy sources. Customers of the Boone Electric Cooperative will soon be able to purchase renewable energy certificates for electricity from the Bluegrass Ridge wind farm in northwest Missouri. The certificates come in 100 kilowatt-hour blocks, and cost $2 more per block than conventional electricity. Al Lynch, assistant manager of Boone Electric Cooperative, said most members use an average of 1,100 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month. Replacing all that electricity with wind power would cost an extra $22 per month, he said.

Rural electric board member Roger Arthur of Postville, Iowa says efficiency involves renewable energy sources, such as wind power, however he says back-ups are necessary to make it reliable. “When people throw that switch on they expect to have power,” Arthur told Brownfield from the regional meeting Tuesday, “so you have to able to do that 99.99 percent of the time that throw that switch.”

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.

Wind power, however, will not come without cost - 50 percent more at current rates. Water and Light estimates it now pays about $40 per megawatt hour for traditionally generated power. With wind power, that cost rises to about $60 per megawatt hour.

COLUMBIA, Mo. - City officials are expected to take steps this week that could eventually bring wind power energy to Columbia by 2008, the first such wind energy project in the state.

The breeziest part of Missouri is attracting more interest for companies wanting to set up wind farms.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - Atchison County's position as the state's wind farm capital is strengthening as a third company is laying plans for a wind-energy complex in northwest Missouri.

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.

Also, Ameren said it would develop at least 100 megawatts of wind power and launch a program allowing customers to support additional development of wind power and other forms of renewable energy.