Nothing But Good News on Wind Power

Good news on wind power—but wait, there's more!

1. Mike Knutson at Reimagine Rural finds (via The Rural Blog and Fortune Magazine) a study showing that the wind power industry employs 85,000 workers... 4,000 more than the coal mining industry! That's also a one-year increase of 70%.
   
2. SDPB's state news break just reported that Public Utilities Commissioners Dusty Johnson and Steve Kolbeck predict South Dakota will double its wind power generating capacity in 2010. (Again, not a word or a whine about the demise of smoky dirty Big Stone II.)
3. Meanwhile, Kansas City Power & Light is looking to quadruple its wind power capacity by 2012, per an agreement it signed with the Sierra Club. Cost note: KCP&L built a 100.5-megawatt wind farm in Spearville, Kansas, for $164 million in 2006. That's $1.6 million per megawatt. Big Stone II's smoky dirty coal power would have cost $2.7 million per megawatt.