News Analysis

Deck: 

A Twenty-Fold Increase?

Fortnightly Magazine - May 1 2000
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Former coal lobbyist Glenn Schleede plays Don Quixote, crusading against the DOE's 20-year initiative to boost investment in windmills.

 

Five percent of total U.S. power generation from the wind by 2020?

Wind energy supporters find themselves on the defensive, wondering whether their industry can meet the ambitious expectations for new investment and emissions reductions mapped out by their own allies in government.

This time, however, the crusade is coming from the right - and it aims to bring the government dreamers back to earth.

On March 27, the private consulting firm Energy Market & Policy Analysis Inc., led by president Glenn R. Schleede, sent a 20-page report to the governor of Wisconsin, leaders in the state legislature, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, and various officials of local governments, attacking a plan by FPL Energy to construct an array of windmills for power generation on what Schleede described as a "scenic ridge" in or near the town of Addison, Wis., about 40 miles northwest of Milwaukee. The report accused FPL of backing down on prior claims of the extent of emissions of greenhouse gases that the wind farm would avoid. On a broader note, the report argued that any project benefits would be "truly insignificant" when considered in the context of Wisconsin's total electricity demand and emissions output, and questioned state policies that encourage wind power and mandate a minimum portfolio standard for renewable energy.

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