"The greatest hurdle we have in the wind business is getting people to be able to be comfortable with it," says Randy Male, a senior wind developer at Citizens Wind who heads up the company's East Coast development activities. ...If the people of Waitsfield don't want the turbines, Male says, then Citizens Wind doesn't want Waitsfield.

Maine shouldn't expect lower-cost, Canadian hydroelectricity to flow through the state via new transmission lines in the near future, a top Hydro-Quebec executive said here Thursday. One of the world's largest producers of hydro power, Hydro-Quebec plans to concentrate first on expanding its exports to New England with a line through New Hampshire, according to Christian Brosseau, president of subsidiary HQ Energy Services US.

A man was seriously injured after the stream roller he was operating went over an embankment and rolled over, trapping him inside. ...Officials said they were unable to fly him to the hospital because of the weather. He was taken by ambulance instead.

MANCHESTER — Three proposed articles dealing with wind energy have been consolidated for March Town Meeting.

After more than an hour of discussion at Tuesday's meeting, the Select Board voted to take no position on a proposal to extend by two years the life of a wind measurement tower on Little Equinox. ...Select Board member Michael Kilburn moved that the Select Board take no position because during a vote taken on Town Meeting Day in 2006, the board was directed to oppose a proposal from Endless Energy to build five 390-foot high wind turbines to produce electricity commercially.

MANCHESTER — Three separate articles asking for voter input on wind power may appear on Manchester's warning for the March town meeting.

MANCHESTER — A proposal to place wind turbines atop Mount Equinox still has a way to go before winning over local skeptics.

MANCHESTER The town voted to oppose a proposed wind farm on Little Equinox and authorized the Select Board to spend up to $150,000 to do it during Town Meeting on Saturday.

MANCHESTER — Voters will be asked today if the town should take a position on a proposal to build five 130-foot wind turbines on Little Equinox. What that position will be and how much it could cost may still be up in the air.

Selectmen have planned a special town meeting for Nov. 8 at the request of the planning board for residents to vote on two zoning ordinances on wind energy facilities. One of the ordinances would prohibit wind energy facilities to be built in rural conservation districts, which includes Tuttle Hill.

Using a $100,000 grant from the Clean Energy Development Fund, the Agency of Natural Resources has embarked on a year and half project to identify those parts of the state that are suitable and not suitable for wind energy projects.

There's more to determining the value of wind power than knowing which way the wind blows -- or even how hard. MIT researchers studying winds off the Northeast coast have found that estimating the potential environmental benefits from wind and other renewables requires a detailed understanding of the dynamics of both renewable resources and conventional power generation. Data show that wind-energy facilities would generate far more electricity in winter, because that's when winds are strongest. But the need for electricity is greatest in summer, when air conditioners are going full blast.

Sen. Hartwell believes that the criteria under Act 250 must be put into the siting process, and towns need to have more say. Hartwell says the current "quasi-judicial" process by which PSB operates is broken, and as he bluntly states, is undemocratic. "The people don't get a chance to participate, It's too expensive to participate, and it really has knocked a lot of people [and towns] out of meaningful participation.

MONTPELIER -- A proposal championed by lawmakers from the Northeast Kingdom to place a moratorium on any industrial windmill developments on the state's ridgelines failed by a wide margin in the House on Friday.

With more than $2 million in mechanic's liens filed in New York against its parent company, a company interested in developing a wind park in Coos County has state officials asking more questions. Peter Roth, in his role as an advocate for the public's interest, has asked to recall for questioning Granite Reliable Power's chief financial officer, Christopher Lowe, for additional cross-examination.

Just as the controversy on wind turbines in Derby was simmering down, a new proposal for a turbine has re-ignited the debate, but at a smaller scale. The Derby Planning Commission heard from a group of residents and a wind developer Monday who brought up many of the same arguments.

The wind turbine being set up this week next to the fifth green of the Mountain View Grand golf course won't be considered a hazard for golfers on the fifth hole, but when it's put into operation later this fall, it will provide as much as half of the power needed for the hotel's needs. Crews began laying out the three sections of the 121-foot tower yesterday morning, which will be put in place over the next day or so next to the 128-foot water tower.

Noting that many in the crowd could tell "horror" stories about their experiences with permitting processes involving issues ranging from cellular towers to wind farms to smart meters, she said the success of the protest Saturday would be measured by the solutions participants came up with, not the problems.

Green Mountain Power is moving forward with plans to develop a wind farm in Lowell. The company is asking the Vermont Public Service Board for permission to measure wind in the Lowell Mountain range.

A new mysterious and deadly illness of bats has struck New England's largest bat cave, a cavern in a Dorset mountain where 23,000 bats spend the winter, a state wildlife biologist confirmed today. Scott Darling saw the signs as he approached Aeolus cave Thursday. Carcasses of the tiny creatures lay in the snow. More bats flitted around the mouth of the cave, unnatural behavior for a frigid February day. "It was as though they were running out of energy and their last effort was to go outside in search of food," Darling, a biologist with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, said today.