<DIV>Over the past few decades, the vexing problems of climate change and finite resources<BR> have ignited contentious global debates about alternative energy technologies. In this lucid,<BR> balanced book, Rody Johnson investigates the development and deployment of one<BR> such technology?wind power?and, in particular, the ways in which a heated battle over<BR> that energy source played out in an Appalachian community.<BR><br> Johnson’s wide-ranging account examines the history of wind power; its capacity and<BR> output in comparison to such sources as fossil fuels, other renewables, and nuclear energy;<BR> the infrastructural challenges of transmitting electricity from wind farms to end users;<BR> global efforts to curb carbon emissions, including the Kyoto treaty; the role of public<BR> policy, government subsidies, and tax breaks; and the differences and similarities between<BR> wind power regimes in the United States and Europe.<BR><br> Interwoven throughout this discussion is the compelling narrative of how, beginning<BR> in 2005, the proposed construction of a wind farm along mountain ridges in Greenbrier<BR> County, West Virginia, pitted locals against each other?a story that puts a human face on<BR> the arguments about wind power’s promise of clean, renewable energy and its potentially<BR> negative effects, including bird and bat kills, a disfigured natural landscape, and noise<BR> pollution. Drawing on countless hours he spent attending public meetings and interviewing<BR> those on both sides of the issue, Johnson not only pictures the Greenbrier County<BR> struggle in illuminating detail but also makes valuable comparisons between it and similarly<BR> pitched battles in another West Virginia county, where a wind farm had already been<BR> built, and in Florida, where plans to erect beachside wind turbines next to a nuclear plant<BR> faltered.<BR><br> Concluding with a thoughtful, realistic assessment of a 2012 study suggesting that<BR> the country has the capability of receiving 80 percent of its electrical generation from<BR> renewables by 2050, <I>Chasing the Wind</I> makes a vital contribution to the ongoing dialogue<BR> regarding America’s energy challenges and what is likely required to meet them.</DIV>