Twenty-eight percent said utility costs were their most difficult costs to pay, ahead of taxes, worker's compensation and other items. Only insurance, pushed up by rapidly rising health care premiums, ranked higher than electricity and gas among businesses polled.

On wind power proposals, Baldacci sidestepped taking a position on any particular project, saying only that he has proposed increasing renewable energy supply by 10 percent by 2017 and "development of wind energy facilities in Maine holds much promise." One wind project, in Mars Hill, is already under construction. State regulators are considering plans for another, the 90-megawatt Redington Wind Farm, near Sugarloaf Mountain, a project critics see as a blight on western Maine's mountain vistas. Others are being proposed.

FPL, the biggest U.S. generator of power from wind, has added 722 megawatts of wind power in the past year, and an additional 330 megawatts are under construction, Chief Executive Officer Lewis Hay, 50, said in the statement.

The final sticking point came over Grassley's insistence that the pension bill contain a package of tax cut extensions such as the research-and-development tax credit, a credit for hiring workers off welfare, and a credit to promote wind energy. Frist and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-California) wanted to use those tax credits to entice Senate Democrats to vote for their permanent estate tax cut. Grassley tried to force a showdown Thursday night, calling a public meeting of negotiators and daring House Republicans to vote to strip out the tax measures. Instead, House Republicans boycotted the meeting. Then GOP leaders effectively shut down negotiations and took the pension bill to the House floor without the tax measures, infuriating Grassley.

SACO — A windmill should be catching the breeze blowing along the Saco River this fall, converting it into electricity and, it is hoped, a small savings for taxpayers. The Saco City Council voted this week to spend up to $8,000 on a residential-sized windmill to be installed at the city's wastewater treatment plant on Front Street.

....residents in some of Ireland’s premier beauty spots are hoping to make more impact as they battle against the construction of 400ft wind turbines they claim are destroying the countryside. A group of 450 people from 11 counties met in Cashel last week to establish a national committee to campaign against wind farms, driven to action by claims that they create low- frequency noise, destroy natural habitats and interfere with television reception. A second meeting at Ahenny drew 550.

Opponents of Labor leader Kim Beazley's U-turn on uranium mining are planning to make it a central issue in the coming campaign for party presidency.

The winds that attract energy companies such as Gamesa to the Alleghenies also blow over pristine lands, causing a quiet controversy before local governments. Stan Kotala, a longtime member of the Juniata Valley Audubon Society, is raising concerns with local officials about possible construction of wind farms, with 400-foot- high structures, lights and constant noise, along the Blair County’s mountain ridges.

Research by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) shows the distribution of birds in areas picked for further offshore wind farm development.

New York State Senator James Seward has proposed a bill that would ban windmills in any town within 15 miles of Route 20, from Duanesburg to Springfield, for a three-year period.

CWLP has said that without the agreement, the Sierra Club will appeal a permit issued by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and delay the plant's construction by a year. It has estimated that cost at $137 million.

The trend is upward elsewhere, too. Utilities in 36 states offer some form of green pricing, and last year 430,000 households bought green power - up 20 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. Energy Department reported.

The federal Minister for the Environment says Australia's mandatory renewable energy targets will ensure wind farms are built, despite his decision to veto some developments to protect the orange-bellied parrot.

THE bitter fight over a proposed $220 million wind farm in Victoria has intensified with Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell accusing the state Government of deliberately misleading the public.

The roundtable is set for Aug. 14, and while it will not be held in a public forum, it will be produced by The Cape Codder for airing on local access Channel 17. Air dates will be announced in each of the newspapers. Staff coverage of the roundtable will appear in The Cape Codder's Aug. 18 issue, and in the sister publications the following week.

A WOOLGROWER fears he will be left with stressed sheep, bankruptcy and damaged birdlife if one of Victoria's biggest wind farms is built.

"The reality for us is that coal is going to need to contribute significantly to New Zealand's energy future over some years to come. The key is to increasingly find ways to burn it cleaner and more efficiently," she said.

A CAMPAIGN to protect the Quantock Hills from a rash of wind turbines has been kicked off by West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger.

VANCOUVER -- In a first for the province, British Columbia is joining other regions of the country by embracing wind-power technology as it aims to meet energy needs that are expected to soar by up to 45 per cent in the next 20 years. The move is a boost for three B.C. wind-power companies, which were among 38 independent projects -- worth $3.6-billion if they all get built -- that were awarded contracts yesterday to supply electricity to B.C. Hydro.

A vocal opponent of wind farms in Gippsland in Victoria, Senator McGauran repeated his claim that wind farm proponents were fraudulent in their extravagant claims of economic and environmental benefits.