There's money aloft over Highland County, but not everyone is sure they want those dollars snatched to earth in their quiet corner of the world.

The issue, as outlined by staff writer Lauren Fulbright in Sunday's News Leader, is all about wind power and the turbines necessary to capture it.

Landowner Henry McBride formed Highland New Wind Development with plans of creating Virginia's first wind farm for the commercial generation of electricity.

For McBride, building 13 to 19 wind turbines is a matter of economics. The nation is hungry for energy and consumers will reward those who bring new energy to market. Beyond his personal gain, for Highland County the windmills could mean $200,000 in tax revenue each year.

But for others in the sparsely populated region, the sight of turbines along the ridge line is an insult. The specter of bats and birds killed by the twirling arms of giant windmills is too much to bear.

What has been playing out is a typical pro- and anti-development argument. At the moment, development seems to be winning.

We've said before that it's important that Highland do this soul-searching together as a community before charting its course. The initial signal has been that the development is worth the cost. But we do worry that the big picture can get lost in what's essentially a locally focused debate.

Energy is a national problem and could become even more of a national nightmare. We all use it and we all have to look for partial solutions, because there is no one silver bullet.

Wind does hold allure as an alternative energy source. It's clean and it's largely untapped.

On the issue of viewsheds: Highland County's will be changed if windmills line the ridgetop. Just as the Valley's has been altered by the smog from what are always referred to as Midwestern, coal-fired power plants. Just as Alaska's wilderness has been marred by pipelines. Just as West Virginia long has been exploited for its coal. So someone is going to have to ask: are windmills an acceptable sight to maintain or improve our nation's energy security? We're energy hungry as nation, and even if we can get the growth of our appetite under control, it's unlikely we'll ever go back to whale oil lamps to light our homes. So what can we do?

On the issue of wildlife: It's difficult to see, no doubt, the dead wildlife that can and probably will stack up beneath these rotating behemoths. It's an emotional image and easily exploited. If this project moves ahead, McBride and company should do all they can to minimize the carnage.

But if the bodies of birds and bats can sway us to ignore a power source, we need to consider stacking the sacrifices of those who have been killed in coal mines to light our homes, the people who die of respiratory problems caused by burning coal and the carrion of fish birds and other wildlife resulting from acid rain. For those who believe the Iraq war is all about securing a cheap source of oil, the sacrifices of the current war are also entered into the equation. Then the bats and birds would be in proper perspective.

Wind power might seem a hopelessly inadequate measure, compared with our energy needs and it's only a drop in the bucket. But it's time we get busy trying to figure out how to fill that new bucket, because the old one has a hole in it.