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Indianapolis Star Winds of change High demand: A White Construction crane lifts a rotor onto an 80-meter-high
wind tower at a wind energy farm in St. Leon, Manitoba. Clinton, Ind.-based
White says it is the nation's third-largest installer of wind farms. -
Photo provided by White Construction But their motives have less to do with the green of a healthy environment, some political observers say, and more to do with the green to be made in a growing economy. While there's little promise lawmakers will approve major environmental legislation this year, advocates say the discussion at least is headed that way. And the prospect for Hoosiers is cleaner air and opportunities for new energy companies to start and grow in Indiana. Various Republican proposals in the Indiana General Assembly would give tax breaks to encourage more gas stations to pump ethanol and biodiesel and more motorists to use it. Some would even require more electricity to be generated by synthetic gases made from farm waste or coal, by solar panels and even by wind farms. That last item perked the interest of White Construction, a Clinton, Ind., contractor that says it is the nation's third- largest installer of wind farms. White expects its workload to double this year from last, but to its frustration, none of those projects will be in Indiana. "The environmental end is very important, but truly, it's economically viable. (Wind farms) would be such a boon to Indiana from an economic development standpoint," said Steve Aker, a White project manager. The greening of the GOP has accelerated as businesses such as White have seen opportunities for profits in clean energy. Crude oil and natural gas recently have sold at record highs while technological advances have made environmentally friendly fuels cheaper. As a result, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. plan to sell thousands of cars that can burn corn-based ethanol in addition to crude-based gasoline. Companies such as Cinergy Corp. are studying wind, solar and other energy sources as a better alternative to the billions of dollars they're spending to put emissions controls in their smokestacks. Private developers are jockeying for contracts to supply such energies to Cinergy and other utilities. "Forward-looking businesses are looking for opportunities to make money," said Leigh Raymond, a political scientist and assistant director of the Climate Change Research Center at Purdue University. Among politicians, he added, "you will see a breakdown of party lines (on energy issues)." Rural areas hit hard by the loss of manufacturers are looking to energy to bring in investment and jobs. With more ethanol in use, farmers would have another market for their corn. With wind farms, farmers could lease small portions of their land -- for about $4,000 per wind turbine -- and still plant crops or graze cattle. These possibilities prompted House Republicans to place several energy incentives among their top priorities when the legislature convened this month. Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, approved tax credits -- passed unanimously last year by lawmakers -- on the production of ethanol, biodiesel, coal gas and biomass energy. His administration then spent its first year promoting ethanol plants, pumps and vehicles, and established Reynolds, Ind., as "BioTown" to test new energy sources. The Daniels administration has given tax incentives to eight ethanol or biodiesel plants, the first of which is scheduled to begin production in August. This week, U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., co-wrote a letter to support a mandate, proposed by state Rep. Don Lehe, R-Brookston, to require utilities to derive a specific percentage of their power supply from renewable sources. Lugar, also a Republican, argues that alternative energy could boost the economy and, because it's made at home, could protect the United States from further foreign conflicts. Not this year Supporting these proposals, however, is far from making them law. Most of the energy proposals at the Statehouse will have to wait till next year. Two different House committees watered down alternative energy bills this week. Lehe's House Bill 1379, after input from Daniels' staff, was referred to a summer study committee, which will consider both renewable energy mandates and tax credits. Power utilities say they support greater use of clean energies but do not want a government mandate. "There are growing numbers of people -- even Republicans, for God's sake -- that are supporting this," said John Clark, Daniels' senior adviser for economic growth and director of energy and defense development. "(But) we're trying to be deliberative about it. . . . Before we run off half-cocked here, we want to make sure we do it right." Proponents of renewable energy say Indiana would hardly be hasty if it followed the 21 states and the District of Columbia that have mandates similar to the one Lehe proposed. It would have required utilities to derive 2 percent of their power output from renewable energy by 2008. That threshold gradually would have risen to 10 percent by 2016. Such mandates, by requiring utilities to buy renewable energy, give private developers long-term assurance that they will get a return on their investments, which total hundreds of millions of dollars, proponents say. And not until developers start projects can firms such as White Construction build them. In addition, recent research shows the northern two-thirds of Indiana has plentiful wind resources, enough to supply more than twice as much electricity as the state's currently capacity, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Not so fast, utilities say But utility companies question the need for such mandates. They argue they already are working to develop wind energy and other renewable sources. "These technologies should be put on line as their merits dictate and not through some arbitrary figure," said Rob Norris, spokesman for Cinergy, which serves 750,000 Hoosier customers through its PSI Energy unit. Seeing the energy proposals stymied frustrated many groups. But Grant Smith, executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana and a longtime advocate of renewable energy, found a bit of solace. "At least now we have Representative Lehe and others, both Republicans and Democrats, recognizing the potential here," he said.
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