Wind power set to explode in 2005; bats set to haunt Grist
Several readers pointed out — rather snarkily, we might add — the seeming dissonance between Umbra’s latest column praising wind farms and the news, reported the following day, that some such farms have been chopping up quite a few bats. But hey, like Walt Whitman said: We are large, we contain multitudes. And get ready for more multitudes. According to a new study by Emerging Energy Research, 2005 will be a banner year for the wind industry in the U.S., dead bats or no dead bats, with investments set to cross the $2 billion mark. The study warns, however, that wind energy in the country remains precariously dependent on federal policy — tax credits for the industry were just renewed for 2005, but who knows about 2006? — which has not historically been renewable-friendly. Fossil-fuel industries are, of course, also propped up by huge federal subsidies, but they have way more friends in high places, now, don’t they?
