{"id":29477,"date":"2014-07-12T16:00:38","date_gmt":"2014-07-12T20:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/static\/?p=29477"},"modified":"2014-07-15T12:46:44","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T16:46:44","slug":"being-crazy-isnt-enough-wind-energys-fantasy-in-green-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/2014\/being-crazy-isnt-enough-wind-energys-fantasy-in-green-editorial\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBeing crazy isn\u2019t enough”: Wind energy’s fantasy in green (Editorial)"},"content":{"rendered":"

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/p>\n

\n

.<\/span>
\n\u2014 Curt Devlin, Guest Editor, Massachusetts (7\/12\/14)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNever let the facts get in the way of a good story,\u201d cautioned\u00a0Mark Twain. \u00a0Miles Grant\u00a0heeded Twain\u2019s famous advice in\u00a0his recent opinion about global climate change and wind opposition<\/span><\/a><\/span>. Grant burns\u00a0with evangelical\u00a0fervor when he argues that wind power is necessary for averting\u00a0climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem with the\u00a0argument is it assumes facts that don\u2019t exist. Wind turbines do not reduce CO2 emission, they increase it. In 2013, the U.S. spent some $80B subsidizing wind power, but CO2 only increased. In proportion to their economies, other industrialized nations around the world have invested far more heavily in wind energy than the U.S., but carbon emissions still go up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coal supplies roughly\u00a060% of\u00a0the energy to\u00a0the world\u2019s power grids, and all industrial turbines must be connected to a grid. Grid\u00a0operators\u00a0maintain\u00a0an instantaneous balance between energy supply and demand. When\u00a0turbines are spinning, coal generators are\u00a0ramped down to\u00a0balance the grid, a process known as \u201ccurtailment.\u201d \u00a0When turbines stop spinning, coal plants are\u00a0ramped up, called \u201ccycling<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u201d\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 a\u00a0procedure that can take hours, since coal plants\u00a0ramp up slowly.<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem with cycling is that even the most efficient coal plants produce much greater CO2 emissions when they are not running at peak efficiency. This means that\u00a0wind farms connected to coal grids virtually ensure increased CO2 emissions \u2014 not to mention increased particulate air pollution, a dirty little secret the \u201cwind\u201d lobby doesn\u2019t want you to know.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grant mentioned the people who have to breathe the pollutants being belched out of the Brayton Point coal plant, but forgets\u00a0to mention that connecting wind turbines to the same grid will make matters\u00a0worse. The misguided demonstrators who marched into Fairhaven last year to support the turbines, clearly didn\u2019t understand this danger. The people being harmed by pollution from this coal plant should be doing everything to prevent further turbines from being connected to the same grid.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"BraytonPoint\"

Brayton Point Power Station, a coal-fired power plant located in Somerset, MA.<\/p><\/div>\n

People like Grant, who look at wind power through green-tinted\u00a0glasses, are\u00a0quick to argue that at least coal is not being burned when turbines generate power. Unfortunately, this too falls apart under careful scrutiny. The U.S. has become an exporter of its coal surplus. The principal consumer of our\u00a0surplus is China.\u00a0When the Chinese burn our coal<\/span><\/a><\/span>, however, their plants don’t\u00a0have to comply with EPA standards. As a result of these dirty coal plants, some industrialized cities in China now have pollution so bad that the air is unbreathable for days on end.<\/span><\/p>\n

At least we can all agree on one thing; the climate is global, so we\u2019re all inhaling\u00a0some of this pollution.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"CHINA

The results of burning coal in China<\/p><\/div>\n

Here are some other facts the green evangelists\u00a0don\u2019t want you to know. Every living plant growing in huge swaths of land is\u00a0literally razed to the ground every time a wind turbine goes up. It isn\u2019t just the ten acres needed for the site that get turned into a moonscape. Broad fire lanes and paved roads are often cut across ridges and mountain tops to accommodate the huge\u00a0vehicles needed to build, service, and maintain these leviathans. The forest habitat is virtually hacked to ribbons, so it can no longer support the complex, balanced\u00a0ecology of flora and fauna. (Take a look at the wind farms in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine with Google Earth to see the true extent of environmental destruction cause by industrial turbines.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"groton-wind-newfound\"<\/a>

Aerial shot of the Groton Wind Project in New Hampshire. (Click for a full tour of the ecological devastation.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Another impact that Mr. Green Eggs & Ham\u00a0won\u2019t mention is the economic one. In the U.K., wind power has driven the cost of retail electricity\u00a0so high that a new class of poverty has emerged. More and more people are slipping below the poverty line, because they can no longer afford the high cost of electricity produced by turbines. In the global economy, the worst impact is placed on those who are already languishing in\u00a0poverty<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In proportion to its economy, Germany has invested more in wind than any other industrialized nation. Once the powerhouse of the E.U., its economy has been decimated\u00a0by its gamble on the roulette wheel of wind. According to government-paid researchers, the\u00a0wind energy misadventure known as the\u00a0Energiewende<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0(energy transformation) has damaged the German economy so badly that Germans are bringing\u00a0ten new coal generators<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0online, with\u00a0more on the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"princetonwind\"

The $6-million-dollar turbines in Princeton, MA.<\/p><\/div>\n

Princeton, MA, one of the earliest adopters of wind power in Massachusetts, has now reported\u00a0a loss of $6 million<\/span><\/a><\/span>, and has the highest electric rates in the Commonwealth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though the cost of wind energy is hidden by federal subsidies paid for with your tax dollars, a kilowatt of energy from a land-based turbine costs three times more to produce than conventional generators; and from offshore turbines, three times more than that, again. If Cape Wind is ever built in Nantucket Sound, carbon emissions will continue to rise and Massachusetts will have the highest electric rates in the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n

By far the greatest cost of all is the human one. There is no benefit to wind power sufficient to justify the damage to human health and well-being they cause. Wind turbine sites are ecological dead zones. The best science we have offers clear evidence that virtually everyone exposed to the\u00a0pulsed\u00a0volleys of infrasound produced by industrial wind turbines will begin to suffer from\u00a0cognitive impairment or cardiovascular disease<\/span><\/a><\/span>. Turbines are a silent killer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLasciate onge speranza, voi ch\u2019ingrate.\u201d\u00a0\u201cAbandon all hope, ye who enter here.\u201d \u00a0Dante\u2019s inscription over the gates of Hell (\u201cThe Inferno\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

Contrary to green dogma, wind power doesn\u2019t make sense, whether you believe global climate change is real or not. In the end, the\u00a0fantasy-in-green doesn\u2019t amount to\u00a0even a good story. It\u2019s but\u00a0a fractured fairy tale, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. . \u2014 Curt Devlin, Guest Editor, Massachusetts (7\/12\/14) \u201cNever let the facts get in the way of a good story,\u201d cautioned\u00a0Mark Twain. \u00a0Miles Grant\u00a0heeded Twain\u2019s famous advice in\u00a0his recent opinion about global climate change and wind opposition. Grant burns\u00a0with evangelical\u00a0fervor when he argues that wind power is necessary for averting\u00a0climate change. The problem with the\u00a0argument is it assumes facts that don\u2019t exist. Wind turbines do not reduce CO2 emission, they increase it. In 2013, the U.S. spent some $80B subsidizing wind power, but CO2 only increased. In proportion to their economies, other industrialized nations around the world have invested far more heavily in wind energy than the U.S., but carbon emissions still go up. Coal supplies roughly\u00a060% of\u00a0the energy to\u00a0the world\u2019s power grids, and all industrial turbines must be connected to a grid. Grid\u00a0operators\u00a0maintain\u00a0an instantaneous balance between energy supply and demand. When\u00a0turbines are spinning, coal generators are\u00a0ramped down to\u00a0balance the grid, a process known as \u201ccurtailment.\u201d \u00a0When turbines stop spinning, coal plants are\u00a0ramped up, called \u201ccycling\u201d\u00a0\u2014 a\u00a0procedure that can take hours, since coal plants\u00a0ramp up slowly. The problem with cycling is that even the most efficient coal plants produce much greater CO2 emissions when they are not running at peak efficiency. This means that\u00a0wind farms connected to coal grids virtually ensure increased CO2 emissions \u2014 not to mention increased particulate air pollution, a dirty little secret the \u201cwind\u201d lobby doesn\u2019t want you to know. Grant mentioned the people who have to breathe the pollutants being belched out of the Brayton Point coal plant, but forgets\u00a0to mention that connecting wind turbines to the same grid will make matters\u00a0worse. The misguided demonstrators who marched into Fairhaven last year to support the turbines, clearly didn\u2019t understand this danger. The people being harmed by pollution from this coal plant should be doing everythingRead More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[157,16,173],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29477"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}