Editorial: “Big Wind” Swindle
Sep 10, 2010
Print Article—Jon Boone, Ph.D. (Maryland)
One of the genuine problems with engaging industrial wind is the way its spin doctors have hitched the technology to a sense of the public good, much in the way tobacco ads did 50 years ago. This was the final plank in the foundation enabling this daffy Enronesque technology, which is so inimical to modern power performance.
Politicians can support it because they can point to the totemic size of the turbines as symbols for challenging the status quo and for their commitment to a better world, knowing there’s no accountability and certain that industrial wind will only reinforce the status quo.
The media can support it because it provides an English cozy melodrama, providing counterpoint to Big Energy (coal and oil) but in a cartoonish Road Runner/Wily Coyote kind of way (the good guys vs the bad guys)—all to keep people entertained so they’ll stay tuned and to maintain cheap production costs.
And, not least, the big energy companies like GE, AES, Florida Power and Light, and BP (which control 90% of the continent’s industrial wind projects) can pretend that wind is a competitor while milking wind as both a massive tax shelter generator and as a public relations bonanza (and, of course, using wind’s energy credits to avoid cleaning up their dirtiest burning plants).
Comment by dale on 09/22/2010 at 2:51 pm
No, I don’t see wind as a swindle at all. It’s grown up; it’s useful; it’s
viable; it’s productive. Talk about subsidies – war machine for oil; it’s
all subsidy. Talk about tax shelters – talk about insane tax structures –
business is doing whatever it has to do there.
The sad illusion is that it could solve our energy problems; no way;
drop in the bucket. Besides, modern wind power is an accessory to a fossil
fuel structure.
Dale
Comment by odissis on 09/23/2010 at 12:05 pm
This serves as yet another example of the Ages Old maxim proffered by the elite: Divide and Conquer. BP and other oil corporations have developed the system in which wind power and all other Alternative Energy schemes will be unleashed upon the world. This is an issue about slaves and masters and the manipulation necessary to ensure that power remains in the hands of those that already have it. Perspectives such as Dale’s (above) are required for the oligarchs to maintain their position as Masters of the Universe. These elites shape the national dialog and then offer the solution…always to our detriment and their advantage. History seems to show that the sheeple never awaken and unite, No Matter What. Find the silence within. Peace!
Comment by larry on 09/23/2010 at 11:20 pm
Hey Dale! Grow up and study the true facts. Or maybe you are part of this groupie corporation of wind scammers. Or maybe one of the persons that is so brainwashed about this stuff.
I actually live near a wind farm and let me tell you firsthand they are creating a headache for my family with the infrasound. And, oh yeah, they call me a NIMBY. But you know what? I was like you before I did my research and discovered these wind turbines are a BIG scam and you will pay for it dearly.
Maybe after another decade, you can eat your words of green bullshit. Denmark has now stopped placing them around homes and on land. This should tell you something.
Have a great day.