Power plants release one third of the nation's carbon dioxide emissions, whose build-up worldwide, scientists believe, is causing global warming, hotter summers and more violent weather patterns. To meet peak demand during heat waves, our utilities fire up older, dirtier coal plants that add even more to air pollution. In the United States, from June 1998 to July 1999, the wind industry installed a total of 1,073 MW in new wind turbines and generating equipment. These amounts would have been emitted if instead the average U.S. utility fuel mix had been used to produce an equivalent amount of electricity. These pollutants and gases are major factors in the formation of acid rain, smog, and global warming.
Wind power is affordable, and growing fast.
And because wind power is pollution-free, it makes it less costly for the entire nation to meet clean air standards and maintain a healthy environment. This decline in costs and surge in growth means that it is realistic and affordable for the U.S. and the world economy to supply a more significant share of electricity from wind power plants. Farmers in Iowa and Minnesota, where more than half of the new wind projects have been built over the past year, supplement their income by leasing land for the installation of wind turbines while continuing to farm around the towers. There's also more income for the local communities in the form of an expanded tax base. Texas has the potential to power one third of the nation.