Wind energy can reduce a utility's pollutant emissions, helping power companies meet environmental regulations and satisfy their customers' desire for clean power sources. The greatest challenge for the future is to ensure that the benefits of wind energy continue to receive attention as the utility industry moves toward increased competition in the generation and marketing of power. Without low-cost power, our standard of living would suffer. But electricity generation is also a major source of pollution and toxic wastes. Wind energy offers a way to meet the needs of both the economy and the environment by providing a source of clean, competitively priced power.
Wind energy helps our economy in other important ways.
For communities and states in which wind power facilities are located, wind power plants create jobs, generate income and support economic development. The benefits of wind energy should be considered as the utility industry moves toward increased competition. One reason is that much of the expense for fossil-fuel plants is incurred from buying fuel, which supports fewer jobs than other industry sectors, especially when the fuel is imported from other states or countries. Wind power plants also pay substantial property taxes and land rents. A typical rent payment is a small percentage of a plant's revenues, implying that a wind plant located in an agricultural area can boost cropland rents and prices by as much as 50 percent to 100 percent.