The New York Times had a couple interesting energy stories this week.
First, there was a report on the military’s embrace of alternative fuel sources—getting fossil fuels to mobile units was becoming prohibitively expensive and dangerous:
Even as Congress has struggled unsuccessfully to pass an energy bill and many states have put renewable energy on hold because of the recession, the military this year has pushed rapidly forward. After a decade of waging wars in remote corners of the globe where fuel is not readily available, senior commanders have come to see overdependence on fossil fuel as a big liability, and renewable technologies — which have become more reliable and less expensive over the past few years — as providing a potential answer.
The second addresses issues arising from a small wind farm on the island of Vinalhaven in Maine. Turns out the sound is driving some people nuts:
“The quality of life that we came here for was quiet,” Mrs. Lindgren said. “You don’t live in a place where you have to take an hour-and-15-minute ferry ride to live next to an industrial park. And that’s where we are right now.”
It’s an interesting look at the trade-offs often inherent in new green technologies.
