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Harvest the Wind

America’s Journey to Jobs, Energy Independence, and Climate Stability

Philip Warburg

Beacon Press, 2013

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Renewable-energy champion Philip Warburg offers a detailed, unified, well-researched report on wind power and the contributions it can make to America’s energy future. getAbstract finds that he presents his case for wind power with persuasive facts and figures, as well as careful reasoning and a good dose of passion. Is he totally objective? Well, maybe not...he has an argument to make, and he makes it vividly, in hopes that his inspirational report will persuade even ardent fossil-fuel and nuclear-energy advocates to harness America’s wind-power potential.

Summary

The Power of the Wind

How will the world meet its future energy needs? Fossil fuels, a finite resource, are growing increasingly scarce. Nuclear power presents potential serious hazards and baffling radioactive-waste storage issues. Yet wind power has none of these problems. Except when wind becomes violent in tornadoes or hurricanes, it is an unlimited and safe energy resource.

Wind power also generates minimal carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, the fossil-fuel by-product that degrades the environment. The Swedish utility Vattenfall estimates that, while gas-powered electrical plants emit up to 1,300 grams of CO₂ per kilowatt-hour, wind power produces only about 10 grams of CO₂ for every kilowatt-hour.

According to the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the typical American coal-powered plant produced 1,022 grams of CO₂ per kilowatt-hour in 1999. In recent years, US coal plants have done better, at 865 grams of CO₂ per kilowatt-hour.

Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems, a global leader in wind-energy technology, states that its V90 three-megawatt wind turbine will generate around “158,000 megawatt...

About the Author

Environmental advocate Philip Warburg was president of the Conservation Law Foundation from 2003 to 2009. He’s a former staff lawyer at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, DC and former head of the Tel Aviv-based Israel Union for Environmental Defense.

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R. P. 1 decade ago

Alternative energy clean and smart and I believe it will be critical for future generations.