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Wind Power in the Pacific Northwest by Staff KUOW, August 13, 2008

We begin with a conversation on the week's news in Canada with Vaughn Palmer, political correspondent for the Vancouver Sun. Then, Puget Sound Energy announced last month that its Hopkins Ridge and Wild Horse wind farms have each produced more than a million megawatts of energy. Can new high-tech wind turbines really produce that much power? Several large developers are planning to build large wind farms in Oregon and Washington, which would almost triple the amount of wind energy produced in the Northwest. Can the grid handle all this new wind power? Where will these wind turbines go? Landowners in Kittitas County recently fought a project to put in 65 wind turbines, saying they reduce property value, create noise and shadows and kill birds. Do they?

GUESTS
Vaughn Palmer is a political correspondent for the Vancouver Sun.

Jessica Raker is a project manager at Northwest Sustainable Energy for Economic Development (SEED). It's developing a community-based wind project at Luna Point near Goldendale, WA.

Andy Wappler is senior public-relations manager for Puget Sound Energy. He's a former weatherman for KIRO TV.

Eliot Mainzer is the manager of Transmission Policy and Strategy for the Bonneville Power Administration.

Listen to podcast from the KUOW web site - the wind energy story begins about one-third the way into the progam.