U.S. Common Sense

I was recently reading an article about the King Ranch wind farm debate down in Texas and it started me thinking. How often do you hear about one group of environmentalists arguing against wind farms while another group argues for more “green” energy, including wind farms? Do these different group of environmentalists ever talk to each other to get their arguments in line? Talk about setting yourself up for failure.

In case you do not understand the controversy regarding wind farms, there are environmentalists worried that wind farms kill birds. It is true; the rotating blades do kill birds that try to flying through them. Statistically, more birds die by colliding into buildings and cars than they do by the wind turbines, so businesses can easily justify the losses. But is that good enough?

Unfortunately no for some people, and I can understand why. If we can minimize the impact on wildlife, it should be a win-win situation for everyone. So how do we do that? For starters, we need to identify which zones within the country are best suited for wind farms. These areas are usually near the coast, Mid-West (North/South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, etc), and along mountain ranges. Secondly, tracking migration patters of birds and other wildlife is important. This is a natural party of any environmental study done prior to construction. Lastly, identify regions where endangered and protected bird populations exist. When you overlap these three maps, the areas where the bird and wildlife population variables listed above do not exist are our best bets for windfarm locations.

With all the effort listed above to protect the wildlife, the environmentalists should be willing to concede on behalf of the “green” technology for our needs.