Reseña del libro "Chasing the Wind: Inside the Alternative Energy Battle (en Inglés)"
Over the past few decades, the vexing problems of climate change and finite resourceshave ignited contentious global debates about alternative energy technologies. In this lucid, balanced book, Rody Johnson investigates the development and deployment of onesuch technology--wind power--and, in particular, the ways in which a heated battle overthat energy source played out in an Appalachian community. Johnson's wide-ranging account examines the history of wind power; its capacity andoutput in comparison to such sources as fossil fuels, other renewables, and nuclear energy;the infrastructural challenges of transmitting electricity from wind farms to end users;global efforts to curb carbon emissions, including the Kyoto treaty; the role of publicpolicy, government subsidies, and tax breaks; and the differences and similarities betweenwind power regimes in the United States and Europe. Interwoven throughout this discussion is the compelling narrative of how, beginningin 2005, the proposed construction of a wind farm along mountain ridges in GreenbrierCounty, West Virginia, pitted locals against each other--a story that puts a human face onthe arguments about wind power's promise of clean, renewable energy and its potentiallynegative effects, including bird and bat kills, a disfigured natural landscape, and noisepollution. Drawing on countless hours he spent attending public meetings and interviewingthose on both sides of the issue, Johnson not only pictures the Greenbrier Countystruggle in illuminating detail but also makes valuable comparisons between it and similarlypitched battles in another West Virginia county, where a wind farm had already beenbuilt, and in Florida, where plans to erect beachside wind turbines next to a nuclear plantfaltered. Concluding with a thoughtful, realistic assessment of a 2012 study suggesting thatthe country has the capability of receiving 80 percent of its electrical generation fromrenewables by 2050, Chasing the Wind makes a vital contribution to the ongoing dialogueregarding America's energy challenges and what is likely required to meet them.
