The corporate owner of one of the largest wind turbine farms in upstate New York - a 50-turbine undertaking in Cohocton, Steuben County - has been given $74.6 million in federal stimulus grants. ...First Wind has ties to the administration of President Barack Obama. A New York City hedge fund, D.E. Shaw & Co., is a major investor in First Wind ...Lawrence H. Summers, who now heads Obama's National Economic Council, was a compensated managing director at D.E. Shaw before leaving late last year.

United Wind Energy LLC, developer of the proposed Stony Point Wind Farm in Henderson, has proposed three test towers to track meteorological conditions. Two of the locations were reviewed at the Jefferson County Planning Board meeting Tuesday afternoon. ...Mr. Chase said the towers would have a one-year permit with the possibility of renewal for a second year.

NorthWind & Power Development Corp. is planning to erect "a hilltop mast," 200-feet tall, to learn if the wind velocity on hills west of this hamlet are windy enough to support a turbine farm. The test will take a year, according to Patrick Doyle, the Albany-based company's founder, to test the wind during all four seasons.

Adirondack Park Agency commissioners approved two residential wind turbines at their recent meeting: one in Essex, the other in Indian Lake. In discussion, APA commissioners considered refining their use of "substantial invisibility" as it applies to slender, residential wind turbines, which disappear to the naked eye a mile away. Commissioner Richard Booth suggested APA Tower's Policy may not be a good regulatory fit for accessory, homeowner wind turbines.

The Arkwright Town Board spoke with one voice Monday when it unanimously voted to table a Horizon Wind Energy waiver request. ...Horizon project manager Tom Stebbins explained that he had met with the Chautauqua County Parks Department in November 2008 about a situation that arose with the location of a wind turbine on the Meadows Road property. Stebbins said this involved a 30 foot difference in the town's local wind law requirement for a 1200 setback.

A petition with more than 650 signatures was submitted at the Town Board meeting Thursday asking officials to enact a one-year, townwide moratorium on wind development. The board is considering a six-month moratorium for the lakefront and riverfront districts, but took no action regarding any moratorium on wind development at a meeting.

As a public hearing approaches on the proposed Dairy Hill Wind Farm's environmental study, a group of residents is again raising concerns. Their issue isn't so much with the project's Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement, compared to the project itself. They believe the planned wind farm would be inappropriate for the area, and that the town would ultimately be short-shrifted, despite any compensation sponsor Horizon Wind Energy is promising.

A new Wind Industry Ethics Code is now in place in New York, with a total of 16 wind companies agreeing to abide by the document drawn up by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo office. The code calls for oversight through an advisory task force and "unprecedented transparency" to deter improper relationships between wind development companies and local government officials, according to a press release issued by Cuomo's office Wednesday.

New York Power Authority President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Kessel met recently with the Press-Republican Editorial Board to outline his agency's plan to "do the biggest energy project in the state since the St. Lawrence/Robert Moses power project 50 year ago." The authority would import up to 2,000 megawatts of power from multiple sources, including hydropower from Canada and renewable resources both here and in Canada.

New York's far-reaching investigation into allegations that wind developers paid local officials to approve their energy projects moved into the state of Vermont this week. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that his office issued a subpoena to Reunion Power, a wind energy developer with offices in Manchester Center and Hackensack, N.J., as part of its ongoing investigation.

The shoals off Main Duck Island, on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario, may host an offshore wind power project. Trillium Wind Power Corp., Toronto, is proposing a 142-turbine project in the shoals southwest of the island to produce up to 710 megawatts of power. "We purposefully went out on the water and chose this unique site because of its attributes," said John Kourtoff, CEO of Trillium Wind.

Sixteen companies comprising more than 90 percent of New York's wind-energy industry have signed a ethics code designed to prevent conflicts of interest between companies and municipal officials, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced today. ...there have been "significant issues about conflict of interest, etc." in the siting of turbines, and a lack of clarity with government officials on what the rules are, he said.

A decision on the Article 78 suit over wind farm proposals in Italy will not come until August. ...The case stems from EcoGen LLC's application to build 18 wind turbines in Italy. The Finger Lakes Preservation Association, an unincorporated group of local residents, named the Italy Town Board and wind developer EcoGen LLC in the Article 78 suit, which alleges that the town violated the Open Meetings Law and the state environmental review process.

The document outlines changes to the project representing a scaled-down version of what was originally proposed four years ago by Horizon Wind Energy. The new project would include 38 turbines in Perry and Covington, instead of the 60 turbines originally proposed. It would be rated to generate up to 79.8 megawatts instead of the original 120 megawatts.

Officials from northern Oswego County continue to work with representatives from Upstate NY Power Corp. in regard to placing transmission lines through the northern part of the county that would originate on Galloo Island located in the Jefferson County Town of Hounsfield. ...So far, the involved parties have been meeting via conference calls, Leemann said.

Thousand Islands High School will host a wind information session next week ...The session, called "Life in a Wind Farm," will have three speakers from the region who are living on wind farms. It is billed as an opportunity for people to learn the pros and cons of what it's like after the wind farm has been built.

Meridian Energy Ltd could have a decision from the Environment Court on its new Waitaki River power scheme before its Project Hayes wind farm. Judge Jon Jackson, with commissioners, heard both Environment Court appeals on Project Hayes on the Lammermoor Range and the north bank tunnel concept power scheme on the Waitaki River between the Waitaki dam and Stonewall.

Noble Environmental Power says tough economic times has made it necessary for the company to release a number of easement agreements between the wind energy company and local landowners. Twenty-two "releases were filed at the Franklin County Clerk's Office between April 17 and July 8.

Every day, all day, weather radar shows a small but intense thunderstorm northwest of Plattsburgh, N.Y. Further to the west, in central New York, where much of Vermont's weather comes from ...But these daily storms are not real. They're an unintended side effect of the wind farms cropping up on windy plateaus and mountains all over the nation.