Wind Power News: Opinions
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch.
Islands’ concerns over cable continue to fall on deaf political ears
I’m demanding a refund for the political science degree I earned at George Washington University. It has proven to be totally useless, at least in helping to understand and participate in the political process underlying Big Wind here in Hawaii. In the words of one our greatest Presidents, and according to my professors, our government should be “…of the people, by the people and for the people.” But here in Hawaii, it is more like “of the corporations, by the . . .
Electricity extortion has South Dakota roost
Pierre — A government folly is playing out in our state’s Capitol over a wind electricity project a group wants to build in Clark County. At the root of this folly is a federal requirement. Believe it or not, a wind farm developer can force a utility company to buy its electricity, even if the company doesn’t want it. This gets worse. The wind power might cost more than the company wants its customers to have to pay for electricity. . . .
Massaemet is short on wind?
Having studied industrial wind for over two years, I am just beginning to get my mind around this technical subject with disaggregated data sources. Some eye-opening facts draw into question whether there is sufficient wind on Mt.Massaemet to warrant investing $25 million of “our money.” Massachusetts’ wind resource mapping has been manipulated On September 17, 2007, Jane Pfister (no longer workng for the state) authored a MassGIS (Geographic Information System) map on wind resources in Massachusetts. This came but a . . .
S.B. 2785 shows Abercrombie is out of touch; Big Wind, undersea cable will add huge debt, damage ecosystems
Notwithstanding the Legislature’s final treatment of Senate Bill 2785 — Gov.Abercrombie’s mega-billion-dollar corporate welfare project to raise our electric rates and reward Castle & Cooke, Hawaiian Electric Co. and Mainland investment banks with the Big Wind interisland cable — the project’s very concept shows how out of touch he is with Hawaii. This nutty idea would be hilarious if it weren’t so potentially dangerous to Hawaii’s finances, economy, tourism, marine and land environments, and cultural and social values. Comprising $4 . . .
Industrial wind — critical thinking needed
“Nearly half of our electricity comes from coal, 30% of that from Appalachia. Mountain top removal has destroyed 500 mountains, a million acres of forest and 2000 miles of streams. The cost to health and the environment comes to 345 billion dollars annually”.– George Beecham, PBS Presents I believe we all accept this statement. Multiple studies and factual information stand behind it. Coal mining, particularly by mountain top removal and long wall methodology, is a pox on our mountains that . . .
The Waubra Foundation’s reply to David Clarke
David Clarke has a tough job justifying the unjustifiable for a foreign company with an inadequate grab bag of weak assertions. However he has made one quite profound statement: “Facts will fix fears about wind farms.” Yes, David the facts are already doing that. Full spectrum noise measurements inside and outside now uninhabitable (sick) houses by acousticians independent of the wind industry at Falmouth in Massachusetts, and at Capital in NSW have shown that infrasound and other low frequency sound . . .
Wind farm scam a huge cover-up
One of the great popular misconceptions about climate-change sceptics such as Ian Plimer, Bob Carter, Cardinal George Pell and me is that we’re all Big-Oil-funded, Gaia-ravaging, nature-hating emissaries of Satan. We can’t look at a lovely pristine beach, apparently, without praying for a nice, juicy oil slick to turn up and wipe out all the pelicans and turtles and sea otters. But this isn’t actually true. I love our beautiful planet at least as much as your $180,000-a-year (for a . . .
Coming soon to a hillside in your town
The proposed industrial 425-foot wind turbines on two hillside farms in Derby, Vt., sets a precedent never before seen in the State of Vermont. Never have two 425-foot tall industrial wind turbines been sited on rolling hillside farmland less than two miles from 1,000 residential dwellings, an international boundary and within a shared International Water Company protected watershed. The developer Encore Redevelopment LLC has made the statement “in this part of the country it’s wind. If not us, it will . . .
Wind industry looks to Karl Rove for answers
Oh, to be a fly on the wall when Republican strategist Karl Rove sits downs with Obama’s former press secretary Robert Gibbs for a conversation about politics and, and, …. wind energy? Luckily for those of us who follow the ups and downs of renewable energy — and especially for those of us who follow the bumps and bruises of politics — that conversation won’t be for their ears only. In a sense, we’re all invited. The two will share . . .
Futile investment in wind power
[translation by G.L., with the help of Google Translate, of Meningslös satsning på vindkraft] The giant multi-billion bet on wind power development in Sweden is excessive. The money should instead be used to reduce fossil fuel use in transport. 80% of the energy supply and 70% of electricity in the world comes from fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas). In recent decades, interest in renewable energy sources has increased partly due to high extraction costs of fossil fuel and . . .
