Posted on 04/22/2009 4:55:39 PM PDT by tobyhill
President Obama marked Earth Day Wednesday by announcing a new initiative to lease federal waters for the purpose of generating electricity from wind and ocean currents.
The president announced the initiative, to be administered by the Interior Department, while reiterating his pledge to push for a comprehensive energy plan that encourages the development of alternative fuel sources, cuts dependence on foreign oil, addresses climate change, and creates new jobs.
Wind power can generate 20 percent of the country's electricity by 2030 and support 250,000 jobs, Obama said during a visit to a wind turbine tower manufacturing plant.
It is part of "beginning a new era of energy exploration," he said.
Contrary to the assertion of some critics, the country does not have to choose between protecting the environment and expanding the economy, Obama said. The real choice is between "prosperity and decline."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I can be naive too and claim that we should put windmills on top of every building over 20 stories tall, that will help out.
“President Obama marked Earth Day Wednesday by announcing a new initiative to lease federal waters for the purpose of generating electricity from wind and ocean currents.”
This....while they are tearing out hydro electric dams and charging the customers for the cost of destroying them!
Ugh.
I want to know who he plans on leasing it to?
>This....while they are tearing out hydro electric dams and charging the customers for the cost of destroying them!
Insanity. :-(
What about all of the displaced fish, underwater plants, coral reefs?
What about the impact on fish migration?
0bama’s plan is maddness.
Where or where will the Kenedy’s, and other Democrats sail their boats.
Where will John Kerry go wind surfing?
Where does Peta stand on this issue?
SAVE THE PLANKTON!!!!
Pro Forma
Probably some foriegn country.
I would worry that all those windmills could mess with airtraffic coming into airport near the ocean. Enough of them spinning fast enough could cause nasty updrafts and unpredictible wind patterns.
Notice how the hacks serve up Obamao's talking points verbatim. Word for word.
Wind power is stupid as hell. Environmentalists already file against them because of all the birds it will kill. They aren’t a continual source of energy and have to be shut down when the winds are too high.
Dammit all the damn God-given common sense appears to only be left in godly people. You build top of the line, modern nuclear plants. You drill for your own domestic oil. You get rid of ethanol and MTBE from gas, and allow modern cars’ and trucks’ electronic air/fuel computers do the job they were built for - mtbe and ethanol are not needed in new cars. You cut down on all the different blends of gas from over 20 to 3.
We can also use the Fischer-Tropsch Process to convert coal and Natural Gas to liquid fuels. The Process is expensive but we can have the security we need with this process. This is what we can do with the coal we don’t use in power plants that should be converted over to nuclear.
How long before the environmentalist block any construction? My guess 2 nanoseconds. If the areas leased are near big campaign donors like actors/entertainment bigs or Democratic political families it will take even less time. Not only that but they won’t let them build the necessary power lines to distribute the energy. We’ve already seen both of these things happen already. The Kennedy family blocking wind energy near their compound in Hyannis Port and the blocking of power distribution lines in Texas/Oklahoma corridor as well as here in California.
Since the objections will be coming from the left Obama will back down.
Also which Democratic allies will magically get the leases at rock bottom prices?
GE? T. Bone Pickens?
Where do you store the excess power and how do you replace the power generated when the wind doesn’t blow. Tidal power (unproven tech as far as I know) would be far more consistent than wind or solar.
Just wait until a whale gets sliced and diced by one of the ocean current generators the big 0 will allow.
“Excess power” - they have to have windmills on a different type of regulated connection to the grid so that it does not overload or pump too much power into the system.
“wind doesn’t blow” - when there is not enough wind or it’s calm, backup power plants (usually coal or natural gas) need to come online to keep the windmills moving at a minimum rotation and provide the power not being produced that is needed by customers. There is a lot of energy expended to fire up a coal or natural gas plant (inefficient).
That was my point. When it produces too much energy they can’t currently store it so it’s dumped and when it’s not generating enough they have to have replacement power generation in standby mode to kick in instantly. Can’t just fire up a cold plant.
Until they solve the storage problem wind won’t be a viable source of energy for the power grid. It works well for individual enterprises that also are fed from the grid (coal, nuclear, hydro, gas, etc. All the stuff the enviros hate) to maintain a constant amount of power.
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