Wind Farms ‘Controversial,’ Report Says

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A National Academy of Sciences report today criticized “the lack of any truly coordinated planning” in the rapid growth of wind farms across the country, and called on federal, state and local governments to pay more attention to the effects of turbines on wildlife and scenic landscapes, the Los Angeles Times reports.


Wind currently provides less than 1% of the nation’s electricity. But it is the fastest-growing alternative to fossil fuel-produced power, a major source of global warming.

In the past six years, U.S. wind capacity has more than quadrupled. And by 2020, the federal Department of Energy predicts, it could offset as much as 4.5% of the planet-warming carbon dioxide that American utilities would otherwise spew into the atmosphere.

But wind, the report notes, “is surprisingly controversial…not everyone considers (turbines) beautiful,” and they can kill birds and bats. The effects on wildlife have diminished considerably since California built the nation’s first wind farms, clusters of small turbines, in the 1980s.


Read the full L.A. Times story

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