The Town Board this week made final changes to the ordinance that regulates wind energy systems, after nearly a year of revisions. The board adopted the Wind Energy System Ordinance in late 2006 as part of the town's zoning regulations.

Kiely said that the ordinance, as proposed, would not allow his company to develop the tentatively planned project that calls for building 12 turbines in Rumford and seven in adjacent Roxbury on privately owned, leased land. That project would add about $65 million to the towns' tax value, he said.

Goodhue Wind officials say the proposed ordinance goes too far and would effectively kill their project if fully applied, while members of the anti-wind group Goodhue Wind truth living in its proposed footprint say it doesn't go far enough. "I was going to predict you guys would go with the wind developer's handbook. That turned out to be prophetic."

The Howard County Plan Commission referred the ordinance back to the Ordinance Study Committee on Tuesday and is expected to consider it again in May. Glen Boise, executive director of the Kokomo/Howard County Plan Commission, said there was considerable discussion about the language in the ordinance on a large wind system.

Included in the ordinance are provisions that would require the setback from a primary structure of a non-participating landowner's property to be 1,320 feet rather than 1,000 feet in the previous version. The provision requiring the setback distance of 1,500 feet from school property remains in the ordinance.

The Iron County Planning Commission held a lengthy discussion Thursday night with state energy program representatives, wind energy company members and retailers, engineers and concerned residents on the county's proposed wind energy ordinance changes. The Iron County Commission hopes to pass changes to the current ordinance, which was adopted February 2008, after planners have a chance to elaborate on wind energy regulations for both residential and commercial areas.

MONMOUTH - All citizens of Warren County are invited to attend a public hearing set to begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, in the boardroom at the Warren County Courthouse.

The subcommittee of the Stutsman County Zoning and Planning Commission has completed its work on a proposed zoning ordinance concerning commercial wind farms in the county. Now the debate moves on to the full zoning and planning commission ..."The two big items for the full board to make a decision on are the fees and the setbacks," said Noel Johnson, Stutsman County chief operating officer and a zoning administrator.

White County Commissioners are taking the next action in helping the county become a home for an energy wind farm as they prepare for a public meeting to review a wind ordinance. John Heimlich, president of the White County Commissioners, announced at a regular commissioners meeting on Tuesday that the draft of the ordinance is in its final stages. "An ordinance was created for the purpose of having a wind farm in White County," Heimlich said. "Without the ordinance Horizon Energy can't continue. We are bringing it to the public to get their feedback."

On Saturday, June 26, residents will meet at 9 a.m. at the Buckfield Junior-Senior High School to vote on 46 town warrant articles including a wind ordinance. The 50-page wind ordinance addresses different aspects of wind turbine farms in the town.

The Cherry Valley town board has made some changes to the town’s proposed wind ordinance, but not the ones Reunion Power was hoping to see. Town supervisor Tom Garretson said this week that he will ask the board to schedule another public hearing on the revised local law. It means there will be no vote on the ordinance during this month’s board meeting Thursday night. Last month the board reviewed nearly 250 written comments on the law, but held off voting. Now, Garretson said town attorney Lynn Green has suggested changes to the language of the law. The supervisor characterized the changes as “mostly just cleaning it up.’’

Manitoba Hydro spokesman Glenn Schneider said the St. Joseph contract has not been finalized yet, but would be for 300 megawatts of wind power, or three times the size of the St. Leon wind farm south of St. Claude. It is estimated the St. Joseph project will have about 200 wind turbines. ...He expects the process to take a couple of months as the contract details are being worked out. Schneider said the project for St. Joseph, located south of Winnipeg, met the criteria the government was looking for: to have access to the land the company is proposing; have some provable data on the wind quality; have access and proximity to some of the transmission substations, and indicate a price-range for the project.

Lisa Linowes, executive director of the group, said the failure in Wyanet is evidence that wind energy isn't as safe as its proponents claim. "This whole thing about safety worries us a lot," she said. "In the last year, there have been at least 15 cases, and those are just cases that have been reported."

A big knock is that until power-storage technology evolves, wind farms will work only when the wind blows. Wind energy proponents counter that the sites picked for wind farms are predictably gusty, though they acknowledge wind turbines will never be a complete answer to the nation's energy issues. But they say they can be a significant part of the our energy future when intelligently integrated with traditional power plants that have the ability to pick up the slack when wind doesn't deliver. There are also issues of cost.

Michigan's Thumb sprouted the first on-shore commercial wind farm last year. Are windmills over the water next? Saginaw Bay would sport the state's first offshore windmills under a plan by Steve Smiley, the self-described stepfather of wind power in Michigan.

The town's wind committee agreed to open its future meetings to the public Thursday night during its first session, which was closed to the public at the request of the town supervisor and Planning Board chairman. Four members of the public and two members of the press came to see if they would be allowed in the meeting. They were not.

Town Supervisor Thomas K. Rienbeck began the wind law committee's meeting on Thursday afternoon by clearing up some mistakes and misconceptions about the draft amendment to the zoning law. "No one was ever interested in it being in anywhere but the agricultural-residential district," he said. To that end, the committee agreed to add a setback from the riverfront and lakefront district boundaries of one and a half times the height of the turbine.

The town's wind committee finished its five-month-long consideration of a zoning law amendment for wind development by haggling over setbacks. ...Richard H. Macsherry, Tibbetts Point, said, "If this ultimately is a negotiation, I would like to see a law that is worked on by this committee, not another group. To me, the requirements for sound are more of an issue."

The Orleans Wind Committee will give the Town Council a rundown on its thoughts on flicker, setbacks and noise at a meeting Monday night. The committee, meeting Tuesday night, discussed how technical to be and what form to present its possible recommendations in. "I think they understand the issues but don't understand the technical lingo involved," member William DiTrinco said.

The town wind law committee created to produce a zoning amendment to deal with wind farms added a sound measurement protocol and changed setbacks from roads during its meeting Thursday afternoon. The sound protocol came from recommendations from the acoustical engineering firm Cavanaugh Tocci Associates, Sudbury, Mass., based on a wind development zoning law written for the Association of Towns and rules for noise studies written by Cape Vincent resident Clifford P. Schneider.