"If you are going to really displace coal, nuclear and natural gas with renewables, it simply is not going to happen because of land area needed and habitat loss needed for solar and wind and how much wind and solar you would need," he said. "I would rather see these (wind) subsidies go to individuals who want solar or wind on their own property. Honestly, I think commercial-scale wind is a scam."

General Arizona

One major hurdle for the project has been the fact that the U.S. Forest Service must approve easements for roads and utility lines, something it had denied, citing a 2005 law that disallows new encumbrances on the land.

General Arizona

He could forget the wind farm idea, ask the Forest Service to drop the wind farm project area out of the land exchange, or try to get the Forest Service to accept land into its system that already contains the giant wind turbines, roads and other encumbrances.

General Arizona

Environmentalists do not classify wind farms as having the same negative impacts on an area's natural beauty and habitat which other conventional projects would simply because they are willing to sacrifice an area's natural beauty, all the wildlife and some endangered species as well for natural renewable energy. This would be fine if wind farms were really contributing to reducing fossil fuel usage. However, nothing could be further from reality.

Impact on Views Impact on Landscape USA Arizona

For all his life, it was Fred Ruskin's dream to complete the largest land exchange in Arizona history and consolidate his family's huge northern Arizona ranch into a contiguous private parcel. Now that dream is in jeopardy because of a different dream of building a wind farm on the vast grasslands of the Yavapai Ranch.

General Arizona

The permitting process is just getting under way. In addition to the zoning change, Yavapai Wind will also need approval from the Arizona Corporation Commission, an environmental study, permission from the FAA for the towers and lighting, and more public participation meetings before the project gets the final green light.

General Arizona

The farm bureau and cattle growers sided with environmental groups, with whom they often are at loggerheads, such as the Sierra Club, as well as grass-roots activists in rural communities such as the Cascabel Working Group north of Benson and residents in Picture Rocks northwest of Tucson.

Transmission Arizona

As NextEra Energy Resources moves forward with plans for a wind farm on Perrin Ranch, a smaller renewable energy company is eyeing a second parcel of ranch land off Highway 64.

General Arizona

Arizona's rules requiring certain utilities to get 15 percent of their electricity from alternative sources, such as solar and wind, by 2025 survived a fourth legal challenge from the Goldwater Institute watchdog group Thursday.

Energy Policy Arizona

"I am against any kind of wind generation in our mountains," said Tom Thurman, District 2 supervisor. "They are gorgeous, they are pristine, there's wilderness just north of there." "[A wind farm is] going to be seen for miles and miles," he continued. "As far as I am concerned, I will fight it."

General Arizona

Supervisor Lena Fowler said there were unanswered questions about whether the project might affect bird and bat migration, and the supervisors spent some time adding clauses to give an advisory group more ability to suspend operations during migration periods, and asking questions of Arizona Game and Fish. "How can we study the natural state of a species when we've already disturbed it?" Fowler asked.

Impact on People Impact on Landscape Arizona

The Board of Supervisors approved conditional use permits for two companies to place up to four meteorological towers that will analyze wind speed, direction and other data. The companies are Invenergy Wind Development and Pacific Wind Development. Barry Weller, a member of the public, said that wind farms are a burden to communities and asked the board to please consider the issue before going further.

General Arizona

For more than nine hours, the Coconino County Planning and Zoning Commission weighed possible impacts to wildlife and scenery, renewable energy, night lighting and where to put the 62 towers (each 405 feet tall from ground to tip of blade at tallest). ...It appears likely that there will be an appeal.

General Arizona

Navajo lawmakers overturned a presidential veto of a wind energy project in Cameron hours after the override failed.

General Arizona

The Goldwater Institute took a fourth stab Tuesday at striking down rules in Arizona that force utilities to use renewable energy such as solar power. The institute's lawyer, Clint Bolick, argued in the Arizona Court of Appeals that the rules passed in 2006 by the Corporation Commission exceed the authority of those five elected officials who oversee utilities such as Arizona Public Service Co.

General Arizona

The Chevelon Alliance, headed by Tom Lahman, claims that wind generation funded by the government is set to create another "economic bubble." According to Lahman, developers build the farms for the government funds that flow to the projects. "The only reason that industrial wind farms exist today is the tax write-offs, subsidies and green mandates."

Taxes & Subsidies Arizona

Winners of the race for the Arizona Corporation Commission will help shape energy policy in the state for years to come, as the state looks to boost solar and other renewable energy sources while planning to meet future demand.

Energy Policy Arizona

Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources is asking Coconino County officials for permission to install wind-measuring towers on ranch lands north of the San Francisco Peaks, and west and southwest of Valle that span hundreds of thousands of acres.

General Arizona

Carcasses of eagles and other raptors are a common sight at wind farms across the country. According to a California Energy Commission study, over 1,000 birds of prey are killed every year by turbines at one wind farm, the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area near San Francisco. To address this problem, the Arizona Game and Fish Department recently issued guidelines for developers planning wind farms and solar facilities.

Impact on Wildlife Arizona

"There's going to be an impact [on wildlife] no matter what," Bahr said. "But the new guidelines are a good place to start discussions on what can be done in the long term." Representatives of APS and SRP, Arizona's two largest utilities providers, were unaware of the new guidelines.

Impact on Wildlife Arizona