Finally there may be an effort to harness the wind power that is so available in parts of Kansas.

Some purists bristle at the suggestion that Kansas take advantage of one of its greatest resources, wind power, to provide alternative energy, help boost the income of some rural residents and provide needed electrical service.

Critics worry about the visual disturbance they think would result from wind turbines, but those concerns shouldn’t scuttle this effort. Rows of “windmills” or wind turbines already dot the landscape in other states, such as California and Iowa, with little negative effect and many benefits.

Just as solar power has never been exploited properly, neither has the wind, which is so dominant in some American locales, including Kansas. It has been neglected, but that could be changing.

A new federal farm bill provides a good incentive package, such as loans, grants and tax credits to stimulate research, development and investment in renewable energy. Some rural landowners with suitable high ground that is relatively close to transmission lines may be able to make more money leasing land for wind turbines than they can raising wheat and cattle.

A new wind farm already is operating near Montezuma, and national companies reportedly are looking carefully at other sites in Kansas. The state’s wind-energy potential is among the highest in the country, and companies see an opportunity to invest in promoting this trend.

Kansas and Kansans need such help.

Development of wind-energy facilities could help the struggling economy in western Kansas. The Kansas wind is a natural resource not unlike the soil or fresh water, and there’s no reason not to put it to work. The energy produced in rural parts of the state could be put to good use to fuel various projects and enterprises in the state’s urban centers or perhaps provide capital and power to fund new economic development ventures in rural areas.

The production of wind power is a clean venture that will have little impact on the state’s landscape. Certainly some scattered fields of windmills can’t be a more distracting feature than corporate hog farms or other ventures that are being considered to boost the rural Kansas economy. A constantly renewing resource would be tapped and the machinery needed to accomplish that most likely would create only a minimal disturbance for the environment.

In the 1970s, when the OPEC countries began their petroleum blackmail of America, much heavier focus was placed on alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power and grain use for fuel. The embargo ended, oil prices and supplies became more favorable and the thrust was lost.

But Kansas has always had ideal spots for substantial wind power operations. Perhaps the new government incentives will foster development of such highly promising programs.