If you are too young to remember, or if this dirt has been swept too far under the rug, take a look into the hostile 1970s power-line protests in west-central Minnesota with their shootings, vandalized towers, felony arrests, and home visits by the governor to calm things down. Political parties, churches, civic organizations, and businesses in communities throughout the region got involved.

The controversy arose from the routing of a high-voltage power line through western and central Minnesota. With 659 towers placed every one-quarter mile on the property of 476 landowners, things got really hot when many perceived that the federal and state governments had more concern for wildlife areas and highway rights of way than for protecting landowners’ productive farmland.

To avoid making this very same mistake in our rush to string new power lines, we need to think “smart.” And, so there is talk about a “smart grid,” “smart power lines,” and can we assume even “smart power users.”

According to Wikipedia, today’s power grid was created in 1896, based on Nikola Tesla’s design published in 1888. Many implementation decisions that are still in use today were made based on the limited, alternating current technology available 120-years ago. A Smart power grid would bring the communication and computing power of the Internet to the transmission, distribution and use of electricity so that it can operate more efficiently, reliably and safely.

Western Resource Advocates have developed a transmission planning platform to ensure that new power lines will be “smart.” WRA smart lines involve “…efficiency/distributed generation, clean energy sources and lands/wildlife protection.”

For WRA the smartest power line is the one that is never built. Focusing on local distributed generation – e.g., rooftop solar, single wind turbines and community wind — can eliminate the need for new power plants, some new transmission lines and associated corridors. Working in the western US, WRA’s real focus is on planning, locating, and mitigating power lines “…in a manner that protects the region’s treasured wildlife, land, air and water resources.”

Do they include landowners in this region’s treasures?

The Smart Grid Newsletter has an extensive plan for developing a Smart Transmission Grid. Their plan has six major steps and four major milestones all guided by the following fundamental characteristics to keep them on track.

The Smart Grid will:

• Enable active participation by consumers
• Accommodate all generation and storage options
• Enable new products, services and markets
• Provide power quality for the digital economy
• Optimize asset utilization and operate efficiently
• Anticipate and respond to system disturbances (self-heal)
• Operate resiliently against attack and natural disaster

The US Department of Energy has a Federal Smart Grid Task Force, a 44 page Grid 2030 Vision , a Modern Grid Strategy , and a Smart Grid Newsletter. There is also a downloadable Smart Grid Diagram, and Smart Grid Activities .

As you read through the USDA and WRA Smart Grid website content, you will surely agree that all these ideas and agendas are necessary. We absolutely do need to focus on the delivery technology and the reliability of the infrastructure, but somewhere in here we seem to have forgotten the landowners’ protest of 1970s Minnesota.

Have we gotten so focused on a Smart delivery technology that we ignore Smart planning for the placement of those power lines?

Let’s make sure that Smart Grid planners do not ignore the lessons from our own history.

Powerline: The First Battle of America’s Energy War by noted grassroots activist/academic Paul David Wellstone, and Barry M. Casper tells the story of transmission line agendas gone awry in 1970s Minnesota.

Larry Long’s song “The Pope County Blues” memorializes the 1970s rebellion of conservative farmers who were turned into rebels over power lines being strung across their land. (Note, click on the link here then scroll down to the Living in a Rich Man’s World song list to download.)

Very special thanks to MinnPost.com for their recent reminder on the Minnesota protest history. To visit their site and to read more on this “other side” of wind power, take a good look here: Eco-friendly wind power’s growth to deliver less-popular side effect . It inspired me to look into yet another issue we wind power activists need to think and talk about.

Patterson manages energy leases on state lands and waters for the State of Texas. In way more than just Big Talk, he views Texas as the real Big Kahuna of Wind Power and tells why for a number of really Big Reasons:

Unlike the Cape Wind hoo-hah in Massachusetts, Texans do not say they favor green power, and then jump up and down yelling NIMBY when it comes. Texans are realists; they know we are going to run out of oil and natural gas.

Texas has a lot of open space to build wind power. And, unlike California Texas is not overly regulated.

Texas has an energy history in exploration, production, leases, and mineral estate laws; apply this experience to wind power development and Texas is way ahead of many other places in the US.

Like most things in Texas, the potential for offshore wind production in Texas really is HUGE.

• The Texas Gulf Coast is huge, over 21,000 square miles
• The offshore jurisdiction of the state is BIG compared to most other coastal states. They have offshore jurisdiction of 3 nautical miles. The Texas jurisdiction is 9 nautical miles - 10.3 statute miles.
• Wind projects in the Gulf off Texas are governed by the state and not the federal government; right of way issues go directly through the state.
• Texas has a 60-year experience building offshore oil and gas rigs just ripe and ready for building offshore wind platforms.
• Offshore wind generators will be only 10 miles from the nearest transmission grid; this is not the same for many onshore wind locations.

The July issue Fast Company interview with humorous Patterson will make you laugh out loud.

As he claimed to interviewer Kermit Pattison, “I got little skirt, a little sweater that says W.” — reading this interview you can almost believe that he does.

Click here to read the full interview with Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson in Fast Company on line.

The new Lyme zoning law prevents any wind turbines (commercial and residential) within 4,500 feet of the Lake Ontario waterfront and the villages of Three Mile Bay and Chaumont. In response, Voters for Wind a local wind advocacy group filed a State Supreme Court lawsuit against the Town of Lyme. The lawsuit wants to have the restrictive zoning law nullified stating that the super-majority vote required was not achieved and the zoning ordinance as written is arbitrary and capricious.

Sounds like your typical battle - wind farmers fighting the NIMBY pack - but not in this case. The heart of the issue here is a real concern that this law is too restrictive. That it essentially eliminates the possibility of wind development of any kind, at any time, in the Town of Lyme on a purely political basis.

“I feel they have their own agenda. They have been very anti wind from the beginning,” said Voters for Wind vice president Dawn Munk.

With all the recent hoopla in the media pointing to huge wind power projects being planned or developed all over the country now, it is important to remember that there are MANY battles over wind power still taking place.

If you are a David battling Goliath. if you are pushing a wind project with out the benefit of power, money or prestige. If your wind power project is also under fire, check out the Wind Power Community Organizing handbook and the rest of this website.

There are strategies and tactics that can help you move your project forward. Click here and then use the arrows on the Lulu toolbar to see the Table of Contents, sample pages of copy and the index of the Wind Power Handbook.

And, Click here for more on the Lyme case study in progress.

Southern Co., which owns Georgia Power, prefers coal and nuclear power. But with approval from the US Department of the Interior the utility will move forward with leasing three plots off Tybee Island to further test the feasibility of a wind farm. But a sea of regulatory and environmental issues, federal permits and lack of tax credits may scuttle the Georgia off-shore wind farm project before it sails too far.

Even though Georgia Tech researchers recently completed a study of wind energy off the Tybee and Jekyll islands, the Southern Co., wind study alone is expected to cost $3 million and take nearly three years to complete. Southern Co., spokesperson Liz Philpot notes that a pilot project wouldn’t even get started for at least five years.

For wind activists throughout the US, the Georgia Jekyll and Tybee islands off-shore wind project should be on our watch lists.

Is Southern Co., dragging their feet on wind power or really being swamped by the enormity of regulations they say are circling their project? Would tax breaks and federal mandates to use renewable energy spur this project forward as some suggest or is this just another set of foggy excuses for drowning a not-all-that-desirable wind project and then blaming the government?

To keep an eye on this very important Southern US off-shore project, click here first for the rest of this story, and then get involved to help push this one forward by checking in with the Georgia Wind Working Group to see how you can help.

Seeing his small turbine as no more obtrusive than satellite dishes that do not require permits, and fully expecting the government to soon scrap permit requirements for all home green-energy sources, Phil Proffitt, did not apply for planning consent.

He may be right. In March 2008, permit rules changed. UK householders can now install solar panels and heat pumps and other such energy generators on their houses without permits, but wind turbines were excluded. Resistance focused on the turbine noise and vibration issues.

So, Mr. Proffitt, may have to take down his turbine and apply for a wind turbine permit. His neighbors are watching this case very closely – supporters, resistors, and those in between.

Looking at his house-attached turbine, Mr. Proffitt says, “They are no more obtrusive than big satellite dishes - people used to complain about TV aerials in the 40s, and then it was satellite dishes, and now a few people will complain about this.”

Click here for the rest of this neighborhood wind energy story.

The Cape Wind project plans to place 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound, south of Cape Cod. An untiring handful of grassroots organizers have waged a mighty battle with Cape Cod property owners, heiresses, billionaires, well-funded and well-organized opposition lobbying, and the likes of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Senator Edward M. Kennedy. But, David may yet defeat these Goliaths. In a few months The Cape Wind project expects to get authorization to begin construction.

The incredible case history of the early days of this project is documented in the book Cape Wind by Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb. It is a classic case study of how even the most powerful resistance can be overcome with dogged research (doing your homework!), developing a wide network of supporters and allies, and frankly (when dealing with a whole gaggle of the rich and VERY powerful) – a whole lot of money.

There is much to be learned from the Cape Wind project. It is important to note here that the size of this project and the wealth of the resistors made this battle an expensive one. But aside from the costs unique to this particular project, the strategies and tactics used by these grassroots activists have some major lessons for all wind activists and advocates.

Click here for an update on the Cape Wind project and on the trends in US off-shore wind power projects in general.

For information on the evolution of what started out as a grassroots campaign and is now a major agenda, visit the Clean Power Now website.

Wind Project Community Organizing: A Handbook for Community Organizers, Activists and Project Managers is a concise, step-by-step guide that can help you learn how to approach every individual related to your project armed with the right information, the best arguments, a Win-Win mind set, and your best feet forward.

Using the easy to understand approach detailed in this handbook, you will learn how to:

• identify your whole network of key supporters, resistors, gatekeepers, allies
• understand and use the Big Picture
• dissect issues raised against your project and determine how to respond
• prepare yourself with strategies and tactics to help make your project successful

This handbook will help you to find the “Win-Win Sweet Spot” among diverse constituents that can lead to success on your wind project. Take a look here for more information.

Click here to go to the book on line then click on the arrows on the tool bar to see sample pages, table of contents and the back of the book index.

“At least 26 states have tax or productivity incentives or other subsidies to support wind energy,” notes Trudy Forsyth, program leader at NREL’s distributed wind program in Golden, Colorado. “But strong growth is happening even without the federal tax incentives enjoyed by solar panels and big utility-scale wind turbines.”

So why haven’t I seen any of these small wind systems? You ask. I travel around a lot and I have yet seen a single small wind system!

Cost, lack of support, NIMBY, and bird issues, have kept residential wind-power to a slow growth level. Zoning has always been an issue, and resistors to residential wind power are increasing pressure for even tighter zoning battles.

If a Small Wind project is what you are after, you need to rally support early from your friends, neighbors, and local stakeholders. Make sure you do your homework. Understand your zoning laws and get legal help early. Do all you can to engage your utility company in a net metering relationship (make sure that net metering is an option before you even start !). And check out the newest in residential turbine designs.

Southwest Windpower, the largest US small-wind manufacturer, has a new small 1.8 kilowatt Skystream turbine that is aimed at the residential market. It is so quiet and unobtrusive that even San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is now forming a group to explore using small wind systems throughout the city.

Click here for more on the hot-market of Small Wind.

“The Delaware Business Ledger published an interview with Delmarva Power president Gary Stockbridge…(The latest) novel argument from Stockbridge:

Many people believe that if Bluewater is built, Indian River (coal-fired plant in Sussex County) will be closed.

I don’t know the basis for this assertion, but you haven’t heard it from me or any of the top wind power advocates in Delaware. Another day, another straw man argument from Mr. Stockbridge.”

To read more click here for Tommy Wonk’s take on this unfolding case study.

This report does not paint wind with silver bullet predictions. It is a fair assessment of the steps necessary and the challenges to expect in order for wind power to generate that 20% of U. S. electricity.

As you might expect, for example, NIMBY will no doubt continue to exert a significant challenge as projects spread across the landscape. And you can bet your bippy that resistors will use items in this report whenever they can to sway public opinion against your project based on issues listed on this site, and certainly more to follow.

With no doubt, there is a tough mountain to climb. Yet knowing now what to realistically expect as we make that climb can help keep the goal in focus no matter how energetic the effort or disheartening the response. And, being forewarned on what to expect can help both the public and wind advocates alike avoid becoming disenchanted with wind energy’s promise in the U. S. energy portfolio.

For an interesting and funny assessment on reading the DOE report in full, David Pace points you (by chapter and page) to some key items of interest in his “Want 20 Percent Wind Power by 2030, Get to Work!” available here.

And for the full report, click here.