Climate and energy

By Eileen Horn

Despite the fact that nothing in our booth has recently seen a deep fat fryer, CEP’s Wind Energy booth at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson has been a huge hit!

Over the past few days, we’ve spoken with thousands of Kansans about wind energy’s benefits – both for our economy and our environment.

The response from Kansans has been awesome.

Visitors to the booth have checked out their wind resource using the AWS Truewind Wind Navigator program, viewed Kansas City Power and Light’s live feed of their Spearville wind project, and interacted with the residential-scale Skystream 3.7 wind generator.

Questions have focused on how Kansans can utilize our free, homegrown resource to help with the current energy crisis. Homeowners have asked about micro-generation, and landowners have asked about wind leases and encouraging responsible development of utility-scale wind projects.

Recognizing that policies are needed to support wind development in Kansas, over 500 Kansans have composed hand-written postcards to their legislators- asking for fair net metering, tax credits, and policies such as a Renewable Energy Standard that would encourage wind development in our state.

For the images of the fair so far, check out our flickr page.

— Eileen Horn, www.climateandenergy.org