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.

The most sweeping reform of Scotland’s planning laws for three generations will see people given more say, and sooner, about new developments in their neighbourhoods. But the downside is they will be denied all rights to object to the biggest national projects and, on other major applications, will be denied the final appeal permitted to developers. The environmental lobby lost every vote yesterday, the day after a failed attempt to ensure at least the Scottish Executive’s National Planning Framework would be subject to an inquiry process.

A public hearing scheduled for tonight to discuss Consumers Energy's requested amendments to the Mason County Zoning Ordinance is canceled. Consumers Energy was requesting changes to wind ordinances. Dennis Marvin and Dan Bishop of Consumers Energy said the hearing was canceled after the company withdrew one of two requested amendments.

The fate of a proposed wind tower project for Roxbury will be at stake at a special town meeting this June. Several citizens pressed the selectmen to have the special town meeting as soon as possible at a selectmen's meeting on May 8. On March 27, the Concerned Citizens to Save Roxbury submitted a petition asking for a 180-day moratorium on the wind towers. The selectmen approved the petition on April 11. ...The town meeting will take place on June 17 at 6:30 p.m. at a site to be determined.

The Teresian Carmelites, a tiny religious community in Worcester, have won their lawsuit against American Tower Corp., which the monks had accused of breaching its agreement to sell them a 99-acre site in Central Massachusetts where they want to build a monastery and wind farm.

Campaigners reacted with anger yesterday after a study concluded that a swathe of moorland in Northumberland is capable of accommodating two controversial wind farm projects. npower renewables wants permission for 18 massive turbines at Middlemoor, north of Alnwick, and RidgeWind Ltd is seeking the green light for 10 at nearby Wandylaw. Each would tower 125m from base to rotor blade tip. Both applications have been strongly opposed by local campaigners who fear the North Northumberland landscape is at risk of being invaded by scores of turbines at a number of different locations. Now a landscape capacity study commissioned by the North-East Assembly has concluded that the moorland around North and South Charlton is capable of accommodating both.

Local councils in the country's 28 windiest towns are digging in their heels against a national plan that would cluster the next generation of high-efficiency wind turbines within their borders, Politiken newspaper reports. ...Facing the prospect of asking their residents to accept an average of 35 giant wind turbines, local councillors are already warning national politicians that they are preparing to put up a fight.

SOME people call them windfarms, others describe them as ‘power stations in inappropriate locations', but all agree that one alternative energy source is an issue dividing communities in Northumberland. Alastair Gilmour reports in the first of five features this week looking at the controversial windfarm issue.

The Co-operative Group, which hopes to build the wind farm on land near Langford and Biggleswade, has announced its plans for a package of community benefits, including an environmental education programme and a community trust fund. But meanwhile campaigners against the development have been distributing leaflets at school gates - warning that it could be a potential health time bomb. A couple from Enfield ...are urging people to sign an online petition asking the Government to enforce a buffer zone of at least two kilometres between industrial wind turbines and homes.

A Louisiana company plans to install the first of 50 wind turbine platforms 10 miles off Galveston Island this week, moving the project closer to its goal of becoming the first U.S. offshore wind farm. Galveston Offshore Wind, a division of Wind Energy Systems Technologies, plans to install a former oil production platform in about 50 feet of water in the coming days. At first weather-data-gathering instruments will sit on top of a tower some 300 feet above sea level, but by September the company hopes to have its first wind turbine in place.

Local environmentalists say rules changes proposed by state regulators would cut ordinary citizens out of the democratic process and leave the environment vulnerable to ill-considered development projects. They point to cases where citizen involvement has made a crucial difference in heading off developments, such as a plan to build houses on wetlands adjacent to Silver Lake in Kingston. The environmentally sensitive area ultimately became the Silver Lake Sanctuary, after residents appealed to the Department of Environmental Protection under the state's Wetlands Protection Act. The Department of Environmental Protection last month proposed changes intended to speed up environmental decisions that leave developers hanging for two years or more and imperil financing for worthwhile projects. The new rules would eliminate the right of any 10 residents of a community to appeal a DEP decision to the department's administrative law division for a hearing before an administrative law judge. But state officials say the new rules would retain essential protections.

A study released yesterday envisions a waterfront drive, bike path, marina village, housing and the opening for development of 350 acres that may be relinquished by the Navy. NEWPORT -- It is a plan that could change hundreds of acres along Narragansett Bay, transforming an area once dominated by the Navy into exclusive waterfront property open to public and private development.

Taking easterly winds in a new direction could provide South Weber and Layton residents near the mouth of Weber Canyon with an alternative energy source. That is, if zoning issues can be remedied, costs met, regulations drafted and not-in-my-backyard battles kept to a minimum. Layton Mayor Steve Curtis is interested in his city pursuing wind turbines as an alternative energy source. ...But before officials in any community turn their face to the wind in search of an alternative energy source, an expert associated with the work done on the small wind farm in Spanish Fork has some advice.

A proposal to place a meteorological tower on Antrim's Tuttle Hill to study whether the spot is ideal for wind turbines to generate electricity has ruffled some feathers. The debate in Antrim is just one example of the controversy blowing across the country over the placement of wind farms as the focus on renewable energy sources grows. Last month, the Antrim zoning board gave Antrim Wind Energy LLC permission to place a temporary 196-foot tower on privately owned property off Route 9.

The Jordanville Wind Project’s 68 proposed wind turbines, which would stand nearly 400 feet tall, could have a visual impact on southern Herkimer County and as far away as Cooperstown. A debate is emerging among residents about how the sight of the turbines would affect the beauty of the landscape, land values and tourism. Some think the impact will be small or nonexistent, while others believe there could be many downsides. People visit the Cooperstown area not just for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, other museums and tourist attractions, but also for the scenic views, said Harry Levine of a citizens’ group called Advocates for Springfield. “I think we have to be very careful how we treat this background landscape because it could have a long-term effect on tourism,” Levine said.

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.

The galvanizing force behind several community development projects stemmed from the process of creating the first comprehensive plan in 40 years, county commissioners said. The commissioners adopted a comprehensive plan Monday immediately after a final public hearing that drew little public comment..... Some of the early accomplishments generated by the plan include Somerset County wind farm regulations, the Hotel Tax Tourism Grant Program, the Somerset County Leadership Program, an education workforce initiative, the Somerset County Job Fair, the Somerset Lake Park Feasibility Study, the Quemahoning Water Supply Project and the Laurel Highlands Business Park, said Commissioner James Marker.

The wind in woodford county is causing quite a stir these days. "In a small community it's the highlight of the year," said John Krug, Woodford County Board Chairman. It all revolves around a special use permit before the Woodford County board that could allow a 40 turbine wind farm near Route 24 outside El Paso. "We're going to hear a lot of things from a lot of people, at some point the county board will be voting yes or no on the special use permit for the El Paso wind farm," said Krug. Those opposed to the El Paso wind farm say it brings up economic, quality of life and environmental issues.

A Cumbrian MP wants windfarms in the county to be abandoned. Penrith and the Border MP David Maclean says that the “government’s obsession” with turbines ahead of other forms of renewable energy is “leading to the desecration of the landscape in Cumbria”. He believes that the existing turbines only make a tiny contribution to energy needs and has laid a motion in the House of Commons calling for a switch in energy focus.