ILLINOIS STUDIES GREAT LAKES WIND

Evanston takes a look at wind turbines in Lake Michigan
Jeff Long (w/Brian Cox), April 14, 2010 (Chicago Tribune)

"…[G]iant wind-turbines one day could tower above the waves of Lake Michigan several miles off shore, generating enough electricity to power the city's 30,000 homes…[The Evanston, Illinois, City Council] voted 9-0 to ask developers to submit their ideas about building the massive turbines…Ald. Judy Fiske said she thinks the city should proceed cautiously…

"The wind turbines-in-the-lake concept has been discussed elsewhere, including Chicago…The request could pit traditional allies against each other in a debate over clean air versus pristine lake water, a new arena that means different things to different people…Some say the super-size turbines would cut greenhouse gas emissions and provide a sustainable form of energy. Others warn the 200-foot structures could upset the delicate ecological balance of fish and other wildlife habitats, create an eyesore and become hazards to navigation and to migratory birds…"

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"The debate also could help sort out regulatory battles over who exactly controls the lake — from the state legislature to the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency…Evanston expects to seek permission from all of those agencies, if the project goes beyond the planning stage. The towers would be built about six to nine miles off shore.

"The idea is so new that the permit process doesn't even exist yet in Illinois or anywhere among the Great Lakes states…Michigan has bills pending that would regulate offshore wind energy, sparked in part by a Norwegian company's proposal to build 200 turbines in the lake some four miles from the shores…And a nonprofit development group formed recently near Cleveland with an eye toward promoting construction of hundreds of turbines in Lake Erie."

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"Chicago officials, meanwhile, began talking about wind turbines four or five years ago…But concerns over the threat they pose to migrating birds ended the discussion…Residents along the lakes need to ask plenty of questions about such projects…

"Evanston, which has been looking at ways to be more environmentally friendly since it signed the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement in 2006, considers the proposal a way to reduce the emissions that contribute to global warming…City officials want to look at all the issues surrounding wind power…Officials are already bracing for possible winds of discontent…The Alliance for the Great Lakes — an organization typically skeptical about most man-made intrusions into the vast natural resource it defends and promotes — is open to hearing what ideas take shape…"