According to a council representative, the new law limits the height of wind towers to 500 feet (from ground to blade tip), and sets noise levels at 50 decibels. The law creates a zoning district overlay that includes the west side of NYS Route 12 to Depauville and County Route 179, and Depauville to 1,500 feet north of County Route 12 on the east side of NYS Route 12 from just south of Gunns Corners. The application fee is now $50 per MW.

The Wind Power Ethics Group and the state Department of Environmental Conservation say the town Planning Board should not have accepted a draft environmental impact statement for the St. Lawrence Wind Farm. Judy Drabicki, a Dexter attorney representing the ethics group, a citizens' organization that has opposed wind farm development, said the developer has not sufficiently identified impacts because studies listed as part of the review have not been completed, including those for wetlands.

ROCHESTER | A lawsuit has been filed against a Prattsburgh wind farm developer in state Supreme Court, extending a drawn-out battle over wind energy in the region.

A recent state Supreme Court ruling could finally lead to wind turbines being erected in the town of Prattsburgh. But opponents to a plan to have 53 energy generating wind turbines constructed along hilltops in northern Steuben County aren’t giving up the fight.

Although details are still being worked out and completion of area wind farms isn’t expected untill sometime in 2008, some local officials are looking forward to the economic benefits that these farms could bring to their towns. Rick Bronner, supervisor of the town of Stark, said that county officials are still working out the numbers for the Payment in Lieu of Taxes arrangement, but as of now the towns of Stark and Warren would both receive $97,000 a year in annual payments for the next 15 years for the 68 two megawatt towers that will be built in that area. Also, the Stark and Warren school districts both would receive $340,000 a year, and the county would receive $432,000 a year.

Supreme Court Judge Galloway has turned down the motion to dismiss and has scheduled that the action will be heard on the merits of the case.

Yesterday 6/6/07 an Evidentiary Hearing was conducted by a Department of Public Service (DPS) Law Judge in Bath. The hearing was held because Cohocton Wind Watch and Advocates for Prattsburgh, two groups advocating for the proper siting of industrial wind turbines to protect the health and safety of residents of the State of New York, had objected to the request by UPC Wind for a certificate of necessity from the PSC. Earlier a Commissioner had denied UPC's request for expedited review and ordered the hearing.

Summertime, with its heat waves, monster electric bills and crippling blackouts, may not seem like the best time for Con Ed to try to sell you on pricier power. But marketers at ConEdison Solutions, a subsidiary of the giant utility, are betting that, if they ask the right people, they'll find some willing to pay an average of $10 more a month to switch to wind power. "Despite the fact that everybody would like to pay less for their electricity, there are growing numbers of New Yorkers who are deeply passionate about the environment and want to do something about climate change," said Peter Blom, a ConEd Solutions manager.

Two wind energy developers are vying for property in the town of Arkwright, according to Chris Cannon, who has taken on the responsibility of chairing the Local Landowners’ Association organized to respond to this operation. “We’ve formed this group as a means of protecting the landowers who have been approached by Horizon Wind Energy and Noble Environmental Power development companies seeking contracts,” Cannon said.

In other town news, the board approved extending its wind farm moratorium for another six months while the Planning Board continues to work on its law. Burns said the Planning Board has obtained a number of other municipalities wind laws and is using those as a guide for developing Fremont’s law.

The complaints last year were at first sporadic to Franklin County District Attorney Derek Champagne's office in this small North Country town. Then the outcry grew. Residents were alleging undue influence was being put on local leaders to approve multi-million-dollar wind farms, with turbines 200 feet or taller, in their rural communities near the Canadian border. To Champagne's dismay, he believed some of the public officials approving the contracts were also leasing their own land to the wind developers. Champagne found as many as seven town-board members in Franklin County who allegedly had conflicts of interest. ...Champagne calls it New York's version of the "gold rush" and said it's the next Enron scandal in the making.

Two Lewis County legislators have announced potential conflicts that could keep them from voting on the county's next proposed wind farm.

Two separate wind farms proposed for Prattsburgh, Steuben County, are now being reviewed by the same local development agency.

Wind turbine plans spur interest and concern in Arkwright The controversy in Arkwright over commercial wind energy generators has been going on for at least two years.

The group includes 10 existing hydroelectric facilities that have been or will be upgraded, nine new wind facilities and two biomass facilities, the organizations say. The contract awards total approximately $295 million and will be paid out over a 10-year period as performance incentives for these facilities to produce and deliver electric energy to the state grid. According to NYSERDA and the commission, performance incentives will average approximately $15 per MWh.

The New York Independent System Operator, the North Greenbush nonprofit that operates the state's wholesale electricity market, has told federal regulators that three power plants in upstate New York may have been trying to inflate profits by making artificially high bids. The NYISO won't publicly reveal the names of the generators -- or just how much they might have cost consumers.

More than three dozen Hamlin residents are suing the town over a new law regulating the development of wind farms. The Hamlin Preservation Group and 39 town residents filed a lawsuit Tuesday in state Supreme Court against the law, claiming it will allow electricity-generating wind turbines that will ruin Hamlin's rural nature and environment. The Hamlin Town Board unanimously approved the law at a contentious meeting April 24. One board member abstained because he had signed a lease agreement with a wind energy firm.

Forty-seven additional mechanics liens have been filed by a Michigan construction company against Noble Environmental Power. The Aristeo Construction Company filed the liens on April 17. ...The liens are in addition to 19 such documents filed Feb. 13 in connection with the Noble Wethersfield Wind Park.

HARTSVILLE - Members of the Hartsville town board have been accused of back-door politics and not notifying the public of its intentions toward wind turbine construction on Call and Hartsville hills.

General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ) announced an investment in three windparks planned by Nobel Environmental Power in New York that would expand the state's wind energy capacity by 70%, and Empire District Electric (nyse: EDE - news - people ) announced it had signed an agreement to purchase power from Horizon Wind Energy's Cloud County Wind Farm in Kansas.