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OPINIONS
Mufson: W.Va. needs to be ready to benefit from wind power
Carrying a bottle of water off a plane recently made me think about the bottled water industry. Why couldn't I or people close to me see the fortune to be made in putting water in a bottle and selling it for more than a container of milk?
There have been other fads and technological developments which most people never thought would affect their lives. Certainly those of us who grew up with rotary phones never envisioned carrying tiny phones with GPS capabilities.
Changes and innovation occur constantly. And one of the newer changes is as Bob Dylan might say "Blowin' in the wind." Wind power is now becoming a source of much of the world's energy supply. Coal is and has been West Virginia's favorite source of energy, but our state has to be poised to benefit from the development of wind power.
There are many positive and some negative aspects of wind power. While it makes some noise, it is readily available, can be used in a variety of places and does not pollute the air or water.
If wind power were to be endorsed wholeheartedly in our region, many fear that it would be detrimental to the coal industry. Those fears may have some basis.
But whether we West Virginians like it or not, wind power, generated by those strange-looking immense turbines, is going to be an energy force of the future here and around the world. At least 50 countries are reported to have wind power installations.
An Associated Press article in The Herald- Dispatch by John Raby reported that Beech Ridge energy LLC of Rockville, Md., was getting reading to put wind turbines in Greenbrier County later this summer. Beech Ridge Energy is owned by Invenergy LLC.
And Invenergy is a big wind farm player based in Chicago. According to internet data, they have operations in more than a dozen states, Canada and Poland. They are even advertising for a technical position in Rupert, W.Va.
But at the same time animal rights and environmental groups have filed suit to stop the West Virginia project until it can be determined whether the Indiana bat, on the endangered animal list, could be harmed.
It may take time to make such a decision, but for those of you with long memories, the tiny snail darter fish, caused a long delay but didn't close down the Tellico Dam project on the Tennessee River in the early 1970s.
In case we think that it is only West Virginia or our country that is facing the question of wind power development, think again. According to the New York Times, China, a country with a mammoth coal industry, will have more wind turbines in their country than we do by the end of this year and surpass our wind energy capacity by 2010.
Wind power is going to be a wave of the future. This does not mean we forget about coal, but recognize that West Virginia needs to be sure we benefit from turbine installations here and from the out-of-state companies that will use our rural lands. We have been hurt before by such arrangements; we do not need to be let down by them again.
Diane W. Mufson is a licensed psychologist in Huntington. She is a former citizen member of The Herald-Dispatch editorial board and is a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page. Her e-mail is dwmufson@comcast.net.
