Wind Notes: More Local Power, More Green Jobs... and No More Coal

Watching the wind whip across the prairie, how can you not think about using some of that power for good? Here are some weekend readings on wind power:

• Mike Knutson at Reimagine Rural discusses “Lessons & Concepts for Advancing Community Wind,” a new report from Minnesota Project. Community wind challenges the corporate wind farm paradigm and promotes the kind of local self-sufficiency that would do our pioneer predecessors proud.
• I've mentioned that wind power can create twice as many jobs as a similar investment in fossil-fuel power. Among those green jobs—some hard-core granola jobs for rock climbers who put their rope skills to use patching turbine blades.
• Community wind power could bring some much needed jobs and autonomy to the Rosebud and other tribal communities. It would also help tribes meet the goals of the Mystic Lake Declaration, a statement issued by "nearly 400 Native leaders, scholars, elders, tribal college students and scientists" at the second indigenous people's Climate Change Workshop last month in Prior Lake, Minnesota. The Mystic Lake Declaration calls for an immediate moratorium on oil, gas, coal, and uranium exploration, with the aim of eliminating all fossil fuels and nuclear power.