Think Wind

I just can’t see the problem. Why is it that we have the technology and the resources to build wind farms and yet we sit on our hands and watch countries all over Europe build a power infrastructure that will free them from the dependency on foreign oil? I understand all the arguments out there but none of them have convinced me that wind is a bad idea.

From every angle wind works. For a price cheaper than an oil refinery or a nuclear power plant or even a natural gas plant you could build a wind farm and get free, green, renewable, sustainable, non-polluting energy. For the price of one year of war in Iraq we could erect enough wind turbines to power Indiana. So money is not the issue.

I have heard that wind turbines make a whooshing sound; big deal. The whole idea of a wind farm is to place it where the wind blows consistently and free of obstruction so that means in the open spaces where there are no homes to hear the whooshing sound. There are places in the wind belt of this county where you could drive for hours and never see a man made dwelling. So it gets cold in the northern states; we can equip the turbines with on board heaters and heat the blades so they don’t ice up. The wind can get very strong in our mid-western states so we would need to use turbines that operate with clutch systems that would compensate for the excessive wind speed. I can’t see the problem.

The states of Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming and the Dakotas could produce as much energy as Saudi Arabia and do it without the economic strong-arming or CO2 emissions that we get from the oil producing countries. I have heard that the oil companies don’t want wind farms because they would compete with oil profits. This is simply not true; Oil Companies are the biggest investors in wind technology. Wind farms make money. If you want to get rich just design a better battery system or a more efficient turbine and you will be rich beyond your dreams.

Wind is simply our best bet to affect change right now. Wind farms can be set up in a matter of months, whereas power plants that use most other types of fuel would take years to build. So now is the time for land owners to contact their local utilities and set up a meeting to explore the economical advantages of leasing out land for wind turbine use.