Hesselbach was one of 15 members of a wind siting council that the PSC created last March to advise the commission on statewide setback rules for wind turbine towers — rules that were scheduled to go into effect March 1.

Those rules set 1,250 feet as a minimum setback — the same setback specified in the PSC’s go-ahead for construction of Glacier Hills.

We Energies spokesman Brian Manthey noted that there is no guarantee that the 1,800-foot setback called for in the bill will not be amended as the measure makes its way through the state Assembly and Senate.

“We’ll watch where this legislation goes,” he said.

And, he said, it won’t affect the utility’s efforts to generate more of its energy through renewable sources, to meet requirements set by state law.

For example, he said, We Energies is moving forward with a generator near Rothschild that burns “biomass” - basically, the normally-discarded branches and treetops from trees that have fallen to the forest floor.

“Whether it be biomass - and don’t forget, solar is a part of this - we’ll have to determine what we have to do to meet our portfolio requirements,” Manthey said.