I saw a General Electric ad last night on television that touted wind power as a way to help us gain usa energy independence. i am not against wind power or other alternative energies. However, right now the primary energy sources wind power will replace are the coal and uranium required to generate electricity. To claim that wind power will help us become energy independent is disingenuous, naive or worse.

It is not only General Electric Company that creates this confusion about wind power and energy independence, many politicians and even some environmental activist groups either purposely or naively mislead us that wind power is an important element in gaining energy independence. Wind power can help us reduce carbon emissions by replacing coal fired electric generating plants. It cannot significantly help the U.S. gain energy independence. Here's why. Currently the US has the largest coal reserves in the world. Almost fifty percent of the electricity generated in the United States is generated from coal powered boilers. Wind power will not significantly replace foreign oil. It can replace coal.

Even with the arrival of hybrid cars, electric cars, and other energy systems for automobiles, it will still take us decades to rid ourselves of the addiction for offshore oil that keeps the US tittering on the brink of chaos.

Just a five to ten percent decrease in offshore oil could create an oil shortage that mirrors what happened during the Arab Oil embargo of 1973. A terrorist attack on a pipeline, a takeover of oil production in Nigeria, instability in Argentina all could reduce offshore oil supplies by more than five percent. Given the weak state of the U.S and the world economies in the current recession, the results could send us back to a worldwide depression that could take decades to shake.

So, the next time you hear someone suggest that wind power will lead us to energy independence, set them straight.