Posted on 07/19/2009 2:22:57 PM PDT by smokingfrog
The landscape of West Texas is changing.
Standing hundreds of feet tall, like alien structures on the featureless plains, fields of shining white towers have sprung up seemingly overnight to harness formidable winds known all too well by those who have made the land home.
Call it what you will - alternative energy, a green solution, renewable resources - one thing is certain: like the oil booms of yesteryear, wind harnessing is sweeping across the Plains with the promise of a new tomorrow for the U.S. energy market.
Similar to transformations brought by oil and agricultural industries in past decades, the industry's impact is more than skin deep. Some researchers have found going green through a new generation of windmills may not be what's best for the environment.
"There's almost no understanding of the environmental impact of these wind turbines," said Ronald Kendall, director of Texas Tech's Institute of Environmental and Human Health. "I'm all for alternative energy, but I'm for getting it right."
Kendall and his colleagues have been looking past the benefits of pollution-free energy and focusing on how the industry will harm the region's oldest natives: its wildlife.
The spinning blades - many of which are more than 100 feet in length - present a unique challenge for birds and bats, and the mere presence of the mammoth towers could disrupt one the area's most threatened inhabitants, the lesser prairie chicken.
"If an agricultural pesticide killed as many birds as these turbines probably are, they'd be regulated right out of the market," Kendall said, adding one report in Canada found a single turbine could kill more than 100 birds a night. "Why don't we get ahead of the curve for once?"
And it's not just the turbines that have researchers worried.
(Excerpt) Read more at lubbockonline.com ...
You can not have to many honkers.
Many (if not most) of these things I have seen are rusting hulks. Whoever the investor is, they’re probably not getting a very good return.
But alas, that then allows the Feds to come in and subsidize.
Has anybody ever thought that maybe having a ring of wind turbines around airports may make for safer air travel?
not a one. I’m 2 hours south east of Lubbock, so they may not even live here...too many coyotes and feral pigs.
They aren’t worth anything unless they can survive without government subsidies. Wind power is inefficient and who knows how often the silly equipment will have to be replaced? If this were worth the cost, the private sector would invest in it.
Wind power is just another gov’t boondoggle.
DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW.
News to me that a “prairie chicken” can regularly fly as high as the blades on a turbine.
Feed the dead birds to the homeless.
Any spotted owls spotted near these windmills?”
NOPE-= Those live at the local K-Mart in the signs.
See this link for how wind farms mess up weather radar.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2287639/posts
How much space would a nucular power plant take up compared with these wind or solar farms for the same amount of electricity produced?
You realize this implies there is a greater prairie chicken?
Of course. We have Attwater Prairie Chickens too. (Tympanuchus cupido attwateri)
Finally, someone sees what a nightmare these things are. Not only do they destroy the lanscape, they are killing the wildlife (no surprise there). I wonder if they are in the fly path of the Egret’s. Now that would REALLY p*** me off.
Just like Barry wants for our health care sytem. at least he’s consistent in his hatred for everything American.
The serious environmental problems of wind turbines have been known for 30 years. They kill a lot or raptors - federally protected birds of prey. The birds that eat the little varmints on the land. Wind turbines are a blight on the landscape and people cannot live near them because of the intolerable noise.
Thousands of acres of wind and solar power could be replaced by one nuclear power plant. It is amazing how well-meaning but ignorant “green” people agitate for these bird choppers to be erected.
Take note that General Electric is investing heavily in wind power technology. CEO Jeff Immelt and 0bama are buds, and oh by the way.... GE owns NBC.... kinda obvious why the libs are backing wind power despite the poor endangered [fill in the blank] species.
Thank you so much!
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