March 10, 2013
Maine, Opinions

Wind industry should be prosecuted for fraud

By Tony Elliott | Posted March 09, 2013 | Bangor Daily News | bangordailynews.com

When it comes to wind farms and their supposed generation of renewable electricity, one must examine the definition of the word fraud. Dictionaries define it as deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.

The fact that we are told wind energy is helping in any way to lower our use of fossil fuel based electricity fits well within the definition of fraud. In reality, in the United States we have thousands of wind turbines currently in operation, yet the official estimate of actual electricity produced is 1% or less nationwide and as high as 2% in some states. California can be used as a prime example of fraudulent estimations of actual wind generated electricity. Here it is said that wind generated electricity makes up about 1.5 percent of the overall state usage of electricity. However, this estimate is nothing more than an outrageous lie. California has a population of 40 million as well as having the most wind farms in operation. Thus, the state should be able to be used as an example for the whole US, as far as actual electricity generated by wind, if you consider the total number of turbines in operation along with the overall population. So, both California and the US should have the same percentage when it comes to the actual amount of wind-generated electricity. However, California is estimated to have half of a percentage more than the rest of the country. This is because the wind farm industry simply does not really know what percentage of electricity wind farms generate, because they do not meter the production of electricity or the amount of grid powerWind used to maintain the turbines.

What this essentially means is that no one in the wind energy industry really has an idea of what is produced or used.

With this in mind for them to even give estimates of wind generated electricity is fraudulent. This is because the truth of the matter is it doesn’t matter if their estimates are at 0 or 10% due to the fact that the fossil fuel is used in the manufacture and production of the wind turbines themselves. The construction of the wind farms puts the whole wind farm industry at such a deficit in fossil fuels used before they even go into operation and they have no chance of even coming close to producing enough electricity to ever get out of the hole. This doesn’t take into consideration the fact that each turbine uses more grid electricity while in use than it will ever produce.

Realistically, we have a whole industry scamming billions off the public under the guise of producing renewable electricity from wind. The very idea that wind generated electricity is helping reduce our dependence on fossil fuel is the biggest fraud to ever be bestowed on both the American public as well as the world population in general.

The claim that wind farms are environmentally friendly is a joke, since millions of endangered bird species have been killed by the turbines themselves. Marine life, exposed to the constant low-pitched noise generated by coastal turbines, suffer huge losses by the beachings of whales and dolphins. Human health has also come into question, from those who live close to turbines and experience constant exposure to this noise.

The large areas of turbine forests seen from many highways here in the US are yet another example of how the wind industry is decimating the natural beauty of the American wilderness.

From an environmental point of view, wind farms are very destructive overall to the general preservation of endangered species and to the natural beauty of the land.

It would be a different story altogether if wind farms had something productive to offer, but as it is now, they offer nothing because they produce nothing, while both damaging our environment and defrauding the public of billions of dollars each year.

The wind industry must be exposed for the scam it really is, and treated like any other criminal fraud scheme. It must be shut down and those responsible for the sham prosecuted to the highest extent of the law.