Environment
In choosing energy, every source comes with detractors
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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — Hundreds of wind turbines line the high ridges along both sides of Interstate 80 in western Iowa, the state that leads the nation in corn-based ethanol production. Iowa is also the state that gets the highest proportion of its electricity – about 25 percent – from wind, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Michigan has about 675 operating wind turbines overall, with the largest wind turbine array in Gratiot County north of Lansing. Construction of Consumers Energy’s 62-turbine Cross Winds Energy Park in Tuscola County began last fall and is scheduled for completion this year. As of now, only 1 percent of the state’s electricity is wind-generated, according to federal figures.