This past week has provided a great window into the choices facing this country as it attempts to meet its ever-growing energy needs. Last week, Congress decided the country should sate itself with foreign oil, nuclear power and some wind power. Now, as Gail Kinsey Hill reports for The Oregonian, the Beaver state is making good use of the third option.

Orion Energy of Oakland, Calif., plans to develop a wind farm in Sherman County with 225 turbines and a 450-megawatt capacity, the largest project of its kind in Oregon and, perhaps, the country.

The breezy Columbia River Gorge has established itself as a choice spot for wind generation. But Orion's Biglow Canyon project, to sprawl across thousands of acres near the towns of Rufus and Wasco, is notable for its size. Along with other recent wind-farm announcements, Orion's plans underscore not only developers' interest in ever larger-scale projects, but the rapid maturing of a business sector.

[...]

Wind is a variable resource and doesn't produce the nonstop electricity of traditional natural gas- or coal- fired power plants. Adjusted to account for wind's ups and downs, a megawatt of wind energy capacity is estimated to generate enough power to continuously light up 250 homes.

It's good to see some regions of the country making good use of the new energy bill.