Kansas trailing other states in wind energy efforts
Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack challenged regulators and utility companies in his state a few years ago to produce 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2010. The push, known as a renewable portfolio standard and other incentives, has helped develop Iowa into a national wind energy leader. With 135 giant wind turbines towering in the rural landscape of Wright and Hamilton counties and several other wind farms in north-central Iowa, the state has become the nation’s third-leading wind-energy producer behind Texas and California.

Wind plan whips up opposition
Proposal to plant 130 clean-energy wind turbines in the middle of posh Nantucket Sound has glitterati like the Kennedys in an uproar. On one of those sunny, cloudless days that makes this island a summertime playground for the rich and famous, about the only things visible on the horizon are the white sails of the pleasure craft that ply the waters between here and Cape Cod. A Boston-based energy company wants to add something else to the view - a thicket of 130 wind turbines that would occupy 24 square miles of salt water between Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the cape. Known as Cape Wind, the $1billion project would be the first in the U.S. to be built offshore, an approach that has been used in Europe and offers advantages over land-based wind projects, according to energy experts. But this clean-energy proposal has whipped up the kind of intense local opposition that once was reserved for nuclear power plants or radioactive waste facilities.

Climate Change Will Reach Point Of No Return In 20 Years
The world only has 10 years to develop and implement new technologies to generate clean electricity before climate change reaches the point of no return - something the U.K. government failed to appreciate in its recent energy review, according to an expert. He said the government's recent energy review had failed to address the problem and had simply reiterated two long-held assumptions: that wind power should provide 15% of electricity by 2020 and that renewable energy alone could not fill the energy gap left by the decommissioning of nuclear and the demise of fossil-fuel power stations.

Subsidies won't solve energy problems
Three-dollar gas has driven Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to embark on a novel effort. He wants to spend $1.2 billion to help build plants to manufacture ethanol or biodiesel from corn and soybeans. These fuels, he promises, will provide half of the state's motor fuel needs by 2017, which will "free consumers from the grip of foreign oil" and "stabilize energy prices." This venture may sound like a liberal Democrat reverting to the energy policy of Jimmy Carter. But it also brings to mind another president – George W. Bush. His Advanced Energy Initiative includes subsidies for everything from solar and wind power to ethanol made from switch grass.