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Wildlife advocates argue they're not on some quixotic quest - not tilting at windmills. The extinction of dozens, if not hundreds, of animal species by man's encroachment over the years is powerful evidence that we must zealously protect endangered species.
We cannot allow Darwin to just sort it out.
Nothing illustrates the distance between the political culture and reality in modern governments so much as the billions invested in wind power. Presumably the purpose of such investments is to a) reduce greenhouse emissions and b) reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The plain fact that it increases both seems not to have bothered anyone.
Colorado is widely recognized for its wind-power capabilities, but even there, wind power is inconsistent and undependable. Studies by Bentek Energy, which examined energy deployment in Texas and Colorado, found that emissions of pollutants actually increase with RES because wind requires backup generation by fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.
Yes, wind turbines were supported with good intentions: to provide clean sustainable energy while also supporting environmental stewardship. However, wind turbines may be actually counter-intuitive to their original goals.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
USA]
Simply put, the wind might be free, when it blows. But the rest of the “renewable, green, eco-friendly” wind energy system is anything but.
It might be far better all around to simply build the most efficient, lowest-polluting coal, gas and nuclear generating plants possible, let them run at full capacity 24/7/365 – and just skip the wind power.
Life-cycle studies would be a positive development – for all energy sources.
But a conference held in Denver earlier this month gave a sobering preview of major land decisions ahead for this nation. Experts at CLE International's convention on Historic Preservation and Tribal Consultation: Energy & Transmission Projects predicted that energy projects will be bigger and come faster than any of us foresee, with great impacts on ethnographic and rural historic districts.
The Frontier Centre compared the number of birds killed by the oilsands with the number of birds killed by a wind turbine at an Ontario wind farm - allegedly a more environmentally friendly source of energy.
When the rate of bird kills was measured, kilowatt hour by kilowatt hour, windmills were 445 times deadlier than the oilsands.
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Impact on Wildlife|
Impact on Birds]
Ontario's action puts the New York Power Authority on the spot. The power authority has been reviewing private-sector proposals for one or more electricity-generating wind farms in the New York waters of Lake Erie or Lake Ontario, and was supposed to pick one or more developers in the next month or so. It now will have to explain why it wants to proceed when its counterpart in Canada does not.
I am dismayed at how irrelevant data and subjective interpretations are masquerading as science in GMPs proposal. Scientifically based protocols for determining risks posed to raptors by industrial wind facilities have been established, and, it appears, are currently not being used in Vermont.
Judge cites condor impact; halts sale of wind farm in Kern County
January 25, 2011 in East County Magazine
January 25, 2011 in East County Magazine
When the condors do move north (from Baja), will San Diego County greet them with open arms allowing them to nest and forage locally, or kill them off with a gauntlet of spinning wind turbine blades?
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Impact on Birds|
California]
Solar Power Eclipse: A case study in the failure of green energy subsidies
January 25, 2011 in Wall Street Journal
January 25, 2011 in Wall Street Journal
All of this adds up to one more case study in the perils of politically allocated capital. Like President Obama, Mr. Patrick has advertised the illusion that governments can nurture new companies, even whole new industries, with targeted taxpayer "investments." This is the entire premise of the "clean energy" industry, most of which wouldn't exist without subsidies because it can't compete on a market basis.
Obama's breezy hypocrisy; Administration tilt at China's windmills ignores U.S. subsidy
January 5, 2011 in The Washington Times
January 5, 2011 in The Washington Times
The biggest beneficiary of this generosity happens to be General Electric, the top U.S. wind-turbine manufacturer. GE got into the windmill business after gobbling up "renewable energy" assets from Enron as that ill-fated firm was forced into bankruptcy in 2002. Enron's rent-seeking business model didn't change when its wind business moved into the house that Edison built. Billions in taxpayer dollars continue to fan the rebirth of this fundamentally medieval technology.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
USA]
Take Back the Power: The wind turbines story that the industry doesn't want you to hear
January 5, 2011 in The Source Weekly
January 5, 2011 in The Source Weekly
All the posturing by wind industry big mouths cannot change the fact that the tips of the propellers of wind turbines (when the wind is blowing) spin at more than 200 miles per hour! If you were an eagle or an owl hunting for a meal-or any bird trying to fly over the hill along the Columbia River where wind farms are being built at a terrifying clip-imagine having to navigate these spinning blades every day.
Power from windmills is supposed to be great for the environment. But it's not.
First, big wind farms are gobbling out vast areas of the West that until now were relatively undisturbed, sitting there as grazing land or farm fields, or as scenery.
Then there's the deadly effect on birds.
‘Let them sip latte': Revolt brewing in Spain over ‘green energy' crisis
December 31, 2010 in The Daily Caller
December 31, 2010 in The Daily Caller
Last Friday the government cut the subsidy to windmills and solar panels, again. This included cutting solar subsidies retroactively, in one sense, in that those who bought in at astronomical guaranteed returns for 25 years are taking a haircut even though they were locked into the Ponzi pyramid before some pollos starting coming home to roost.
Then, this week, the government approved another increase in the price of electricity for households and small business.
Spain's politicians, in something of an emergency move, have just stuck Spanish households and small businesses with a hefty new energy tax to go into effect tomorrow. Yeah, that oughta help matters.
This latest in a series of energy tax hikes is intended to help pay down the burst renewabubble, which they also realize they can't just end but must perpetuate.
The Midwest Wind Surtax; The latest scheme to socialize the costs of renewable energy
December 30, 2010 in Wall Street Journal
December 30, 2010 in Wall Street Journal
This is another discriminatory subsidy for wind energy that will raise electricity prices on everyone, notably on those who don't rely on wind for electric power. FERC's grand vision is to build hundreds of miles of transmission lines across the Midwest, linked to windmills in Iowa and the Dakotas. ...Mr. Wellinghoff and FERC are trying to establish by regulatory fiat a national energy policy that Congress has refused to endorse.
Also filed under [
Transmission|
USA]
EPA's Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule will treat emissions from renewable biomass energy the same as emissions from the use of fossil fuels, despite the fact that both policymakers and scientists have long considered biomass emissions to be carbon-neutral due to the life cycle of the forests from which biomass is produced.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
USA]
Alas, market forces ruined the Pickens Plan. Mr. Pickens should have shorted wind. Instead, he went long and now he's stuck holding a slew of turbines he can't use because low natural gas prices have made wind energy uneconomic in the U.S., despite federal subsidies that amount to $6.44 for every 1 million British thermal units (BTUs) produced by wind turbines.
The Wind Subsidy Bubble; Green pork should be a GOP budget target
December 20, 2010 in Wall Street Journal
December 20, 2010 in Wall Street Journal
Ethanol isn't the only heavily subsidized energy source that won a multibillion dollar jackpot in last week's tax deal. The other big winner was the wind industry, which received a one year extension of a $3 billion grant program for renewable energy projects.
Talk about throwing good money after bad.
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Energy Policy|
USA]