Free Republic

Climate: As alternate-energy champ Spain's green economy slides into recession, a German professor says if American "climate illiterates" don't follow, the Copenhagen climate conference will fail. And the bad news is? King Canute, the Viking king of England, Norway and Denmark, was the legendary king whose sycophantic followers praised his power and wisdom. As the story goes, he once stood on the shore and commanded the waves to halt. Rather than exercising his ego, he in fact was giving his followers a lesson in reality — the power of man over nature is finite and inconsequential. In December, the world's...

What is happening with alternative "green" energy, involving such environmentally-unsound measures as erecting windmill generators along Appalachian ridgelines which are migration routes for songbirds, raptors, and Monarch butterflies, is a boondoggle, a fiasco, a travesty -- but it is all very politically correct, so none of that matters.

Gone With The Wind By: Tait Trussell FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, July 30, 2009   The statuesque and towering windmill represents one of Barack Obama’s grandiose hopes for renewable energy in our future. But windmills also have a troubling feature: They can be bad for your health. Dr. Nina Pierpont has conducted substantial research on what she calls “wind turbine syndrome,” the clinical name she has given to the “constellation of symptoms experienced by many (though not all) who live near industrial wind turbines.” These include sleep problems like insomnia; headaches; dizziness; unsteadiness and nausea; exhaustion; anxiety; anger and irritability; depression;...

Al Gore’s campaign against global warming is shifting into high gear. Reporters and commentators follow his every move and bombard the public with notice of his activities and opinions. But while the mainstream media promote his ideas about the state of planet Earth, they are mostly silent about the dramatic impact his economic proposals would have on America. And journalists routinely ignore evidence that he may personally benefit from his programs. Would the romance fizzle if Gore’s followers realized how much their man stands to gain? Earlier this year Gore experienced a notable public relations debacle. The Tennessee Center for...

The idea of wind generated electric energy is being sold by environmentalists as an overlooked opportunity to reduce greenhouse gasses. Global warming advocates claim that this discounted treasure could be a major part of an effort to reduce the burning of fossil fuels and eliminate the need for some of our nuclear power plants. Is it true that we are passing up on a gold mine of renewable energy in favor of unnecessary and harmful fossil and nuclear fuels? Let's start by looking at what we use to generate the power we use today. Renewables, such as wind, solar, biomass,...

The Spanish professor is puzzled. Why, Gabriel Calzada wonders, is the U.S. president recommending that America emulate the Spanish model for creating "green jobs" in "alternative energy" even though Spain's unemployment rate is 18.1 percent — more than double the European Union average — partly because of spending on such jobs? Calzada, 36, an economics professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, has produced a report that, if true, is inconvenient for the Obama administration's green agenda, and for some budget assumptions that are dependent upon it. Calzada says Spain's torrential spending — no other nation has so aggressively supported production...

LAKE HUGHES [california] - Plans for the installation of 70 wind turbines on a ridge northwest of Lake Hughes and construction of power lines to connect them with an already-controversial proposed power line in Leona Valley have been submitted to Los Angeles County regional planners. But residents of the Lakes communities aren't too happy about it. "We as a community are not getting a lot of oversight protection on these projects," said Jim Walker, president of the Lakes Town Council. Speaking at a town council meeting Saturday, Walker said he is also concerned about the aesthetic and ecological impacts the...

tuna writes "A real-world test by the Dutch province of Zeeland (a very windy place) demonstrates that small windmills are a fundamentally flawed technology (PDF of tests results in Dutch, English summary). Twelve much-hyped micro wind turbines were placed in a row on an open plain. Their energy yield was measured over a period of one year (April 1, 2008 [][]March 31, 2009), the average wind velocity during these 12 months was 3.8 meters per second, slightly higher than average. Three windmills broke. The others recorded ridiculously low yields, in spite of the optimal conditions. It would take up to...

Weaning the U.S. off imported oil by drilling for known reserves off our coasts and under federal lands is a no-cost economic stimulus that would create 160,000 high-paying jobs and generate $1.7 trillion in new tax revenue and royalties. Tapping this resource would stop the flow of U.S. dollars to Middle Eastern sheikdoms, Hugo Chavez’s Venezuelan madhouse and other OPEC outposts of petroleum-fueled global lunacy. But even though a large majority of Americans favor expanding domestic oil and gas production, the Obama administration is literally tilting at windmills instead. The Minerals Management Service estimates that there are 115 billion barrels...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Windmills off the East Coast could generate enough electricity to replace most, if not all, the coal-fired power plants in the United States, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday. (snip) Salazar could not estimate how many windmills might be needed to generate 1 million megawatts of power, saying it would depend on their size and how far from the coast they were located. (snip)

Officials are investigating a fatal accident along Highway 15 and 2nd Street South in St. Cloud Wednesday morning. Police have rerouted traffic while the Minnesota State Patrol is reconstructing the accident that occurred shortly after 11 a.m. According to witnesses, a series of semi trucks carrying wind turbines hit a minivan. Investigators have been mum on details, and the number of vehicles and victims involved has not been released.

If the chOIce is between oil rigs off Virginia Beach or windmills, it's no choice at all:- Petroleum is the fuel of the past; wind is energy for the future.- Petroleum contributes to global warming; wind doesn't.- Burning petroleum pollutes; wind won't.- Drilling for oil and gas leaves toxic chemicals in the water; wind can't.- Oil and gas spill; spilled wind is called "air."- Petroleum requires intrusive on-shore facilities; wind requires a connection to the electric grid.- There isn't enough petroleum off Virginia to make a difference in prices; the state is considered the best location for a wind...

MAYOR Michael Bloomberg has proposed a renewable energy program for New York City that would include placing windmills on city bridges, solar panels on skyscrapers, and the use of tidal, geothermal and nuclear energy. Mr Bloomberg unveiled the outlines of his plan late yesterday at a major clean energy summit in Las Vegas organised by the University of Nevada. "Just five years ago last week - on August 14th, 2003 - this country got an object lesson in how big a gamble we're taking with our future if we don't change course," said Mr Bloomberg, referring to the giant blackout...

Strong Energy Measures Wanted Poll Shows Most Favor New Drilling, Taxes on Oil Profits By Jon Cohen and Paul KaneWashington Post Staff Writers Sunday, August 10, 2008; Page A08 A new national poll shows broad public support for government action in the face of $4-a-gallon gas and other energy concerns, giving Republicans a rare opening to go on the offensive against congressional Democrats and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Nearly two-thirds of Americans now put a priority on "finding new sources of energy" over improving conservation -- a significant shift since 2001 -- and majorities support all of the five potential...

As North Texans sweltered through another 100-degree-plus day, the windmills around Sweetwater turned lazily in the West Texas breeze, generating enough electricity to power about 250,000 homes. It’s not much — barely 1 percent of the peak electricity demand Monday for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, operator of the transmission grid for about 75 percent of the state. But it’s about what is expected from the state’s wind-power industry, by far the nation’s largest, during the dog days of summer, when temperatures climb but wind speeds dip on the West Texas plains. "In general, wind’s peak energy does not...

Major Michael Blankenship, from Jonesborough, Tenn., 489th CA Bn., samples purified water from the windmill in al-Zatir, Iraq, May 5. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Justin Snyder. FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — U.S. troops visited windmills in al-Zatir and Hollandia, Iraq, on a quality analysis and control trip May 5. The Soldiers with 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, the 489th Civil Affairs Battalion, and 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, made the trip to check on progress made on windmills over the past eight months. Major Michael Blankenship, from Jonesborough, Tenn., 489th CA Bn., oversees the...

But will we all get free wooden shoes? Barack Obama didn't say. But he does have a plan to give people jobs. Put them to work . . . building windmills. His idea came in response to a question at last night's Compassion Forum on CNN from Jim Wallis, a leading member of the religious left whose focus is "social justice." Wallis wanted Obama to commit to a new War on Poverty. JIM WALLIS: As you reminded us a week or two ago, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed 40 years ago, he wasn't just speaking about civil...

MOJAVE - After years of negotiating and planning, the biggest transmission project for renewable energy in the nation is finally set for its first leg of construction. Officials from Southern California Edison, the state Public Utilities Commission, the state Independent System Operator, government representatives and private energy business leaders met Friday morning beside Oak Creek Road west of Mojave for a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off the first phase of the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project. By the time the entire project is complete, the lines will be able to carry up to 4,500 megawatts to light Southern California homes and...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A drop in wind generation late on Tuesday, coupled with colder weather, triggered an electric emergency that caused the Texas grid operator to cut service to some large customers, the grid agency said on Wednesday. Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said a decline in wind energy production in west Texas occurred at the same time evening electric demand was building as colder temperatures moved into the state. The grid operator went directly to the second stage of an emergency plan at 6:41 PM CST (0041 GMT), ERCOT said in a statement. System operators curtailed power to...

There’s a foul wind blowing off Cape Cod. The clean-energy project known as Cape Wind makes more sense than ever, what with the mess in the Middle East and the earth getting warmer by the minute. But resistance to the proposed wind-farm — which would place 130 windmills in Nantucket Sound and provide up to 75 percent of the Cape’s energy at any given time — proves that it really isn’t easy being green. Since Cape Wind was first proposed in 2001, the project has made plenty of powerful enemies (see the sidebar “Enemies in High Places”), including Ted Kennedy,...

Danish Island Is Energy Self-Sufficient (March 9) - It's a two-hour ferry ride to the Danish island of Samso — and it can seem like a trip back through time... Samso is an area about 40 square miles long with a permanent population of about 4,000 — all of them living a green dream. Take farmer Erik Andersen. His tractor runs on oil from rape seed, which he grows. His hot water and power come from his solar panels or wind turbines. There's not a fossil fuel in site. --snip-- To harness the wind, of which they have plenty, they...

Will DHS become the town Marion Ashley and Southern California Edison Killed? "Dillion Wind Project," County application number WECS 116 and 117 text asks for approval of 45 wind turbines 327 feet tall (not including elevated base) with 100 foot long rotating blades. But figure 32 in the same application shows 55 proposed wind turbines and figure 3-4 in the same application shows 52 wind turbines and 3 additional meteorological towers 227 feet tall (taller than the current wind towers. This proposed "Wind Project" is to be built on land owned by Southern California Edison. This information is per recent...

No politician in America has a darker history with the waters off Martha's Vineyard than Senator Ted Kennedy. The Chappaquiddick Kid has been leading a three-year old battle to stop a windmill energy farm. A Boston company proposed building 130 wind turbines over a 24 square mile area off the Massachusetts coast. The wind turbines would provide three-quarters of Cape Cod's energy needs and nearly two percent for all of New England instead of relying on coal burning power plants. Greenpeace supported the idea. Yet big-time environmental liberals, the Chappaquiddick Kid, Robert Kennedy, Jr. and the befuddled Walter Cronkite oppose...

Self-proclaimed alternative energy proponent Sen. Ted Kennedy has strongly opposed an environmentally friendly "wind farm” off the coast of Massachusetts – and now it appears Kennedy will have his way. A proposal before Congress would limit the construction of wind turbines and most likely doom plans for the Cape Wind Project, the nation’s first offshore wind farm. [Editor’s Note: Read the book that first exposed Sen. Kennedy’s hypocrisy -- Go Here Now.] "This is a dire moment for us,” declared Mark Rodgers, a Cape Wind Associates spokesman, who said the proposal "would be totally fatal” for the project. The Cape...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Jan. 19, 2006 – Coalition forces are installing windmills across southern Afghanistan to provide farmers with water 24 hours a day. "Windmills for the farmers provide an easy energy source to a rural area," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Andrew Mazerik, a civil affairs officer with Task Force Bayonet of the coalition's Combined Joint Task Force 76. "There's not a lot of maintenance needed for the windmills, and this effort shows that the Afghan government is doing something for the people." The program began with the installation of a test windmill at Kandahar Airfield three months...

A perceptive reader puts his finger on what's wrong with the proposed redesign of the state's welcome signs: "If the signs must be changed, please don't drop 'colorful.' It awakens new visitors to be ready for the most eye-popping vistas and views they will probably ever see in this country. It is a very important part of our pride and heritage. I couldn't wait to move to this wonderful state, which I'm very happy to say has been my home now for almost 30 years." Salida's Butch Roberts is

Don Quixote gets the Spanglish treatment Fri Dec 30, 1:22 PM ET MADRID (AFP) - With Spain having spent 2005 celebrating four centuries since its most celebrated author Cervantes wrote his emblematic work Don Quixote, it was only a matter of time before linguistic trends caught up with the work. So popular that it has already been translated into Esperanto, Braille and Gaelic, as well as three dozen other languages, a version in Spanglish is now to hit the bookshelves. Mexican author Ilan Stavans is behind the work in a mixture of Spanish and English which would frighten linguistic traditionalists...

PALMDALE - Motorists usually speed past a once-controversial, 230-foot structure near Avenue S and Sierra Highway, and pedestrians seldom cross its path. A year after what some called an eyesore was constructed, no one seems to pay attention. Or at least the heated dialogue has cooled over the towering turbine that saves almost $100,000 a year for the Palmdale Water District. Either way, the city's Planning Commission has not received any more calls from agitated residents condemning the 950-kilowatt wind turbine, which rises close to Lake Palmdale and the water treatment plant, according to Asoka Herath, assistant director of planning...

Oakland -- Half of the 5,000 windmills in the Altamont Pass will be closed for three months this winter to protect migratory birds under a plan that Alameda County supervisors adopted Thursday, over protests from environmentalists who said all the turbines should be closed for the season. The move marked the first time during a 24-year dispute at the world’s largest wind farm that the county board and windmill owners have agreed to shut down some of the wind turbines to protect birds. Supervisors voted 4-1, with Supervisor Gail Steele opposed, to renew the operating permits for the wind farms,...

n his sketchy speech on energy policy last week, President Bush placed a high priority on nuclear energy, which he described as "one of the safest, cleanest sources of power in the world." The president had good reason to suggest an important role for this much-feared energy source. The price of natural gas ... has risen sharply...global warming may dwarf any environmental risk posed by nuclear power. It is therefore critical to keep nuclear power as part of the nation's energy mix. But Mr. Bush will have to address some crucial concerns before the public will follow him down the...

"I would promote wind for power, not damming more rivers," says actor Ed Begley, Jr. It’s low-cost, renewable, inexhaustible, eco-friendly and emits no greenhouse gases. If banks and energy companies financed wind energy projects, they’d help protect wildlife and habitats, "instead of hurting the Earth for oil," intones the Rainforest Action Network. If America devoted a mere 1 percent of its land area to wind turbine farms, it could generate 20 percent of its electricity from wind, asserts the American Wind Energy Association. And if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Sadly, equine mirages don’t make sound energy policy. They...

Morning Edition, January 21, 2005 · Some of the first wind farms were built in the migratory paths of birds and resulted in large avian kills. The bladed turbines have been modified and planners are more conscious of their environmental impact. But as wind power becomes more popular, biologists say the windmills kill thousands of bats.

How many birds has missile defense detractor New Democrat Party Leader (NDP) Jack Layton killed today? Tree-hugging Jack spends most of his time in Ottawa these days. But before taking over the federal NDP leadership, he was a longtime Toronto city councillor. Layton’s legacy overshadows the Toronto skyline in a 30-storey, 75-kilowatt wind turbine--Toronto’s first electricity generating windmill and the first in Canada to be built in an urban setting. In turbine days, there was a lot of media hype portraying Layton as the Prince of Sustainability. But no one told the birds that windmills come with sharp revolving blades...

HAGERSTOWN, Md. -- Two Maryland environmental leaders who favor wind power development have demanded the ouster of a Sierra Club official who opposes wind turbines in the western Maryland mountains. The Sierra Club's Maryland chapter said yesterday it saw no reason D. Daniel Boone should step down as the state conservation chairman. The dispute reflects the paradox of a technology that promises cleaner electricity production but which may pose a significant threat to migrating birds and bats in the Appalachian Mountains. It also reveals a split among environmentalists since the San Francisco-based Sierra Club adopted a position favoring extensive study...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. IT'S getting cheaper to make seawater drinkable, and more expensive to get water the traditional way from the dam to the tap. Taking the salt out of water for drinking remained slightly more expensive than conventional water treatment methods, but the gap was closing, visiting international expert on desalination Tom Pankratz said in Sydney yesterday. "The cost of conventional treatment is increasing, while at the same time we're now able to take advantage of all the technical advances of desalination," said Mr Pankratz, who served on the US National Academy of...

New York, Nov 16 (IANS) An India-born, US-based scientist has proved that large-scale installation of windmills to replace conventional sources of energy may cause drastic local weather changes. According to a newly published study by The Journal of Geophysical Research quoted by the New York Times, a wind farm with thousands of wind turbines also removed an enormous amount of energy from the air. The research was headed by Somnath Baidya Roy who works with Princeton University in New Jersey, along with R.L. Walko of Duke University in North Carolina and S.W. Pacala, also of Princeton University. It showed that...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Wind farms can change the weather, according to a model of how these forests of giant turbines interact with the local atmosphere. And the idea is backed up by observations from real wind farms. Somnath Baidya Roy from Princeton University, and his colleagues modelled a hypothetical wind farm consisting of a 100 by 100 array of wind turbines, each 100 metres tall and set 1 kilometre apart. They placed the virtual farm in the Great Plains region of the US, an area suitable for large wind farms, and modelled the climate...

Consumers in the Pittsburgh area can shop for electricity, as long as they're willing to pay a higher price for wind- or solar-generated power. But forget the notion of finding a cheaper rate, even though it's been five years since the state's Electric Choice Act began allowing customers to choose their power suppliers. Dominion Peoples Plus is the only supplier selling power to local residential customers at a discount -- 3 percent less than Duquesne Light Co.'s price -- but it hasn't taken any new customers in about a year.

SOMERSET, Pa. -- A windmill unexpectedly started moving and one of its blades struck a crane, sending a worker falling 60 feet to his death, authorities said. Niels Otto Anderson Sjolander, 52, of Denmark, had finished working on the windmill near Meyersdale and was being lowered in a basket held by the crane. The blades started moving and broke the arm of the crane, sending the basket tumbling to the ground with Sjolander inside. "He just came straight down. You could tell he was trying to brace for the impact," Somerset County Coroner Wallace E. Miller said. "It would be...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Two West Virginia congressmen, believing wind turbines are an eyesore and a threat to birds, want congressional auditors to study such energy projects along the Appalachian Mountains. Reps. Alan Mollohan and Nick Rahall, both D-W.Va., asked the General Accounting Office last week to examine how wind turbines are regulated and what effects the projects have on birds in several Mid-Atlantic states, including West Virginia. The Mountaineer Wind Energy Center near Thomas, Tucker County, has 44 turbines atop 200-feet-tall towers that generate enough energy to power 22,000 homes. Mollohan said the facility is "the proverbial nose under the...

SOMERSET — A judge has agreed that a developer should not build eight, 387-foot-tall wind turbines within three miles of the Somerset County Airport. Stonycreek Windpower LLC wanted to build the turbines as part of a 30-turbine wind farm in Somerset and Stonycreek townships.

When Robert and Susan Larivee were looking for a place to live, they found what they thought was the ideal locale near a wooded ridge top overlooking the tranquil, southern Somerset County borough of Meyersdale. The location offered the couple, who at the time were living in nearby western Maryland, everything they were looking for -- peace, quiet and an abundance of natural beauty. So secluded was the place that they still have no reason to carry cell phones because no service is available. According to the Larivees, their idyllic existence came to a screeching halt about six months ago...

Democrats Abroad Japan Press Release Submitted by Heather on 9 February, 2004 - 05:59 UTC. - For Immediate Release - "Dean Takes Tokyo, Sweeps Past Kerry on Third Count" A record 156 participants gathered at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Yurakucho Tokyo, on Sunday 8 February for the Democrats Abroad Japan Caucus. The purpose of the Caucus was two-fold: firstly to elect delegates to the Democrats Abroad Convention in Edinburgh in March, members of which will in turn be elected to the Democratic National Convention in Boston, and secondly to propose and debate resolutions to be adopted...

<p>The alternative energy movement is ruffling the feathers of animal rights activists.</p> <p>Wind turbines, lauded for being an environmentally friendly energy source, are killing thousands of birds that fly into their propellers in the Altamont Pass (search) just east of Oakland, Calif., where more than 5,000 turbines have helped power the Bay Area for 20 years.</p>

ENVIRONETDAILYHot air over bird deaths to stall windmills?Activist likens turbines to 'terrestrial Exxon Valdez' Posted: December 8, 20036:16 p.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com They were touted by environmentalists as an alternative source of pollution-free electric power that was good for the planet, but 20 years and countless dollars later environmentalists are now crying foul over the Altamont wind farm east of San Francisco Bay. Windmills generate electric power at Altamont Pass, Calif. (EPA Photo: Christy Shake.) Two organizations seek to block the renewal of permits for nearly 1,400 wind towers – for the sake of birds. An estimated 22,000 have died due...

ALTAMONT PASS, Calif. — When the giant Altamont wind farm sprouted here two decades ago, the only major objections were aesthetic. Local residents didn't appreciate the forest of 7,000 ungainly wind towers cluttering their view. No one, apparently, thought about the birds. Since the phalanx of giant windmills began churning in the air above the Altamont Pass east of San Francisco Bay, an estimated 22,000 birds have died, including hundreds of golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, kestrels and other raptors, after flying into the spinning blades of the wind turbines. Now, some environmental groups that routinely supported wind power as a...

Blackout or 'greenout'? Posted: August 20, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Oil is the lifeblood of our industrial society. But it's been under attack since the early 1970s. Environmentalists told us we'd all choke from the exhaust fumes back then. Then they lied about global warming. Then they lied about the ozone hole. Then they complained about oil drilling in Alaska. Then they complained about drilling for natural gas. Then they complained about oil drilling offshore. Then they complained about reliance on foreign oil and told us we must conserve. (They're right about the dangers of foreign oil....

July 25— It's windy enough on Massachusetts' Nantucket Sound — the waters between Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard — that it makes the Sound an ideal idea place for windmills that generate electricity. Wind farms are popular in Europe and California, and environmentalists like them because they're a relatively clean way to produce electricity. It's a reason Jim Gordon proposes to install 130 wind turbines 6 ½ miles off the coast of Cape Cod. But there's a problem. Although the Natural Resources Defense Council, and its attorney, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., support wind power (Kennedy says he's "strongly in...

It's windy enough on Massachusetts' Nantucket Sound — the waters between Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard — that it makes the Sound an ideal idea place for windmills that generate electricity. Wind farms are popular in Europe and California, and environmentalists like them because they're a relatively clean way to produce electricity. It's a reason Jim Gordon proposes to install 130 wind turbines 6 ½ miles off the coast of Cape Cod. But there's a problem. Although the Natural Resources Defense Council, and its attorney, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., support wind power (Kennedy says he's "strongly in favor of...