The combination is producing an unintended result: West Coast utilities and independent power producers are locked in a land rush to secure the best wind sites and the power they produce. Coupled with a worldwide shortage of turbines and a falling dollar, the resulting scarcity is driving up the cost of wind power -- a burden that electricity ratepayers ultimately will shoulder...

Meanwhile, experts are already questioning whether the West Coast states' progressively higher mandates will outstrip the region's potential supply of green power or its ability to move that power around the electrical grid...

Renewables advocates reject any notion of a shortage. They claim there are adequate projects in the pipeline to meet early targets and plenty more to tap if big players get moving. If wave, tidal, geothermal and solar technologies mature, they could be big contributors as well.