4.27.2006
As Gas Prices Climb, Wind Power Wins Over New Fans (CommonDreams.org)
Published on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 by Knight Ridder
by Robert S. Boyd
WASHINGTON - Thanks to $3-a-gallon gasoline and $75-a-barrel oil, wind power - the once-wimpy little brother of the energy industry - is putting on muscle and gaining favor.
Sleek white wind turbines, 25 stories tall, rise from the plains of West Texas in Big Spring. (Carolyn Mary Bauman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Its backers promote wind as a clean, cheap, endlessly renewable way to make electricity that can help reduce the nation's reliance on high-priced, perhaps undependable foreign sources and thereby enhance national security.
"There's been a key change in attitude in the last year," said James Lyons, an official at GE Global Research, a branch of General Electric Co. based in Niskayuna, N.Y. "Energy security is driving this."
"The culture is shifting," said Alexander Karsner, the assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the Department of Energy. "People are coming to see the importance of energy independence."
Critics say wind energy is unreliable, unsightly, harmful to wildlife and economically viable only because of government tax credits.
Nevertheless, "wind power is becoming a force to be reckoned with," said Clinton Andrews, a professor of urban planning at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Andrews and others spoke at a conference of industry executives, government officials and energy experts in Washington last week.
(More ... As Gas Prices Climb, Wind Power Wins over New Fans) ¶ 11:03
by Robert S. Boyd
WASHINGTON - Thanks to $3-a-gallon gasoline and $75-a-barrel oil, wind power - the once-wimpy little brother of the energy industry - is putting on muscle and gaining favor.
Sleek white wind turbines, 25 stories tall, rise from the plains of West Texas in Big Spring. (Carolyn Mary Bauman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Its backers promote wind as a clean, cheap, endlessly renewable way to make electricity that can help reduce the nation's reliance on high-priced, perhaps undependable foreign sources and thereby enhance national security.
"There's been a key change in attitude in the last year," said James Lyons, an official at GE Global Research, a branch of General Electric Co. based in Niskayuna, N.Y. "Energy security is driving this."
"The culture is shifting," said Alexander Karsner, the assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the Department of Energy. "People are coming to see the importance of energy independence."
Critics say wind energy is unreliable, unsightly, harmful to wildlife and economically viable only because of government tax credits.
Nevertheless, "wind power is becoming a force to be reckoned with," said Clinton Andrews, a professor of urban planning at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Andrews and others spoke at a conference of industry executives, government officials and energy experts in Washington last week.
(More ... As Gas Prices Climb, Wind Power Wins over New Fans) ¶ 11:03
