Alternative Energy Article
Wind Power being used as an alternate energy source is growing in use each year. In the US, wind power has grown 26% per year on average over the last 5 years, but the United States is lagging behind in the development of wind energy. This county's slow pace of growth is not because we can't compete technologically with Europe in manufacturing wind turbines, but because of a lack of leadership in Washington. The wind production tax credit of 1.5¢ per kilowatt-hour, which was adopted in 1992 to establish parity with fossil-fuel subsidies, has been permitted to lapse three times in the last five years, most recently at the end of 2003 when Congress failed to pass a new energy bill. Such uncertainties disrupt planning throughout the wind power industry. In the US, no financial incentive means no growth.
The European nations are not only leading the world into the wind age, they are also leading the world into the post-fossil fuel age—the age of renewable energy and climate stabilization. By demonstrating the potential for harnessing the energy in wind, Europe is unveiling the new energy economy for the rest of the world.
The United States, with its advanced technology and wealth of wind resources, should be a leader in this field, but unfortunately it continues to rely heavily on coal—a nineteenth century energy source—for much of its electricity at a time when European countries are replacing coal power with wind power. So typical of government leaders, they are more concerned with maintaining the status quo then considering the future.
Of course as with any energy source, there are naysayers out there who claim that we would have to blanket the country with "wind-mills" to replace all our coal and nuclear plants. Don't believe it. Remember that on a wind farm, the "footprint" of the operation—the turbine base plus the service roads—occupies only 5% of the land area. That makes wind power a perfect partner with open-space operations like farming and ranching.
It is interesting that critics will mention the questionable appearance of a wind farm but overlook the blanketing the country with pollution which has gone on unabated for decades!
