Apparently, the tanking economy means that we won’t be free of tankers any time soon. The ambitious “Pickens’ Plan” isn’t quite ready to live up to the bold vision of its founder. Hopefully one benefit of a slow-down in wind development will be the opportunity to more carefully consider where turbines should go and where they should not.
Story here.
The Waterthrush Blog 
I strongly agree with Mr. Pickens that the USA cannot shake it’s addiction to oil and this problem seems like it will just get worse as time progresses.
I also applaud Mr. Pickens plans for creating wind farms. However, since he is apparently blocked from completing this dream as oringally envisioned, I think he should just make some sort of accomodation with the various municipal/regional governments to let them find appropriate siting for his turbines and let them install what would probably be relatively short cable runs to tie into the local grids. I think this would be just as helpful for everyone involved and not require the huge amount of investment in transmission lines as in the original vision.
So, Mr. Pickens, you should endeavor to get the local authorities involved. By getting the local authorities involved, I think you will get double the amount of benefit that was originally envisioned.
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I think there needs to be a huge shift of mentality, not just consideration for wind farm siting. I worked at the least appealing wind farm you can imagine (from an environmental standpoint) and it was still very different than predicted, mortality-wise. Think solar and small scale changes before pushing wind farms… Granted, we need to make that change a willing and enthusiastic one!
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Thanks for your comment Heidi. By “different” mortality, do you mean more or less than was predicted? Also, are you referring to birds, bats, or both?
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