From "Windy City" to "Wind POWERED City"

Anybody who has spent much time walking down the streets of Chicago can surely appreciate how much wind whips through this city at any given time. Recently, I began to ponder why we aren't harnessing more of that wind power in order to help with our enormous appetite for electricity. 

If there were just one moderately small sized wind turbine generator on every building in this city (or even just downtown!), Can you imagine how much power that could create for us? Just think about it. Power to help run our air conditioners in the summer, our electric heaters in the winter, or even those beautiful city lights every night all year long! This could prevent a lot of coal from being burned, nuclear waste from being created, and money from leaving our checking accounts.

The benefits could go way beyond that as well. I'm imagining thousands of jobs being created to produce, install, and maintain the units. More jobs and lower bills would undoubtedly help our economy by resulting in more people with more momey that can be spent elsewhere. Such use of wind power would obviously cut down on pollution, and can send a surge of money into the industry causing further development and expansion of wind technology. It just may also cause other major cities to realize that they could do the same thing too.

"But how do we implement such an idea?" Well, this is Chicago, a city that is masterful at making people do and pay for things they don't neccessarily want. Some small examples would include; the ridiculously high taxes Cook County charges on tobacco product (in the name of our health), the $50 fines imposed if you park on the wrong side of the street on "street cleaning day", and we even pay a bottled water tax now (supposedly to lessen the amount of plastic bottles that end up in landfills). I won't even get into the laundry-list of codes and regulations that apply to doing pretty much ANYTHING within the city limits.

So, I'd suggest maybe more tax breaks for those that use wind power? Perhaps some sort of fines or extra taxes (the Chicago way) for not using alternative electricity sources? Hell, why not just sign a bill into law that would require any landlord with 2-3 or more rental units to mandatorily install a wind power generator on their tennants roof? I would certainly back this idea!

Well, if I'm just half the writer I think I am you, by now you're asking, "now what can I do about it?" Glad you asked! Best thing you can do now to help is to talk about it. Tell anyone who will listen. But most importantly, tell someone who can do something about it. Here is small list of resources to get you started:

Office of the Mayor:

Address:  Office of the Mayor

City Hall - 121 N LaSalle, Room 507

Chicago, IL 60602

Fax: 312-744-8045

(That's ALL the info they had published for him)

Find & Contact your Alderman:

http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalProgramAction.do?programId=536879154&channelId=-536879035&topChannelName=Government

Or go to the big man himself...

President Elect Barrack Obama:

Online contact forms:

http://answercenter.barackobama.com/cgi-bin/barackobama.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php

http://obama.senate.gov/contact/

How to get a hold of Barack Obama:

Washington D.C. Office 
713 Hart Senate Office Building 
Washington, D.C. 20510 
(202) 224-2854 
(202) 228-4260 fax 
(202 228-1404 TDD 
Email

Chicago Office 
John C. Kluczynski Federal Office Building 
230 South Dearborn St. 
Suite 3900 (39th floor) 
Chicago, Illinois 60604 
(312) 886-3506 
(312) 886-3514 fax 
Toll free: (866) 445-2520 
(for IL residents only)

Springfield Office 
607 East Adams Street 
Springfield, Illinois 62701 
(217) 492-5089 
(217) 492-5099 fax

Marion Office 
701 North Court Street 
Marion, Illinois 62959 
(618) 997-2402 
(618) 997-2850 fax

Moline Office 
1911 52nd Avenue 
Moline, Illinois 61265 
(309)736-1217 
(309)736-1233 fax 

And have your friends and co-workers do the same.

Call, write, fax, or email them and let them know you want to see more rooftop wind power generators in this city! Feel free to quote me or send them a link to this story!

Thanks!