The Tazewell County Board of Supervisors insist they aren't dragging their feet when it comes to making a decision about wind turbines. But it's starting to look like they are doing just that. The board has been studying the issue of wind turbines and the proposed ridgeline protection - or tall structure - ordinance for well over a year. The first public hearing on the original tall structure ordinance was held back in November 2008 - on the night of a significant snow storm for that matter. Now, more than a year later, the board has once again opted to delay.

Virginia officials have long discussed placing wind turbines off the coast, but the first towers in the region are likely to appear farther south - in North Carolina's Pamlico Sound. Duke Energy and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently signed a contract to install one to three turbines in the sound west of Buxton and Avon as early as next year. The turbines would be seven to 10 miles from shore. The pilot project ...could position North Carolina as a leader in developing wind energy.

The developers of a wind farm in Highland County will be required today to appear before the State Corporation Commission -- again. This time opponents claim that the wind mills, finally under construction, might be seen from the site of a Civil War skirmish. Even if the swooping blades are visible a mile or two away at Camp Allegheny, that isn't cause to halt the project. This objection has been raised before -- and addressed before.

Highland stands on the precipice of approving this state's first industrial wind utility. Special use permits have been issued. A checklist of conditions is being reviewed. The developer is pressuring our officials to give it the go-ahead for construction as early as next week. Citizens who fear the industrialization of one of Virginia's best natural resources feel exasperated because they think no one is listening and there's nothing they can do about it.

Wind turbines do make noise, as any expert will agree. Obviously the noise dissipates with distance, and I don't know at what distance they are no longer audible. The turbine blades rotate at about 200 mph (300 kph), but appear to be moving slowly because of their tremendous size. ...The turbines will affect the view of the ridgeline tremendously. ...As I have talked to people in the community, I am amazed at their misinformation and apathy. I remember the public outcry over the power line several years back. This project will dwarf the power line a thousand times over.

A good precedent for regulation of the wind energy industry in Virginia was established by the State Corporation Commission when it issued a permit for the proposed Highland New Wind project in Highland County. The review process was systematic, and the permit included precautionary conditions based on the carefully considered recommendations of natural resources agencies and conservation organizations.

“I want to hear from the public,” Anderson said. “That is what I want to hear. I represent the Bluefield area, and I need their input. I want the people in my district to know what’s going on ... Hardly no one spoke at the first public hearing, and we didn’t act on it. “ Anderson’s plea for public input is vital — and much appreciated. All too often people do not speak up about public issues until it is too late. The issue of building large windmills along the crest of East River Mountain has the potential to blow into a furious debate.

For a company that hopes to start construction on Virginia's first wind energy plant in the next few months, Highland New Wind Development appears to be dragging its heels. Recently, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation said it had not heard from the developer after requesting more information in its initial review. Last week, Virginia's Department of Historic Resources said it still awaits a view shed study, among other things, before it can offer recommendations for softening the impact of 400-foottowers on Highland County's tallest summit. In the last three months, updates from the developer to Highland's supervisors haven't yielded much new information. HNWD says it's still seeking investors, has not finalized a power purchase agreement, and cannot complete a final site plan because securing turbine equipment has become harder to do.

Oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens is being disingenuous, telling one thing to the American people and another to Congress. He has repeatedly said that no government help is needed to pursue his plan to build the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle. Yet he is lobbying hard for extension of the Production Tax Credit and National Renewable Energy Zones -- essentially a huge tax shelter for wind industry investors and expedited eminent domain for transmission corridors. The real innovation here is the well-coordinated manipulation of public perception.

The first sentence in the Washington Post article, Wind is Given 2nd Look as Energy Needs Grow, gets right to the point: the energy industry has targeted western Virginia's forested mountains for industrial wind energy development. "Wind is catching fire" said L. Preston Bryant Jr. Virginia's secretary of natural resources. "It is literally all the rage." Although the Washington Post article highlights the "conflict within the environmental community" concerning this development push, it fails to provide much in the way of details concerning the basis for the objections.

In the area of fossil fuel emissions, emotions seem to have obliterated logic. Pollution control laws have brought about necessary changes, much like that of sewage control laws. Virginia and California are the only two states that must buy electricity from other states at the present time. Therefore, when the crunch of limited supply comes, as it will, these two states will be the first to suffer. The experts looking into alternate energy sources are coming up with dismal solutions.

A company has applied to the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to build 131 wind turbines along 18 miles of ridge line between Virginia and West Virginia. The 440-foot turbines would tower above national forest land in Shenandoah, Rockingham and Hardy counties. If approved, work on the project could start as early as 2010. That, of course, is a pretty big if. As attractive as the concept is - letting wind generate electricity instead of air-polluting coal or expensive Middle Eastern oil - the wind farm proposal will almost certainly trigger a battle royal between corporate interests and valley residents.

Thus, under the guise of environmental values, public policy in Virginia is promoting renewable energy. But under a different set of environmental values, we'll find that many of those projects are undesirable. To my way of thinking, energy conservation is the most pristine environmental policy of all -- avoid consuming the electricity in the first place. Of course, our current regulatory apparatus encourages Dominion and other electric utilities to pursue renewable energy sources, whatever the cost, because they can pass on the cost to rate payers. By contrast, power companies in Virginia only undercut their market when they invest in conservation measures. We're getting what we wished for, and we may not like it.

We've said before that it's important that Highland do this soul-searching together as a community before charting its course. The initial signal has been that the development is worth the cost. But we do worry that the big picture can get lost in what's essentially a locally focused debate. ...Wind power might seem a hopelessly inadequate measure, compared with our energy needs and it's only a drop in the bucket. But it's time we get busy trying to figure out how to fill that new bucket, because the old one has a hole in it.

Once again, the wind energy industry wants to avoid reasonable regulations to protect wildlife. (RTD 1/19/08) On their behalf, Senator Wagner, ( R Va Beach), has submitted a bill which would exclude wind factories with less than 50 megawatt capacity from any state regulations. For six years, I have watched this fledgling Virginia industry at every avenue, seek to avoid the issue of wildlife protection. ...We taxpayers have a right to demand that these developers be responsible, and especially that our subsidies to the wind industry not be used to the detriment of our wildlife.

Partly because of this experience, I am a strong advocate of wind power. But the letter from Richard White ("Windmills won't destroy mountaintops," Nov. 30) advocating 40,000 wind turbines along the Appalachian Mountains is so absurd that it has caused me to write in response to the nonsense proposed by local fans (pun intended) of wind power.

Alexander Skirpan, the hearing examiner, made several recommendations most will appreciate, including requiring mitigation and monitoring throughout the life of the project as needed. ...But most still retain hope the project will never come to fruition. Hurdles remain. Investors will be wary of HNWD's decision to ignore strong advice about getting a habitat conservation plan and incidental take permit for endangered species. There are still lawyers waiting in the wings for the first time one of those raptors is found dead at the foot of a wind tower. Without taking the best steps to mitigate its own financial outlook, HNWD may not be able to get backing it needs.

Bats serve important ecological functions that keep natural systems in balance, especially insect control. Their diminishment could impact humans in ways ranging from decreased crop yields and increased use of pesticides to greater incidence of insect-borne diseases. There is a risk that the public will accept wind energy as an easy solution to global warming without understanding the necessity of monitoring and mitigation requirements. It is important for the public to recognize that while the proposed development could produce up to 39 megawatts of power under ideal conditions, eastern turbines average less than a third of that amount over the course a year, and much less than a third during the summer when electricity demand is highest.

The evidence is clear. At this juncture in the debate on whether to build industrial wind utilities in the Allegheny Mountains, there is one point on which nearly all experts agree: No one knows enough about the effects these 400-foot towers could have on our unique and sensitive environment and we should do everything possible to find out more before any more are erected.

If past experience is suggestive of the future, it’s very likely the State Corporation Commission will support Highland New Wind Development’s proposal to open Highland County up to the business and consequences of industrial wind power. SCC commissioners will be acting under the cover of the recommendation of their hearing officer based on the narrowest examination of the law and the facts. It would be premature, however, to lose hope that justice will not yet prevail. Commissioners are acutely aware of the importance of this decision as the first wind utility proposed in Virginia. They must also be aware that local governments in other mountainous areas of the state where wind plants have been proposed are balking at the prospect. They will not want to be seen as acting like a rubber stamp. And if they do, there remains the Virginia Supreme Court as a hedge against what will prove a terrible mistake in years to come. Those justices will be hard pressed to ignore the manner in which Highland’s supervisors circumvented the county’s planning process in order to impose their will over the objections of the great majority of their constituents.