First of all, if any tea party supporters out there own wind energy interests, you should sell them immediately. Why? No guardian of the constitution would partner with the US and state government to support a technology that has been at the public trough for thirty years and STILL gets greater than 50% of its revenue stream from subsidy, mandate and government favor. The industry rides a wave of Enron-like rent seeking skill but fails to prove any pollution offset value. Germany's central grid manager EON.Netz has rebuked its value there
http://www.countryguardian.net/EON_Netz_Windreport2005_eng.pdf, and Mr. Obama has grossly overstated Denmark's use of the stuff in proclaiming them a model for the US energy future.
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2009/09/14/something-rotten-obama-says-danes-receive-20-of-their-power-via-wind-new-study-tells-the-real-story/The land sprawl factor for wind energy is outlandish, with project footprints over 500 times that of coal or nuclear facilities based on raw productivity, and several thousand times greater based on reliable, steady stream (schedulable) production.
The output is so skittish that the entire rest of the grid must work much harder just to maintain voltage and frequency control, and as wind energy is further deployed, this situation will cause reactive supply resources to operate at much lower efficiencies, adding significantly to their emissions per unit of output.
Storage schemes such as new hydro, batteries, capacitors, flywheels and "ice warehouses" are inefficient and expensive, and a long way from being scalable.
Many supporting documents can be accessed at
www.savewesternOH.org which also supports a "climate realism" posture, refuting Revelle's early work and Al Gore's obsession with it.
I am available to speak on this topic at any size gathering. e-mail to
TStacy@savewesternOH.org