If ever the country needed a lesson in the dangers of being dependent on fossil fuels for energy, the spike in gasoline prices in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the predictions of a 30 percent or more increase in heating oil prices this winter should do it.

The United States is in desperate need of an energy policy that begins to erode the death grip that oil has on its economy. Unfortunately, Congress and the president have been satisfied with passing laws that further the country’s oil addiction while paying tribute to some of the world’s most profitable companies with massive tax breaks.

There is hope, however, that as oil continues its price climb that market forces – with a nudge from state and local policymakers – we can begin a new chapter in the story of the country’s energy sector.

Endless Energy Corp., a private company that hopes to build two lines of windmills in Franklin County, will hold an information meeting Wednesday to discuss its project. The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Sugarloaf Touring Center.

The company would like to place large wind-driven turbines atop two mountain ridges in northern Franklin County. EEC has plans to build 12 turbines on Redington Pond Range and 18 more on Black Nubble Mountain. Together, the turbines have the potential to produce enough electricity to power 33,000 homes a year, or to replace 50,000 gallons of oil a day. Oil is used to produce between 6 and 16 percent of New England’s electricity.

Endless Energy is not alone in its interest in Maine’s wind. TransCanada Corp., a Canadian energy company, is considering projects along four ridgelines in Kibby and Skinner townships.

Wind energy makes sense. It’s renewable and clean.Wind power from Redington could remove 800,000 pounds of pollution from the air, which is the equivalent of taking 26,000 cars off the road.

Most of the opposition to the Franklin County project comes from people who are concerned that the turbines will create a unsightly scar upon nature. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but windmills seem to be one of the least invasive of all means to produce electricity.

Take a look at the coal mining in West Virginia – that’s a scar. Entire mountaintops are sheared off, leaving the land and water severely damaged in a bare, moonscape-like environment. The burning of coal pours thousands of pounds of pollutants, including mercury, into the air, which falls into Maine’s lakes and streams, making the fish inedible.

Natural gas, one of the cleaner fossil fuels, accounts for about 29 percent of the power production in New England. Prices and supply have been volatile, driving up the cost to generate electricity. Nuclear power, a source of about 26 percent of New England’s electricity, has its own problems, both in perception and reality. Nuclear waste is a problem that lingers for generations, and the facilities make an attractive target for terrorists.

Speaking strictly of aesthetics, modern windmills are handsome, even hypnotic. They are sleek and relatively quiet. Standing underneath one, you can have a normal conversation.

High energy prices and the United States’ dependence on unstable regions of the world for oil, make finding alternative energy sources a question of national and economic security.

Maine is blessed by the topography and geography necessary to harness the power of the wind. We should put that blessing to good use.