Commercial wind farms can extend over thousands of acres, often on federal land, and require some new skills for permitting,

So the Renewable Energy Coordination Office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management was created during the last days of President George W. Bush's administration to smooth the permitting process for wind, solar and other renewable energy sources that can affect federal lands, said Beverly Gorny, the spokeswoman for the office in Wyoming.

The sheer size of wind farm projects makes them different from other energy-related endeavors. "This is a type of energy that's going to expand over a larger area than other energy projects," Gorny said.

While wind farms in Wyoming, such as the one near Arlington, were built on BLM land before the renewable energy office was created, the growth of the industry requires a different approach than those used for traditional energy sources such as fossil fuels, Gorny said. "This is really new."

For example, Park City, Utah-based Wasatch Wind has submitted a permit application to build the approximately 109-megawatt Black Mountain Wind Park west of the Rattlesnake Range in Natrona County. Wasatch Wind's application is the first one submitted to the BLM's Casper field office.

The proposed 4,313-acre project includes 3,878 acres of BLM land and some state and private lands, plus an approximately 13-mile feeder transmission line on BLM land.

The project's size -- by no means the largest proposed wind farm in the state -- overlaps the responsibilities of the Casper and Lander BLM field offices, which could cause some bureaucratic headaches without some coordination, Gorny said.

"We're not trying to be a bureaucracy," she said. "We hope the RECO team can resolve [any] confusion."

The Renewable Energy Coordination Office was created by an executive order from former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in January 2009, and renewed two months later by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Gorny said.

The order created nine BLM positions and set up offices in Cheyenne, Rawlins and Rock Springs along the Interstate 80 corridor, where many wind farms already exist or are anticipated, she said.

The positions include a supervisor, project overseers, an archaeologist, wildlife biologist and public information officer, she said.