Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Climate Crisis

52% of S. Dakota’s Electricity comes from Wind Power and other Green Energy Triumphs even in Red States

Juan Cole 12/04/2022

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – About 10% of the electricity generated in the US comes from wind installations. It isn’t nearly enough, either to fight the climate crisis or just to improve people’s health. It has now become clear that the people who get lung cancer but do not smoke are living near coal-fired power plants. Now a study has shown that “the health advantages of wind energy could more than quadruple if operators prioritized reducing the output of the dirtiest fossil fuel-based power plants when wind energy is available.”

Although public health and combating climate change are admirable goals, the bottom line often counts more. Thus, Allianz is finally closing a large coal-fired plant in Iowa, but the reason is that wind power in Iowa is just cheaper for consumers.

Still, there is some good news. Factories fueled by clean energy and the jobs that both create are changing the minds of some Republicans who had opposed green energy, as in Dalton, Georgia.


Via Pixabay. File.

Joshua Haiar at Argus reports that last year 52% of South Dakota’s electricity was produced by the state’s wind turbines. South Dakota has become an exporter of electricity to other states, since it produces twice as much electricity as its uses.. More electricity is now produced by wind than by hydroelectricity in the state.

Last month, Montana’s largest wind farm, with a nameplate capacity of 750 megawatts — nearly equal to a small nuclear power plant — went on line and began generating electricity for neighboring Washington State.

Filed Under: Climate Crisis, Featured, Green Energy, wind energy

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • Pope Leo XIV’s Link to Haiti is Part of a broader American Story of Race, Citizenship and Migration
  • Libyan Gov't Decries Fake News about Taking 1 mn. Palestinian Refugees: "Committed to the Palestinian Cause"
  • As Trump urges End to Gaza Fighting, Half a Million Face Starvation and Israel bombs more Hospitals
  • For all Trump's new Mideast Contracts, Two Big Deals Elude Him
  • That Sucking Sound you hear is Trump Flushing America down the Toilet

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved