Blowin': Wind's big even back East

The Oklahoman Editorial

Published: September 11, 2008

What Oklahoma is doing with its most natural resource — wind — is being copied in some unlikely places.

Wind power is in the news these days, with the University of Oklahoma announcing Wednesday it plans by 2013 to buy all its Norman campus electricity from wind power. The subject is even being talked up in the Eastern time zone, of all places.

Tiny Delaware is set to become the first state to develop an offshore wind farm, about 12 miles off the coast of its most famous beach town, Rehoboth. It's difficult to imagine the folks there putting up with windmills, even if they will be mostly out of sight. But as one official explained, $4 gasoline has a way of changing people's minds about energy.

Meantime, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is proposing a study about how wind turbines can be built across the city. Bloomberg insists he's serious. But does anybody else believe for a minute this is a serious proposal? Wind turbines in New York?

Still, wind power is a fashionable issue and Oklahoma is poised to take advantage of it. Our state ranks among the top 10 nationally in wind production. Some folks, including those at OG&E, believe Oklahoma could end up climbing to No. 2 or 3 in the next decade or so, if forward-thinking development takes place.

Boone Pickens, of course, is keeping wind at the forefront with his $58 million ad campaign that promotes wind and natural gas as reliable sources of energy that can help cut our reliance on foreign oil. More importantly, Pickens will spend $11 billion to build a wind farm in west Texas.

All in all, it's a heady time for this energy source in Oklahoma, in which wind sweeping down the plain can finally be put to good — and profitable — use.

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