Georgiana...not just taxes and permits! If you want to open a new coal mine, you must purchase a reclamation bond in advance. That means that money has been paid up front to reclaim the land after mining operations are completed and the mine shuts down.
“Green” energy gets away without having to pay for any sort of reclamation or remediation bonds. What do you think will happen when millions of windmills and millions of square feet of solar cells reach the end of their economic lives in 15 to 25 years? The junk will just be abandoned there because the developers and owners have all gone bankrupt. We will need another SuperFund to clean up the vast messes left behind. Taxpayers will be on the hook for billions in clean up costs.
Every windmill has hundreds of tons of concrete underground to hold up the tower. That concrete will just sit there forever.
The costs of the loss of enormous amounts of valuable farmland are ignored, too. There are huge opportunity costs to taking that land out of production.
These are just a few examples of how costs are ignored to make “green” energy appear competitive with fossil and nuclear power. There is no way on God’s Green Earth that highly diffuse, low energy intensity solar and wind power can compete with concentrated energy in fossil and nuclear fuels.
You are so right! I do think it is very convoluted, and purposely so... So that regular people can’t understand it.
Locally, one of the farmer’s here directly asked one of these solar presidents about the farm land AFTER the solar panels were done and he said something to the tune that it will be fine. SO the farmer asked that president to present evidence of studies showing the land quality and the president said they didn’t have any and he could not present any hard factual evidence!
One of the ladies in my class discussed the water flow disruptions around windturbines and the fact for nearly 60 feet around them, nothing can grow. There is serious disruption to the land!!!