The wind energy industry has been growing at nearly 30 percent per year for the last decade. The heavy push for more green energy has created a gold rush of sorts...which means buyer beware ...

Electricity is so cool. Always there for us, at the flick of a switch. But where, exactly, does it come from? And what gets hurt on its way? When deciding how to generate power, this much is clear. Oregonians don't like nukes. Too scary. And they don't like coal. Too dirty. They're not even sure about liquefied natural gas. What is that stuff, anyway? Hydro? Sure, Oregonians used to like hydro. But that was then: before salmon started disappearing by the gazillion. This is now: We're tearing out dams, not building new ones. But wait, here comes the answer: blowing in the wind. Make that in the safe, reliable, clean, green, free, fish-hugging wind. We all love windmills, right? But hang on there, Bub. What about loving windmills in your backyard?

So far, it's been a breeze embracing the growth of wind energy in Oregon as a small part of a broader strategy on global climate change. But a recent proposal for the Columbia River Gorge suggests the industry is about to take a wrong turn and come into direct conflict with the state's cherished livability while also marring our unique landscapes.......In short, this project doesn't add up for the gorge or for Oregon. The governor and the Legislature should immediately enact a moratorium on new commercial wind plants in the state. The Oregon Department of Energy, through its Energy Facility Siting Council, needs time to update rules that were drawn up before the advent of these huge energy-generating factories.

Just about everyone in the Northwest should be concerned about the potentially devastating effects of climate change. And just about everyone should realize that there is only one way to head off the environmental disaster looming ahead -- an aggressive combination of improvements in energy efficiency and a major increase in the use of energy sources that do not release global-warming gases. With no possibility of increases in our large-scale hydropower projects and now talk of removing some existing dams, that means an increasing use of the only other large-scale, emissions-free source: Nuclear power.