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Wind Energy is Not Green, It’s Just Energy

May 28, 2013 by Paul Crowe

Meet your new neighbors

Meet your new neighbors, you can try to ignore them, but they still won’t go away

Are you a straight talking, “let’s just get to the facts” sort of person? Would you rather not talk politics? Well, wind energy won’t let you do that, because wind energy, which should be all about the science, is almost always, all about the politics. It’s really frustrating and it all starts with the color green.

In physics, energy is not green

If you study physics, which is what you study if you want to know about energy, you’ll learn all about potential energy and kinetic energy, you might learn about heat energy which becomes the study of thermodynamics, there’s so much you need to know and many of us find it extremely interesting, but look all you want through your physics textbook and you won’t see anything about “green energy.” Why not? Because “green energy” isn’t science, it’s politics. There are no scientific laws that apply, no equations you can solve, it’s just a series of ideas you can “believe in,” and if you do, you can call yourself green.

Wind energy is just energy

Wind energy is part of the “green energy” group, that also includes solar, geothermal and hydroelectricity, but each one is simply an energy source, the same as coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear. We can also include another group as an energy source called biomass which is everything from wood to things like various waste products. In every instance, we’re trying to produce energy which we need to survive. If we want to go beyond mere survival and build a more advanced economy, we need more energy.

Where did green energy come from?

The term “green energy” has its foundations in the environmental movement, now committed to reducing CO2 emissions because of claims of global warming caused by man. (Even though the warming seems to have, … um, paused.) They say there is strong scientific evidence to support their views, but they act in a very unscientific manner. They will no longer entertain questions about their conclusions, if you question their evidence or results, you’re labeled a “science denier,” and if you continue to question, especially if your questions are hard to answer, they may say something incredibly silly, “the science is settled.”

Science asks questions, it doesn’t choose sides

Science doesn’t say it’s settled, only people who don’t understand it say that. Science thrives and grows on continual questioning of theories and ever more thorough proof. If questions seem threatening to anyone’s beliefs, they need to reexamine why they believe something in the first place. Wind energy advocates, basing much of their support for wind on this same CO2 and global warming issue, have no better answers than the environmental groups in general, but the problem is now political, because the government has thrown its support, and a whole lot of your tax dollars, behind wind energy.

Even if you accept man made global warming, the belief that wind energy somehow solves the problem is not supported by any facts, especially when you consider it doesn’t replace any conventional power plants and does nothing to reduce CO2, the greenhouse gas accused of being the cause, in any measurable way. Wind energy is a “feel good” solution that costs you a lot and makes our electric grid less stable.

Note: Wind energy presents a troubling issue for environmentalists. A true environmentalist is expected to support certain things, yet they split on this issue. It’s what happens if you label something “green” instead of examining it carefully with serious and open questions. It also presents an opportunity for everyone to see you don’t have to think like a group, you can have a healthy concern for the environment without accepting some set list of beliefs that all environmentalists supposedly share. This may be the best thing that has happened for a very long time to advance clear thinking about the environment and it may open up a whole new set of ideas and solutions where people sometimes at odds can begin to agree. Wouldn’t that be refreshing?

Government chooses sides and doesn’t like questions

The government is picking winners in the energy field, rather than letting competition, engineering and science find the best solutions to whatever problems we’re trying to solve. When you no longer aim for a particular target like inexpensive, clean and reliable energy, but instead choose one specific kind of energy, other methods that may be far better will not be considered or even allowed.

Laws that apply to you don’t apply to wind energy

Once the government favors a particular industry or energy source, they begin enforcing the same laws differently depending on which business you’re in, tax laws and preferences we’ve already discussed, but even environmental laws get selectively enforced.

A Southern California wind farm has been assured by federal authorities that they won’t prosecute if the company’s whirring turbine blades kill any endangered California condors.

That exemption applies for the next thirty years. Or as the Oil and Gas Journal put it:

Oil companies have been prosecuted for federal crimes when migratory birds died in waste pits at drilling sites, but apparently US President Barack Obama’s administration figures eagles whacked out of the air by wind farm turbines simply committed suicide.

… the administration has never prosecuted or fined a wind-energy company for the death of protected birds despite turbines in the US killing more than 573,000 birds/year, including hawks, falcons, and eagles.

The government would prosecute you, too, just like an oil company. Only wind energy gets a free pass because the government thinks it’s special, but it certainly doesn’t sound very green.

Note: Since wind developers constantly stress peer reviewed studies, the 573,000 birds killed per year number comes from the peer reviewed Wildlife Society Bulletin.

Let’s find the best solution, not the “green” solution

You don’t have to be an environmentalist to be concerned about the environment and a particular form of energy doesn’t have to be the government’s favorite or labeled “green” to be the best energy choice, in fact, that may be a good reason to steer clear. If we simply ask straightforward questions about every energy option and let the facts and the science lead us wherever it may, then we can come up with energy solutions that will be good for all of us, not just those few who will benefit financially at great cost to the rest of us. Wind energy must not be measured by a different standard just because someone has labeled it green, it needs to meet our needs and answer the same hard questions as every other energy source. If it can’t, and so far it hasn’t, it should be set aside so we can use something better, it doesn’t matter what color wind claims to be.

Filed Under: Wind Energy Tagged With: government regulations, special privilege

What can you do?

  • Be informed! Read as many articles on this website as you have time for, so you can understand the issue. Do your own research. Check us out.
  • Tell your neighbors about the wind turbines, point them to this website so they can learn more.

Unfortunately

The less you know about wind energy,
the more you'll like it.

Why wind developers never understand …

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

~ Upton Sinclair

Don’t know – Don’t care

Is willful ignorance necessary
to promote wind energy?

No, but it helps.

Climate Change

Another thing I must point out is that you cannot prove a vague theory wrong. … Also, if the process of computing the consequences is indefinite, then with a little skill any experimental results can be made to look like the expected consequences.

~ Richard Feynman, 1964

It’s not on-demand, it’s no-demand

Wind energy is "no-demand" electricity. If the wind isn't blowing and you demand electricity, the answer is no.

Wind – expensive, inefficient, unreliable



December 1923 Popular Science cover dreaming about generating electricity from windmills, and though the dream never dies, the dream doesn't work, didn't then, doesn't now and without huge government giveaways of your money, no wind farms would get built anywhere. The government forces utilities to buy wind power so payments to landowners are simply wind welfare.


Wind energy runs on tax credits

"I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire's tax rate, for example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit."
~ Warren Buffett - from interview with Fortune magazine

Wind investments and high cost green energy

“I’m in the wind business … I’ve lost my ass in the business. ... Hey, we can get on everything green. We can get on everything renewable. Then the cost of power will go up ten times."
~ T. Boone Pickens - on Morning Joe on MSNBC

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