Posted on 09/22/2005 7:34:44 PM PDT by SmithL
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, but only under severe new restrictions designed to reduce the number of birds that turbines kill each year, which is about 4,700.
The new plan is a compromise that will close half the turbines during the winter migratory season, when more birds are traveling through the Altamont Pass. The winter months are also when the least wind is generated, operators said.
“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.”
Under the plan, half the turbines will not be spinning from Nov. 1 through the end of February. About 2,500 windmills will be shut down in November and December, then turned back on while the other 2,500 will be closed down in January and February. Between 100 and 200 older turbines that are considered the worst offenders will be closed permanently.
...The Altamont wind turbines, first erected in the 1970s, provide enough energy to power about 120,000 homes
...But environmentalists and state attorney General Bill Lockyer wanted the board to go further and shut down all the wind turbines
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
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.
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.
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.
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!
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?
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.
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.
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.
Hey, you didn't ping me ;)
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.
I think that you have just won the Al Gore trophy for best environmental thinking since "Earth in the Balance."
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.
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.
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!
I say let the birds evolve their way out out it.
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