Governors, Now's Time to Fine-Tune Wind Power

Governors, Now's Time to Fine-Tune Wind Power

Jun 27 - The Santa Fe New Mexican

After this morning's keynote address from Interior Secretary Gale Norton, and before their noon adjournment, Western-state governors convened at the Eldorado Hotel will take up one more major issue: clean energy.

For the sunshinier states, that might mean solar power as a supplement or alternative to coal-fired steam generation. For the breezier ones, wind turbines already are picking up some of the energy burden.

New Mexico, California and other states are blessed with both resources. Of the two, wind power is getting the more immediate attention. On Coast Range ridges, hundreds of modernistic windmills are spinning power for California consumers. And on hills above our state's eastern plains, similar "wind farms" are harvesting renewable power.

But those huge triple-blade propellers picking up the wind take a toll on winged beasts -- especially bats and big birds. Those slower- flying creatures haven't a chance against the blades, and few have developed enough fear of their rotating motion to stay away from them. Add to that the huge numbers of wind generators standing in mountain passes through which air currents flow and some species migrate, and carnage on occasion can be brutal.

An environmental irony? Technology for clearer air and water carrying side effects so lethal that the remedy is worse than the problem?

No. For starters, more birds and other wildlife may be dying from the poisonous effects of burning coal than from wind generators. For seconds, as Audubon Society leaders have been pointing out, wind power and winged creatures can co-exist.

It's a matter of place -- and, perhaps, time.

Our states' governors, land commissioners, energy officials, environmental departments and wildlife protectors should work together, determining migratory routes, breeding and nesting grounds and other characteristics of the region's major populations of birds and bats. From there, they should be able to weigh wind-generators' threats and come up with siting decisions calculated to do the least damage.

In some cases, strategies could be designed for turning off the generators during daytimes of main migratory seasons -- or on nights when bats by the hordes are on the wing. Where birds and bats are in the same skyway, maybe that's no place for a wind farm.

But even as the West's wide-open spaces are closing in, there's room out here for something as sensible and overdue as wind power. The challenge lies in animal scientists and energy experts working together to fine-tune this fast-growing technology.

Gov. Bill Richardson and his Western guests are in excellent position to head off conflicts between the still-fledgling wind power and the living symbols of our Western skies. When better than this morning's plenary session on clean energy to set guidelines for wind-power development?

For far more extensive news on the energy/power visit: http://www.energycentral.com .