08/21/06 BLM promotes wind energy

Last week the Bureau of Land Management completed its environmental review of the Cotterel Mountain wind project in Cassia County. Deputy Director Jim Hughes says the 98 turbines on BLM managed land could be a difference maker someday. HUGHES "In the heat of the summer sometimes we get very close and so these incremental increases that we're seeing could be the difference between having to go to a brown out or God forbid a blackout." Windland Developers expect to spend at least 250 million dollars on the turbines. HUGHES "We think it will generate about 12.5 million dollars in local sales tax revenue and more than a half a million dollars annually once full operations are underway." Hughes says BLM is looking at other wind energy projects in the West, projects that are environmentally friendly. HUGHES "By the end of 2006 the production of electrical power using wind is projected to conserve more than 500 million cubic feet of natural gas per day nationwide. Now that not only relieves the pressure on our gas supply but its less fossil fuels that we're burning that don't go up into the air." A couple of years ago Idaho didn't have a single wind turbine but that's changed but Cotterel is by far the biggest project of its kind in the state. Wind energy production in the US is expected to increase six fold by 2020. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott