Of immediate concern to eco-energy planning is wind power, beloved as a renewable resource with no air pollutants and considered worthy of regulatory preference and open-ended taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies. Despite decades of liberal subsidy, however, the cost of generating electricity from wind still remains stubbornly uneconomical in an increasingly competitive electric market. Many leading wind power providers have encountered financial difficulty, and the retirement of capacity appears as likely as new projects in the United States without major new government subsidy.

On the environmental side, wind power is noisy, land-intensive, a visual blight and, worst of all, a hazard to birds. While the first three environmental problems could be ignored, the indiscriminate killing of thousands of birds -- including endangered species protected by federal law -- has created controversy and confusion within the mainstream environmental community.