Argumentative Essay On Wind Energy

Electricity is a vital thing in a day of the life of an American. Technological advancements have been able to help create new ways of producing the energy needed for that electricity. These new ways of producing energy are cheaper, safer, and have a better impact on the environment than fossil fuel based energy production. Of the new styles of creating energy, wind power has made its impact in the Midwest and has reached its way into Indiana. The use of wind power has proved it’s worth and will be a better investment for Indiana and the surrounding states because it is a renewable resource that pays for itself. As commuters travel north on I-65 through rural Indiana, they pass through the Meadow Lake Wind Farm. For some Hoosiers, the wind

This county has a ban on commercial wind turbines (Tindera 2). The environmental concerns of the wind farms including noise, aesthetic impacts, and avian/bat mortality have created this ban of wind energy production. Along with the fear of decreasing property values and issues with supply and transport of electricity produced, this county has chosen to totally outlaw them (Wind Energy Basics 3). Wind energy is not storable so it must be used immediately, but wind patterns blow more at night and during the summer which is when the need for electricity is at the lowest point (Tindera 5). Dave and Stephanie Hulthen, from Dekalb County Illinois, have a first hand experience with a backyard wind farm and don’t enjoy having them nearby. They live within a mile to 13 of 146 wind turbines with two being 1400 feet from their home’s foundation. They wake from sleep to the noise levels, also vibrations that rock their bodies, and shadows that sometimes flashes inside their home. The claim the flickering can last up to 45 minutes some mornings (Grieshop 1-2). And Milo Shaffner from Van Wert, Ohio says that he lives in farm country and the wind turbines turned the great landscape into industry, and that they don’t belong there (Thompson

Jerry Rolsten of Mendon, Ohio believes in progress and wants the wind farms to continue going up (Thompson 2). There are many positive viewpoints to the newly developed wind farms. “Wind farms produce no air or water pollution because no fuel is burned. Coal is known to be the dirtiest of all fossil fuels and has been connected with acid rain, as well as air pollution caused by particulates” (Parks 61), but that’s not the only reason wind energy is better than fossil fuel energy. Americans will no longer have to be dependent on the foreign fossil fuels because wind turbines diversify our energy portfolio, and the US will no longer be funding other countries and terrorist groups in the midwest (Engdahl 69). Not only is wind energy better than fossil fuel energy, it is also better than other new energy sources. “Wind costs are much more competitive with other generating technologies because there is no fuel to purchase and minimal operating expenses” (Wind Energy Basics 3). And as for the environmental concerns of bird population, the American Wind Energy Association said, “the modern wind turbine is far less harmful to birds than are radio towers, tall buildings, airplanes and vehicles and numerous other manmade objects. Bird deaths due to wind development will never be more than a very small fraction to those caused by other commonly accepted human activities” (Parks 58). So why is this now being