That's one of the things that REALLY galls me. If you open a new surface coal mine, you have to pay HUGE surety bonds up front to make sure the site is reclaimed ten, twenty or more years down the road.
Wind farms put millions of tons of concrete in the ground, erect 200 foot towers, and put huge blades on each tower. What happens when millions of those horrible monstrosities despoiling our beautiful country all reach the end of their lives? Do you think the companies that bought them or manufactured them will still be around?
Of course not. They will have gone out of business and no reclamation bonds were paid. So those infernal machines will be blighting our landscape for 1,000 years until they fall apart. The millions of tons of concrete in the ground will just be abandoned and never go away.
If we had a level playing field, the damn companies building and operating these infernal machines would have to pay their surety bonds up front. But that won't happen because the green lobby strong-arms Congress to make sure it doesn't happen. So the costs of windmills are artificially low and do not include decommissioning and reclamation costs.
There is a huge push for these monstrosities - over 1200 of them - off the coast of NC by enviroMENTALISTS who are against ONE oil rig off the coast being installed. ONE.
Each wind turbine needs to be drilled 300 feet into the bedrock - a complete environmental disaster and will disrupt the fish and wildlife, not to mention the millions of birds that will be slaughtered by the blades. The wind turbines need gas to work and when they are no longer operational, they just install more. The nonworking ones are NOT removed.
You silly! Taxpayers will naturally foot the bill! Better together! Rah! Rah! (puke)
“Do you think the companies that bought them or manufactured them will still be around?”
Case in point? 0bama and Solyndra. (Solar scam.) Once our ‘betters’ get their hands on the cash, it’s all over for the rest of us.
https://www.cnet.com/culture/solyndra-bankruptcy-was-disaster-waiting-to-happen/
Over the past few years, we fought HARD to keep huge transmission towers from being built bringing electricity from Iowa to Madison & Chicago - and totally bypassing US! No electricity for YOU - but we’ll rape your ‘Driftless’ pristine landscape and thumb you in the eye as we pass!
Obviously, we lost that one - BUT we were able to keep the towers along major highways and not through our beautiful countryside.
If I’m honest, they gave us two choices, but they threatened us with the second route (digging up the countryside) so we’d stop fighting them on the route they wanted IN THE FIRST PLACE...which was along major highways.
And they complain about Global BS Warming when the REAL harm done to the Earth is something like this, and the Solar Scam I listed above, as well as wind towers falling on our heads!
*Rolleyes*