AP answers your questions on the news, from an offshore wind farm to the US veteran population

Ask AP: Offshore wind farm, veteran population

Some proponents of a shift to greener energy have looked to wind power as an abundant and renewable source of power. Yet efforts to build “wind farms” in breezy areas a few miles offshore have run into problems as locals worry about the impact of massive turbines on wildlife, boats and planes.

These sorts of concerns have delayed one such project, off the coast of Massachusetts. And those delays have inspired one of the questions in this edition of “Ask AP,” a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers’ questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you’d like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions@ap.org, with “Ask AP” in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.

I’ve heard that the number of living U.S. veterans has been steadily declining in recent decades. Why has this happened?

Linda Johnson

Del Rio, Texas

The number of living veterans in America has been dropping over the last several decades because the military has never produced as many vets as it did in the 1940s.

There were more than 12 million people in uniform at the peak strength of the armed forces in 1945 — a draft military that fought World War II. When the war ended, the size of the military dropped to 2.5 million by the next year, according to Pentagon data.

There were some increases in the force during the Korean conflict, when the military peaked at 3.6 million in 1952, and for the Vietnam War when it hit 3.5 million in 1968. But the size of the armed services has remained pretty much around the million to 1.4 million mark ever since the post-Cold War drawdown of the 1990s. There are 1.4 million people in the active duty all-volunteer Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force today.

Meanwhile, as the active forces have gotten smaller, aging veterans have been dying at a rate of well over 630,000 a year since the start of this decade.

The Defense Department says it’s highly unlikely that the U.S. will ever have a military as big as it did for World War II, largely due to technological advances that have made combat less manpower-intensive.

Pauline Jelinek

Associated Press Writer, covering the Pentagon

Washington

For more than five years, developers have tried to start a major wind farm off Cape Cod and Nantucket in Massachusetts. Some residents oppose the project and there have been many delays. What’s the status of “Cape Wind” and when will it be built?

Daniel Lippman

Washington

The plan to build 130 wind turbines across a 25-square-mile swath of federal waters about five miles from the Cape Cod coast is still on, though it’s been mired in legal and regulatory battles.

Opponents of the project, in the works since 2001, claim the wind farm would pose a risk to birds and sea life and a danger to boats and planes. Opponents lost one of their most powerful political allies with the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy, an avid sailor and Cape Cod resident.

Supporters say the project will provide cheaper energy, reduce pollution and create green jobs.

Developer Cape Wind Associates LLC hopes the nation’s first offshore wind farm — estimated to cost $1.2 billion — will be operational by the end of 2011. The company says it could provide up to 420 megawatts of power, or 75 percent of Cape Cod’s power demands.

Mark Pratt

Associated Press Writer

Boston

I haven’t heard anything at all lately about Amanda Knox. Is her murder trial still ongoing?

Guy Scribner

Chattanooga, Tenn.

The murder trial of Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend in Perugia, central Italy, will resume on Monday after a summer break that lasted almost two months.

More witnesses, including forensics and DNA experts, will be heard by the eight-member jury in the next hearings, scheduled for twice a week. Closing arguments by prosecutors and defense teams should begin some time in October. It is not clear when a verdict will be handed down.

In November, it will be two years that Knox, 22, and Raffaele Sollecito, 25, have been jailed on charges of murder and sexual violence for the 2007 killing of British student Meredith Kercher, Knox’s roommate. Knox and Sollecito both deny wrongdoing.

Marta Falconi

Associated Press Writer

Rome

Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.