Posted on 06/12/2009 5:49:58 AM PDT by reaganaut1
For decades, most of the nations renewable power has come from dams, which supplied cheap electricity without requiring fossil fuels. But the federal agencies running the dams often compiled woeful track records on other environmental issues.
Now, with the focus in Washington on clean power, some dam agencies are starting to go green, embracing wind power and energy conservation. The most aggressive is the Bonneville Power Administration, whose power lines carry much of the electricity in the Pacific Northwest. The agency also provides a third of the regions power supply, drawn mostly from generators inside big dams.
The amount of wind power on the Bonneville transmission system quadrupled in the last three years and is expected to double again in another two. The turbines are making an electricity system with low carbon emissions even greener already, in Seattle, more than 90 percent of the power comes from renewable sources.
Yet the shift of emphasis at the dam agencies is proving far from simple. It could end up pitting one environmental goal against another, a tension that is emerging in renewable-power projects across the country.
Environmental groups contend that the Bonneville Power Administrations shift to wind turbines buttresses their case for tearing down dams in the agencys territory, particularly four along the lower Snake River in Washington State that helped decimate one of North Americas great runs of wild salmon.
Bonneville wants to keep all the dams, arguing that they not only provide cheap power but they also make an ideal complement to large-scale installation of wind power. When the wind slows and power production drops, the agency argues, it can compensate quickly by telling the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation, which operate the dams, to release more water from reservoirs to turn the huge generators.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I would prefer that ‘neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night’ interrupt my power supply, even though it may or may not effect my mail delivery.
This is not prudent, tearing down a dam today for the promise of wind tomorrow. Everybody knows that global warming is decreasing the amount of wind available for wind farms. And, as we add more and more windmills, we will use up this natural resource.
People without a decent foundation in engineering won’t get the idea of “using up the wind”.
It comes down to the basic concept of energy transfer (and inefficiencies and loss). The whole reason that wind turns turbines is that it has energy in it - its motion is energy.
When part of that energy is used/captured to turn a turbine, multiples of that energy captured is lost in the wind itself, slowing it down, changing weather patterns.
When the dams are gone, and the winds die down, people will have to rely on cutting down trees for heat...a "destructive evironmental cycle".
Lord Zero’s Great Lakes Czar is president of the Alliance for the great lakes. Dam removal is one of their big things. Lying is apparently another one of the things they do.
I read that they had restored a destroyed trout habitat by removing a dam. Funny thing is that I used to catch trout both above and below the dam in that so called “destroyed habitat”.
They can't be this dumb or inconsistent by accident. This is an effort to destroy our ability to have sufficient energy. They really do want us living in caves, eating berries. A nice, sustainable population of about 5 million humans. Bowing down to an idol with big ears.
I'd love to see how all the environuts get by in southern California if they were to take out Hoover dam.
We’ve got a good one here at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. It’s been generating power since 1930.
The very first sentence is a lie from the group whos’ leader Obama has appointed the great lakes czar. I know because I used to catch trout in that “destroyed trout habitat”. They claim they’re doin it for the chilluns so apparently its OK to lie.
Its a pdf file
http://www.greatlakes.org/Document.Doc?id=304
Absolutely dumb!! Wind was to provide a NEW source....
As they destroy the breadbasket of WA state....and those who live in the “red” part of the state.
Sooner or later environmentalist will discover that windmills chop up birds and insects including those on threatened or endangered lists and they will be clamoring to have the windmills shut down.
Leftists do not want cheap, abundant energy. It fuels capitalism.
Guess what....A station dedicated to GREEN....Would sure like to know how the governement is involved.
The voice is "selling" you something....like a load of cr**. It reminds you of a tape you would listen to while you sleep...
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