Posted on 6/15/2007, 10:18:07 AM by MitziRene
Wind Group Condemns ‘Unprecedented Effort to Strangle Clean Energy and Subvert Key Part of Global Warming Solution’
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) today sharply criticized a provision in a new bill introduced by Chairman Nick Rahall (D-WV) in the House Natural Resources Committee that the group said would “essentially outlaw the generation of electricity from new wind power plants in the United States and even phase out power production from existing wind turbines.”
The provision, Subtitle D of H.R. 2337, would:
Bar any new wind power project until new Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) rules are issued – a process likely to take years – and require FWS certification of every turbine Require all existing turbines, even small residential units, to cease operating 6 months after issuance of new FWS rules until they are “certified,” an unwieldy bureaucratic process applying to many thousands of turbines that, again, will take years Make it a crime, punishable by a $50,000 fine or a year in jail, to construct or generate electricity from an unapproved turbine, even for home use Undermine state and federal efforts to promote renewable electricity generation and subvert the growing movement to reduce global warming pollution Create an unworkable bureaucracy that will delay clean, emissions-free wind energy projects throughout the U.S. The legislative proposal follows on the heels of a May 3 report from the National Academy of Sciences that states, among other things, that “Clearly, bird deaths caused by wind turbines are a minute fraction of . . . total anthropogenic bird deaths – less than 0.003% [three of every 100,000] in 2003.” And the wind industry is already helping to fund groundbreaking collaborative research programs on bats and grassland birds to develop a knowledge base that would allow intelligent and effective conservation measures. Existing evidence suggests that fossil fuel-fired electricity generation, not covered by H.R. 2337’s requirements, has far greater wildlife impacts.
Commented Gregory Wetstone, AWEA Senior Director of Government and Public Affairs, “Wind energy requires no mining or drilling for fuel, no fuel transportation, no hazardous waste disposal, and no water use; and wind energy generates electricity without toxic pollutants like mercury, without greenhouse pollution, and of course without the conventional pollutants that cause smog and acid rain. Is this really an energy sector Congress should close down, for environmental reasons?”
“Wind power is an essential element of the climate change solution. Further increasing the percentage of electricity wind produces in America will provide much needed price stability, generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue for farmers and rural communities, and create tens of thousands of jobs. We should be looking for ways to accelerate wind energy’s growth rather than putting roadblocks in its path.”
Hideous globalists.
Damned hypocrites.
Why is it always some freaking 'D', killing off anything that will make America become more energy efficient or independent?!
Interesting that Rahall is up to this. IIRC, West Virginia has North America’s biggest wind project stretching along one of the Appalachian ridgelines. Yes, it’s clean but it’s also big enough and ugly enough to be an eyesore from a plane on the approaches to D.C. Quite possibly, it’s not as visible from the ground.
West Virginia is a coal state.
You answered yourself inside your own question. The relevent portion is "make America become more energy efficient or independent?."
The last thing that liberals want is an independent America or Americans. It is their death knell. Happy, independent, self sufficient people and nations neither need nor want liberalism.
Their very existance is dependent on maintaining a sufficiently large group of people who are dependent on them, their programs and will continue to vote them in to office rather than risk losing those programs.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Can't be having any Windmills blocking the ocean view from the 'compound'.
Dear Santa,
When I grow up can I have a 'compound' too? Yeah I know, the pony thing. Well forget that, I want a 'compound' now.
"You Democrats continue to make 'good' by delivering America to us -- drop by drop."
When the propeller-lovers have to have the same rules applied to them (let alone all their tax subsidies and favored treatment), they cry "FOUL".
If you want the land covered with 150 foot propellers on 200 ft. tall towers in every neighborhood in America, then wind-energy is for YOU.
Must be huge if it's bigger than the wind farms being built and operating in west Texas, western Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico. I recently ferried an airplane to Moriarty, NM, from Chattanooga and, about a month later, another one from Durango, CO, to Chattanooga. I saw literally hundreds and hundreds of windmills, both operating and under construction.
This is outrageous!..........
Hoisted by their own petard alert.
Kinda like how fossil fuel C02 molecules are a minute fraction of all C02 molecules, that are a minute fraction of the atmosphere, right ?
But, still deadly according to the greenies.
I’ve lived with the wind all my life and it’s about time we found something useful to do with it. What irks me is that I’m planning on building a wind generator for a house in the country and this legislation would keep me from being able to produce my own electricity. More government invasion.
I also don’t mind the windmills when I look at my electric bill and watch the figures decrease while my natural gas bill skyrockets. Few care for the way our region looks anyhow and from reading the paper yesterday it looks as though we will be the mecca of wind farms here in the Texas Panhandle.
I’ll admit those aren’t very pretty. Ours are prettier than yours :)
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