Can we now acknowledge that wind power is here? Scores of towers with propellers poised to begin spinning out electricity stand majestically (or ostentatiously, depending on your viewpoint) on slopes off Route 190 between Ellenburg and Malone. The protests continue, though seemingly with less volume as the structures are built.
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Gasoline verges on $4 a gallon, and some experts are predicting $6 before the current crisis abates. Fuel oil next winter will bring a new round of outrage and nail biting. The calls for alternative energy sources will only become more urgent.
Detractors of wind power will point out that the voltage being cranked out in Ellenburg and elsewhere will be only a drop in the power pool. That is correct -- for now.
The hope, of course, is that an amalgam of wind, solar, hydro and perhaps as yet unconceived benign and infinite sources of electricity will one day conspire to provide most of our energy needs. Wind power has been by far the most controversial so far because of the intrusive character of the towers themselves. In Ellenburg, the blades on some of the towers are now moving, and a passerby can hear a faint whooshing by getting within 30 or 40 feet of the devices. Otherwise, they can't be heard. And it's hard to imagine that the much-ballyhooed flicker of the sunlight as it is interrupted by the moving blades could ever constitute any kind of annoyance. Still, if you don't like looking at the 400-foot-high towers, little can be done to mitigate that discomfort.
This new, intensified emphasis on the production of electricity from alternate sources can be an opportunity for more than petroleum-free energy. Noble Environmental Power of Connecticut, one of the early entrants in the North County wind-energy sweepstakes, has given to Clinton and North Country Community Colleges $50,000 grants to establish a degree program in alternative energy. Cynics will say this is an example of a well financed corporation buying its way into local hearts in spite of a controversial development.
Regardless of how you feel about the appearance of windmills on North Country landscapes, however, the proposed degree program is good for students, as well as for Noble. The major will provide a steady stream of technicians to deal for Noble's workforce as well as that of competitors. Just as important is the fact that it will provide good jobs in the area for local students who want to build a future without moving away. For the college, it can afford an offering that should attract more students to its campus.
If this is corporate opportunism, let's have more of it. A frequent complaint locally is that there are too few professions that give local kids prospects for a good future close to home.
Some communities in the North Country haven't yet resolved the wind-power dilemma. For the ones that have, the towers appear destined to bring more than electricity. They promise prosperity on a number of fronts.
