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Wind Power: Radical Environmentalists Can't Make Up Their Minds

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into useful forms, such as electricity, using wind turbines. It is a plentiful, renewable, clean power source that reduces “greenhouse gas” emissions when it is used in place of fossil-fuel-derived electricity. It is a long-time favorite renewable alternative energy source among environmentalists.

On one hand… The Sierra Club has been supporting wind power as an renewable alternative energy source since 1973, when their Board of Directors adopted an official stance that says: "The following steps are some of many that should be pursued with vigor …[T]he use of renewable energy sources, such as …wind power."

On one hand… About wind power, Greenpeace says, “Now that we have clean alternatives like wind power, it's time to flip the switch! Wind power does not pollute, it is domestically produced and it is renewable.

Oregon and Washington’s Stateline Wind Generating Project, launched in 2001, is just such a source. It is expected to produce enough renewable, clean wind-generated electricity to power 72,000 Northwest homes. The Stateline Wind Generating Project is a $300 million wind farm, including $15 million in construction costs infused into the local economy, and 15 permanent staff.

This year, wind plans in Oregon got even bigger. Fieldwork began in early 2008 on the Shepherds Flat project, to be located between Ione and Arlington, which will be a $1.3 billion investment in the state and will employ up to 250 workers and produce many local contracting and labor opportunities. Once completed, the project would permanently employ 32 workers and pay about $4 million annually in taxes to Gilliam County and $1.2 million to Morrow County. It would power around 220,000 homes.

However, some unreasonably radical groups repeatedly oppose this clean renewable environmentally friendly power source:

But on the other hand… As the Stateline Wind Generating Project neared completion in 2001, the world’s largest wind-generating project at the time, fringe groups raised objections because the project may have threatened a type of rodent protected by the Oregon Endangered Species Act. Mark Glyde, a spokesman for the Northwest Energy Coalition, did his best to spin his groups efforts to slow the project, saying, "We need to be able to move and adjust these projects so that they do work as well as possible to meet our power needs and take into consideration endangered species." In the end, lower watt turbines were built, able to provide less power, having less impact on energy supply, but some rodent may have been spared.

But on the other hand… As wind power is becoming increasingly successful, radical groups oppose its expansion in the Columbia River Gorge’s shrub steppes because of potential danger to birds, including the golden eagle. In the Northwest it is reported that about 1.9 birds are killed per turbine per year. The Predatory Bird Research Group at the University of California, Santa Cruz conducted a three-year study of golden eagle mortality from wind turbines and concluded, “the population of golden eagles…remains intact.” According to Greenpeace, “Studies show that for every 10,000 bird fatalities, less than one is caused by wind turbines. For comparison, cats cause about 10 percent of bird deaths and nearly half are caused by collisions with buildings or windows."

Photo: Wind Turbines in Rio Vista, California.

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Radio Ads Hit the Airwaves Listen Oppose Oregon's Gas Tax Hike

Wind Power: Radical Environmentalists Can't Make Up Their Minds

Radio Ads Hit the Airwaves Listen

Oppose Oregon's Gas Tax Hike