From the mountain passes of California to the shores of the North Sea, wind turbines are now producing commercial quantities of electricity without the emission of global warming gases. Uneven warming of the atmosphere results in rising and circulating air currents which can be used to generate electricity. Wind turbines, usually with just two or three blades, collect kinetic energy from the wind, which drives a generator and produces electricity. Wind turbines are placed on towers where the wind blows harder and more steadily. By the year 2000 wind turbines are estimated to produce enough electricity to offset 20 to 40 billion pounds of carbon dioxide.
Wind energy is cheap and clean.
Unfortunately, it faces an American, and world, energy market heavily slanted towards fossil fuel technology through subsidies and tax incentives. If we are to curb pollution from electricity generation, this must change. There is enormous potential for greater use of wind energy in the US, especially in the Midwest, and using that potential would mean an economic boon. States such as Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota hold the potential of becoming the Saudi Arabia of wind power.