A Devon council is calling on Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks to reverse a decision to allow a huge wind farm. Earlier this month Mr Wicks gave Devon Wind Power the go-ahead for a 22-turbine project at Fullabrook Down. ...Council leader Mike Harrison said the "landscape and people of North Devon have been sacrificed in the national interest". He added: "This is a classic example of the impact of centralised planning on a local community."

One of the Magic Valley's largest energy projects crossed a significant hurdle Friday with the release of a draft environmental analysis of its effects. The next step requires your help.

The visual effect of more wind turbines on an already crowded landscape could cost the proposed Motorimu wind farm 45 turbines. Motorimu Wind Farm Ltd (formerly Energreen Wind) has applied for resource consent to build a wind farm with 129 turbines. In a report to the consent hearing, due to begin next Thursday, Palmerston North City Council planner Jeff Baker recommends consent be granted for only 84 of the turbines. In a visual assessment report, landscape and resource planning consultant Clive Anstey said the wind farm as proposed would have very adverse cumulative effects.

The Umatilla Planning Commission is considering a proposal to keep wind turbines out of the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon. The "No Turbine Zone" would amend the county's plan. Proponents say it was a result of secrecy about plans for the developments.

A U.N. conference working to fix long-term rules to fight global warming beyond 2012 "as soon as possible" was split on Tuesday over whether that meant an accord should be struck in 2008, 2009 or even 2010. Industrial investors, weighing options ranging from coal-fired power plants to wind energy, are frustrated at the possibility of years of uncertainty about rules for fossil fuel emissions upon which carbon markets depend.

She claimed the UK Government and the European Union breached the UN's Aarhus Convention, under which the public must be given reliable and transparent information on environmental matters, and sufficient participation in decision-making.

Area municipalities and the Essex Region Conservation Authority should develop a regional response to the 700 offshore turbines proposed for lakes Erie and St. Clair, Kingsville council agreed Monday. "It appears to me the whole thing is stacked against municipalities and citizens," Coun. Tamara Stomp said of the new Green Energy Act.

Firestone and his research colleagues began surveying public opinion on the Cape Wind project in 2004. He quickly learned that opposition to offshore wind farms is not a classic "not in my backyard" reaction. Instead, opposition mainly to the visual impact of turbines seen from land or from boats causes a psychological reaction known as "place attachment." Basically, it is an emotional attachment to surroundings that are familiar.

Unsightly electric cables and pylons could mar some of Thornbury's historic sites if the company behind the proposed Oldbury wind farm wins its appeal. The grid connection from the wind farm to a substation in Alveston would pass through the town's cemetery, the Daggs allotments and the Mundy Playing Fields, the Gazette can reveal.

Balloon tests performed this week in Westfield gave residents their first real feel of the height of the proposed Ripley-Westfield wind farm. Babcock and Brown performed the test as part of their environmental impact study required by the state. "The balloon testing is performed in support of the visual impact assessment to be included in the DEIS," said Peter Gross of Babcock and Brown.

Scandia Wind Offshore continues to pursue support from four West Michigan lakeshore counties for the company's further investigation of wind farms on Lake Michigan. Company officials have a series of public and private meetings in West Michigan in the next month, working toward a response from each of the four counties - Muskegon, Ottawa, Oceana and Mason - by Sept. 1.

With the talk of a wind farm sprouting in Sullivan County, New York, some members of the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) have expressed concern for the visual impact they could make on the Delaware River in this section....Phil Chase, who represents the NY Town of Deerpark on the UDC, interjected that he knew of "people who receive $6,000 a year to pollute a beautiful area with minimum electricity generated." He commented that wind farms require a road connecting turbines, cutting through the land, where trespass then becomes an issue. Noise is also a factor, added Charles Wieland, the UDC delegate from the Town of Tusten.

Exxon spokesman David Gardner said the company believes the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may pose significant risk and that it has reduced greenhouse emissions at plants and refineries. "Our actions on carbon dioxide are widely misunderstood by many," he said in a telephone interview. He said cogeneration, or using waste heat and steam to produce electricity at plants, has reduced greenhouse gases by nine million metric tonnes per year. But Exxon has not set emissions limits and it does not invest in the production of wind and solar power because the company does not believe those technologies are economically viable yet, he said.

Wind Farm near Keyser is a favorable site for turbines based on wildlife considerations, according to extensive studies conducted by environmental consultants retained by the developer, US WindForce. That was the message from Monday night's meeting of the Community Advisory Panel, delivered by Jennie Henthorn of Henthron Environmental Consultants.

The two largest American Indian organizations are calling on the Obama administration to reverse its approval of a massive off shore wind energy project in Nantucket Sound, a sacred site to the Wampanoag people, and reconsider its decision before moving forward.

It seems like an idea any environmentalist would embrace: Build one of the world's largest solar power operations in the Southern California desert and surround it with plants that run on wind and underground heat. Yet San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and its potential partners face fierce opposition because the plan also calls for a 150-mile, high-voltage transmission line that would cut through pristine parkland to reach the nation's eighth-largest city. The showdown over how to get renewable energy to consumers will likely play out elsewhere around the country as well, as state regulators require electric utilities to rely less on coal and natural gas to fire their plants -- the biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S.