If the question involves cost-efficiency in providing energy, that is.

As Bloomberg Business Week tells us, wind power advocates are taking Wal-Mart to task for raising a legitimate concern about a new Nantucket Sound wind farm dubbed Cape Wind.

Wal-Mart doesn’t buy electricity directly from National Grid, though it does pay the utility to deliver power it purchases elsewhere. The retailer is concerned about how the $1 billion cost of Cape Wind will be recovered, says spokesman Bill Wertz. Although he has no estimate of the additional costs the company might incur, Wertz says, “We feel it isn’t fair to raise rates for people who are not going to receive the electricity directly.”

National Grid argues that everyone benefits from clean energy so it makes sense to spread the costs. While Cape Wind entails hefty initial costs, over time it will help lower rates if coal and natural gas prices rise, says Jim Gordon, president of Cape Wind Associates, which is building the wind farm.

Of course, the ?if? in the last sentence depends on government taking steps to help raise the price of these more cost-efficient energy sources.

Click the following links to read Daren Bakst?s work on wind power myths.