Originally published June 30 2005
Wind could become major Utah power source
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
According to the U.S. Interior Department, Utah's landscape is ripe for wind harvest, capable of turning turbines that could contribute 741 megawatts to the electrical grid.
It may be a power source, turning turbines that could contribute 741 megawatts to the electrical grid, according to the U.S. Interior Department.
That would be nearly three times the amount of electricity presently generated by the breath of Mother Nature in this state, according to the "Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on Wind Energy Development on BLM-Administered Lands in the Western United States."
"Our quality of life and our economic security are dependent on a stable and affordable supply" of abundant energy, Rebecca Watson, assistant secretary of the Interior Department for land and minerals management, said during a telephone press conference.
"In the last 4 1/2 years, we've issued 74 permits" to develop the resource, she said.
A chart in the document shows non-BLM land in Utah hosts turbines generating 162 megawatts, while BLM holdings are responsible for 98 megawatts.
An appendix marks these Utah areas in dark blue, meaning they have "high wind resource" potential: spots in the vicinity of Castle Valley, near Moab; a broken arc from Trout Creek to a region west of Kanosh; scattered sites around Milford; a stretch about 30 miles northwest of Mexican Hat; places north and west of Price; east of Salina, and west and south of Hanksville; a few sites in western Box Elder County, and a series of areas west of Ivans, Washington County.
These scattered localities amount to 12,700 acres in Utah where wind potential might be developed, she said.
The calculations take into account factors such as wilderness areas or wilderness study areas where projects could not be built, as well as the availability of transmission lines.
An energy bill pending before Congress seeks authority to permit alternative energy in other areas, including wind, wave and current power.
"Right now, there is no one federal agency that has authority to permit renewable energy in the Outer Continental Shelf," she said.
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