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What is happening with alternative "green" energy, involving such environmentally-unsound measures as erecting windmill generators along Appalachian ridgelines which are migration routes for songbirds, raptors, and Monarch butterflies, is a boondoggle, a fiasco, a travesty -- but it is all very politically correct, so none of that matters.

Gone With The Wind By: Tait Trussell FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, July 30, 2009   The statuesque and towering windmill represents one of Barack Obama’s grandiose hopes for renewable energy in our future. But windmills also have a troubling feature: They can be bad for your health. Dr. Nina Pierpont has conducted substantial research on what she calls “wind turbine syndrome,” the clinical name she has given to the “constellation of symptoms experienced by many (though not all) who live near industrial wind turbines.” These include sleep problems like insomnia; headaches; dizziness; unsteadiness and nausea; exhaustion; anxiety; anger and irritability; depression;...

Al Gore’s campaign against global warming is shifting into high gear. Reporters and commentators follow his every move and bombard the public with notice of his activities and opinions. But while the mainstream media promote his ideas about the state of planet Earth, they are mostly silent about the dramatic impact his economic proposals would have on America. And journalists routinely ignore evidence that he may personally benefit from his programs. Would the romance fizzle if Gore’s followers realized how much their man stands to gain? Earlier this year Gore experienced a notable public relations debacle. The Tennessee Center for...

The idea of wind generated electric energy is being sold by environmentalists as an overlooked opportunity to reduce greenhouse gasses. Global warming advocates claim that this discounted treasure could be a major part of an effort to reduce the burning of fossil fuels and eliminate the need for some of our nuclear power plants. Is it true that we are passing up on a gold mine of renewable energy in favor of unnecessary and harmful fossil and nuclear fuels? Let's start by looking at what we use to generate the power we use today. Renewables, such as wind, solar, biomass,...

The Spanish professor is puzzled. Why, Gabriel Calzada wonders, is the U.S. president recommending that America emulate the Spanish model for creating "green jobs" in "alternative energy" even though Spain's unemployment rate is 18.1 percent — more than double the European Union average — partly because of spending on such jobs? Calzada, 36, an economics professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, has produced a report that, if true, is inconvenient for the Obama administration's green agenda, and for some budget assumptions that are dependent upon it. Calzada says Spain's torrential spending — no other nation has so aggressively supported production...

LAKE HUGHES [california] - Plans for the installation of 70 wind turbines on a ridge northwest of Lake Hughes and construction of power lines to connect them with an already-controversial proposed power line in Leona Valley have been submitted to Los Angeles County regional planners. But residents of the Lakes communities aren't too happy about it. "We as a community are not getting a lot of oversight protection on these projects," said Jim Walker, president of the Lakes Town Council. Speaking at a town council meeting Saturday, Walker said he is also concerned about the aesthetic and ecological impacts the...

tuna writes "A real-world test by the Dutch province of Zeeland (a very windy place) demonstrates that small windmills are a fundamentally flawed technology (PDF of tests results in Dutch, English summary). Twelve much-hyped micro wind turbines were placed in a row on an open plain. Their energy yield was measured over a period of one year (April 1, 2008 [][]March 31, 2009), the average wind velocity during these 12 months was 3.8 meters per second, slightly higher than average. Three windmills broke. The others recorded ridiculously low yields, in spite of the optimal conditions. It would take up to...

Weaning the U.S. off imported oil by drilling for known reserves off our coasts and under federal lands is a no-cost economic stimulus that would create 160,000 high-paying jobs and generate $1.7 trillion in new tax revenue and royalties. Tapping this resource would stop the flow of U.S. dollars to Middle Eastern sheikdoms, Hugo Chavez’s Venezuelan madhouse and other OPEC outposts of petroleum-fueled global lunacy. But even though a large majority of Americans favor expanding domestic oil and gas production, the Obama administration is literally tilting at windmills instead. The Minerals Management Service estimates that there are 115 billion barrels...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Windmills off the East Coast could generate enough electricity to replace most, if not all, the coal-fired power plants in the United States, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday. (snip) Salazar could not estimate how many windmills might be needed to generate 1 million megawatts of power, saying it would depend on their size and how far from the coast they were located. (snip)

Officials are investigating a fatal accident along Highway 15 and 2nd Street South in St. Cloud Wednesday morning. Police have rerouted traffic while the Minnesota State Patrol is reconstructing the accident that occurred shortly after 11 a.m. According to witnesses, a series of semi trucks carrying wind turbines hit a minivan. Investigators have been mum on details, and the number of vehicles and victims involved has not been released.

If the chOIce is between oil rigs off Virginia Beach or windmills, it's no choice at all:- Petroleum is the fuel of the past; wind is energy for the future.- Petroleum contributes to global warming; wind doesn't.- Burning petroleum pollutes; wind won't.- Drilling for oil and gas leaves toxic chemicals in the water; wind can't.- Oil and gas spill; spilled wind is called "air."- Petroleum requires intrusive on-shore facilities; wind requires a connection to the electric grid.- There isn't enough petroleum off Virginia to make a difference in prices; the state is considered the best location for a wind...

MAYOR Michael Bloomberg has proposed a renewable energy program for New York City that would include placing windmills on city bridges, solar panels on skyscrapers, and the use of tidal, geothermal and nuclear energy. Mr Bloomberg unveiled the outlines of his plan late yesterday at a major clean energy summit in Las Vegas organised by the University of Nevada. "Just five years ago last week - on August 14th, 2003 - this country got an object lesson in how big a gamble we're taking with our future if we don't change course," said Mr Bloomberg, referring to the giant blackout...

Strong Energy Measures Wanted Poll Shows Most Favor New Drilling, Taxes on Oil Profits By Jon Cohen and Paul KaneWashington Post Staff Writers Sunday, August 10, 2008; Page A08 A new national poll shows broad public support for government action in the face of $4-a-gallon gas and other energy concerns, giving Republicans a rare opening to go on the offensive against congressional Democrats and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Nearly two-thirds of Americans now put a priority on "finding new sources of energy" over improving conservation -- a significant shift since 2001 -- and majorities support all of the five potential...

As North Texans sweltered through another 100-degree-plus day, the windmills around Sweetwater turned lazily in the West Texas breeze, generating enough electricity to power about 250,000 homes. It’s not much — barely 1 percent of the peak electricity demand Monday for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, operator of the transmission grid for about 75 percent of the state. But it’s about what is expected from the state’s wind-power industry, by far the nation’s largest, during the dog days of summer, when temperatures climb but wind speeds dip on the West Texas plains. "In general, wind’s peak energy does not...

Major Michael Blankenship, from Jonesborough, Tenn., 489th CA Bn., samples purified water from the windmill in al-Zatir, Iraq, May 5. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Justin Snyder. FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — U.S. troops visited windmills in al-Zatir and Hollandia, Iraq, on a quality analysis and control trip May 5. The Soldiers with 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, the 489th Civil Affairs Battalion, and 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, made the trip to check on progress made on windmills over the past eight months. Major Michael Blankenship, from Jonesborough, Tenn., 489th CA Bn., oversees the...

But will we all get free wooden shoes? Barack Obama didn't say. But he does have a plan to give people jobs. Put them to work . . . building windmills. His idea came in response to a question at last night's Compassion Forum on CNN from Jim Wallis, a leading member of the religious left whose focus is "social justice." Wallis wanted Obama to commit to a new War on Poverty. JIM WALLIS: As you reminded us a week or two ago, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed 40 years ago, he wasn't just speaking about civil...

MOJAVE - After years of negotiating and planning, the biggest transmission project for renewable energy in the nation is finally set for its first leg of construction. Officials from Southern California Edison, the state Public Utilities Commission, the state Independent System Operator, government representatives and private energy business leaders met Friday morning beside Oak Creek Road west of Mojave for a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off the first phase of the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project. By the time the entire project is complete, the lines will be able to carry up to 4,500 megawatts to light Southern California homes and...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A drop in wind generation late on Tuesday, coupled with colder weather, triggered an electric emergency that caused the Texas grid operator to cut service to some large customers, the grid agency said on Wednesday. Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said a decline in wind energy production in west Texas occurred at the same time evening electric demand was building as colder temperatures moved into the state. The grid operator went directly to the second stage of an emergency plan at 6:41 PM CST (0041 GMT), ERCOT said in a statement. System operators curtailed power to...

There’s a foul wind blowing off Cape Cod. The clean-energy project known as Cape Wind makes more sense than ever, what with the mess in the Middle East and the earth getting warmer by the minute. But resistance to the proposed wind-farm — which would place 130 windmills in Nantucket Sound and provide up to 75 percent of the Cape’s energy at any given time — proves that it really isn’t easy being green. Since Cape Wind was first proposed in 2001, the project has made plenty of powerful enemies (see the sidebar “Enemies in High Places”), including Ted Kennedy,...

Danish Island Is Energy Self-Sufficient (March 9) - It's a two-hour ferry ride to the Danish island of Samso — and it can seem like a trip back through time... Samso is an area about 40 square miles long with a permanent population of about 4,000 — all of them living a green dream. Take farmer Erik Andersen. His tractor runs on oil from rape seed, which he grows. His hot water and power come from his solar panels or wind turbines. There's not a fossil fuel in site. --snip-- To harness the wind, of which they have plenty, they...