To the editor:

In Europe, wind power is the fastest growing new source of energy. Kansas, thanks to a high average wind factor, has the natural resources to lead the way in the U.S. Recent breakthroughs in wind generator designs have made it possible for wind power to compete with even highly publicly subsidized conventional power plant electricity.

Wind power can eliminate the serious problem of coal power plant global warming and can also eliminate the very real multiple risks of radioactive exposure from nuclear power plants. Furthermore, when we finally eliminate nuclear power plants, we also eliminate the mass insanity of nuclear weapons, which rely on nuclear power plants.

Wind power is labor intensive to install, which would create many good-wage jobs in the state, plus it provides a reliable, long-haul, sustainable and growing tax base for government coffers. Has Kansas government adequately supported the development of wind power capacity here? Outside of a few token wind energy projects, the answer is no.

The Kansas Greens call for far greater, publicly subsidized, small-scale wind power development in Kansas, including many locally and cooperatively owned and managed wind energy installations. Remedies for our current energy policies are described in detail in the State Greens Energy Position Paper. (see kansas.greens.org/)

We also believe that Kansas public energy policies need to strongly support an array of publicly subsidized energy conservation programs, combined with a variety of site-specific renewable energy operations.

Rich Wenzel,

Brigitte Roussel, co-chairs,

Kansas Greens