Special to The Times

Today, fate in the wind:

Beware, Washington voters — wind power is too good to be true. Approving the November ballot initiative [I-937] won't solve a thing. The current hype over wind power's credentials as a "clean and renewable" source of energy is belied by wind power's Achilles' heel — its intermittency. This fundamental flaw limits both wind energy's capacity value and its impact on emissions.

As an intermittent electricity source, wind energy cannot replace conventional sources (coal, nuclear power and natural gas) of base-load electricity generation. We will continue to need and to expand these sources regardless of the amount of installed wind energy. Wind energy must be backed up by standby dispatchable generation (usually natural gas) for other than modest amounts of production. As wind-energy penetration grows, the need for backup and the associated emissions largely offset the purported emissions savings.

Current federal and state programs are promoting an energy source (1) whose energy doesn't contribute to base-load capacity (that must be maintained and expanded in any event); (2) whose cost, notwithstanding the production tax credit, is higher than production from conventional sources of base-load electricity; and (3) whose contribution to reducing emissions is negligible at best.

Worse still, the net effect of these policies is to transfer wealth — from all consumers of electricity and federal taxpayers — to the pockets of a few beneficiaries — the Florida Power & Lights and J.P. Morgans of this world.

Simply put: Current federal and state programs promoting wind energy, however well-intentioned, are ill-conceived. Washington voters would be well-advised not to make the same mistake.

Hugh Kemper writes from Londonderry, Vt.