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Half of Altamont windmills to be idled this winter to save migrating birds
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 9/23/5 | Jim Herron Zamora

Posted on 09/22/2005 7:34:44 PM PDT by SmithL

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Gimme Shelter
1 posted on 09/22/2005 7:34:46 PM PDT by SmithL
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To: SmithL

Wait.. I thought environmentalists wanted alternative energy.

Maybe they'd rather just shoot the people that use energy.

Of course, that would require the 2nd Amendment, which isn't very popular in the Bay Area.


2 posted on 09/22/2005 7:36:21 PM PDT by nj26
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To: SmithL
Step 1: We should all live in caves. We are a highly evolved species. We can handle it.

Step 2: 95% of our population should die of starvation and exposure, because living in a cave sucks.

Step 3: The remaining human population should form communistic tribal societies based on a matriarcal system. Because we haven't suffered enough.

3 posted on 09/22/2005 7:41:04 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: nj26

this is rich. evironmentalist libs fight fot the wind farm which produces little amount of energy and then turn around and decry that they should be shut down because the farm they wanted is now killing birds. These people really are mentally insane.


4 posted on 09/22/2005 7:41:30 PM PDT by MAD-AS-HELL (Put a mirror to the face of the republican party and all you'll see is a Donkey.)
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To: SmithL
Well, with that logic we should park all cars, trucks immediately so deer don't run into them and die.
5 posted on 09/22/2005 7:43:49 PM PDT by quantim (Detroit is the New Orleans of the North as an example of a failed welfare state.)
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To: SmithL; Americanwolf
<1/> “These are creative and meaningful conditions,” said Supervisor Scott Haggerty, whose southeast county district includes Altamont Pass. “These new conditions go further than anyone would have thought. This is fair place to start coming up with a balance.”

This statement says it all. The idiots in California will end up shutting down these generators to save a couple of birds and when they do I hope all of California has to sit in the dark. The dumbest state in the nation leads the way again!

6 posted on 09/22/2005 7:44:44 PM PDT by Americanwolfsbrother (Louisiana you should be ashamed of your elected officials!)
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To: SmithL

Silly question.

Japan 'invented' the funny spiral you see on jet engine turbines on commercial aircraft. They found that the bird's 'eye' picked up on the off-kilter 'spiral', and the incidence of air strikes has dropped off substancially. That why we use it on aircraft here in the USA too. It's basically a 'free' paint job, and it appears to work.

So, if it works on jet engines; why wouldn't a 'spiral' decal work on the wind generators?


7 posted on 09/22/2005 7:46:57 PM PDT by Hodar (With Rights, come Responsibilities. Don't assume one, without assuming the other.)
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To: nj26

They want alternative energy but they also want an alternative without costs. Problem is, almost everything involves trade-offs, in this case, cleaner energy versus filleted birds. Shutting down the windmills means buying energy produced by other means which also have their tradeoffs: nuclear clean energy versus potential contamination; coal-fired plants versus cleaner air; etc. etc.

What will be interesting is that peaker electric stations are built with the idea that they are to be used only if other sources of energy are insufficient to meet the demand. They are sold to the public as "emergency" backup generating stations and often involve dirtier means of production. Shutting down the windmills will probably mean the peaker stations have more "emergencies" during which they have the right to operate. This means bad air for the locals, in this case, Tracy, California right under the windmills on the east side. BUT the dumb birds will survive to breed more dumb birds.


8 posted on 09/22/2005 7:47:44 PM PDT by caseinpoint (Don't get thickly involved in thin things)
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To: SmithL

This kind of behavior is predictable. First the environmentalists lobbied for safe, renewable hydropower. Then when the dams and generators had been built, they lobbied to take them down, because they were interfering with fish.

Now the environmentalists are lobbying for safe, renewable windmill power, but as soon as the windmills are built they lobby to take them down, because they kill birds and spoil the natural beauty of the environment.

You can bet that if they succeeded in getting everyone to install solar cells, they would soon find some reason to take them down, too. Maybe they contain trace chemicals that pollute the environment. Maybe they prevent migratory birds from perching comfortably on rooftops. Anyway, I'm sure they will think of something.


9 posted on 09/22/2005 7:49:57 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: SmithL
The Sierra Club’s take: Renewable energy good but killing birds bad. So conserve, unless you are Al Gore or Arianna Huffington.

The deadly windmills of Altamont

For the 35,330 - 94,426 birds killed over the past 20 years by wind machines, Altamont Pass holds the deadliest wind farm in North America…

The Sierra Club strongly supports use of wind as a renewable energy source - but we must be determined to utilize it without such costs to our wildlife.

10 posted on 09/22/2005 7:50:49 PM PDT by Plutarch
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To: Hodar
"So, if it works on jet engines; why wouldn't a 'spiral' decal work on the wind generators?"

Hey, you didn't ping me ;)

11 posted on 09/22/2005 7:53:59 PM PDT by decal (Mother Nature and Real Life are conservatives; the Progs have never figured this out.)
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To: SmithL
Environmentalist hate all humans... they even hate themselves.
12 posted on 09/22/2005 7:54:03 PM PDT by DocRock (Osama said, "We love death, the U.S. loves life, that is the main difference between us.")
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To: Plutarch

There is a big new wind farm in northern Iowa, just south of the IA-MN border. I think there must be over 100 big windmills that I can see from I-35.


13 posted on 09/22/2005 7:56:22 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Troubled by NOLA looting ? You ain't seen nothing yet.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

I think that you have just won the Al Gore trophy for best environmental thinking since "Earth in the Balance."


14 posted on 09/22/2005 7:57:51 PM PDT by catpuppy
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To: SmithL
If they had only done this a few years ago, James Gandolfini's character may have lived in Terminal Velocity.
15 posted on 09/22/2005 8:01:52 PM PDT by Ghengis (Alexander was a wuss!)
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To: SmithL

Iowa has brand new wind farms soon to be idled to save the birds!

MidAmerican Dedicates New Wind Farm
Turbines To Help Use Less Natural Gas

UPDATED: 1:06 pm CDT September 22, 2005

DES MOINES, Iowa -- MidAmerican Energy dedicated a new wind farm project Thursday in Wright County.

The Century Project wind farm outside Blairsburg will be home to 100 wind turbines. The farm will help produce 310 megawatts of power.

MidAmerican said the farm will help them use less natural gas to generate electricity.

Copyright 2005 by TheIowaChannel.com.


16 posted on 09/22/2005 8:03:46 PM PDT by hlmencken3 ("...politics is a religion substitute for liberals and they can't stand the competition")
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To: SmithL

17 posted on 09/22/2005 8:04:12 PM PDT by DocRock (Osama said, "We love death, the U.S. loves life, that is the main difference between us.")
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To: ClearCase_guy

Right on 1 and 2. Wrong on 3.

We will need to form patriarchal societies where each male has a concubine he must fertiize to produce enough children to repopulate and pay SS taxes.


18 posted on 09/22/2005 8:07:50 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s......you weren't really there.)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

That wind farm is made of tinker toys compared to the new wind farm in Wright and Hamilton Counties. Each of the 100 units is over 200ft tall, blades over 100ft long with a 24-ton generator on top!

Killing birds as we FReep!


19 posted on 09/22/2005 8:08:01 PM PDT by hlmencken3 ("...politics is a religion substitute for liberals and they can't stand the competition")
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To: SmithL

I say let the birds evolve their way out out it.


20 posted on 09/22/2005 8:09:02 PM PDT by killermosquito (Buffalo is what you get when liberalism runs its course.)
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