May 28, 2013 – Paul Crowe

Wind energy presents a troubling issue for environmentalists. A true environmentalist is expected to support certain things, yet they are 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?

Wind Energy is Not Green, It’s Just Energy.

http://www.humanfaceofwindturbines.ca/

Check it out and help spread the word!

“Join us Thursday, August 8, at 3 pm ET for a Google+ Hangout on wind energy in America. During the Hangout, you’ll have the opportunity to ask experts from across the industry anything you want about the wind industry — from the status of offshore wind projects to projections for industry growth to the logistics for setting up your own small turbine to power your home. For the first time ever, we’re also giving you the opportunity to join our Hangout on Air live and ask your wind energy questions directly to our panelists. 

For a chance to be featured during the live discussion, submit your questions by emailing newmedia@hq.doe.gov, posting a comment on the Energy Department’s Facebook or Google+ page, or tweeting @ENERGY using #AskEnergy.”

http://energy.gov/google-hangout-wind-energy-america

A recent study by Civitas, The Institute for the Study of Civil Society, points out that wind farms actually produces more CO2 and related pollutants than would be used, if wind turbines were left running on grid power at all times.

The necessity of constantly turning on wind turbines when the wind is favourable, and off when the velocity is too high, along with the grid power necessary to maintain them, actually causes the operation of wind farms to produce more pollution than if the turbines used the grid to operate constantly.

Each time the grid is used to start turbines on a wind farm, a surge of electricity is needed to power up the fossil fuel station where the power originates. Thus, more CO2 and pollution is released into the atmosphere than there would normally be if the wind turbines either operated fully on the grid or were removed from it altogether.

Ruth Lea, author of the Civitas report states that by having to constantly switch on and off power from the grid to operate and maintain wind turbines, drastically increases CO2 and pollution levels above that, which would be produced if the turbines were always on grid power. They go on to say wind turbines only produce energy around 30% of the time, in a small window when the wind is favorable for operation. Thus, the other 60% is being supplied by the grid. Continue reading at:

Wind Farms: Big polluters that produce little electricity : The Canadian National Newspaper.

July 29, 2013 – Forbes  – James Taylor

A newly published peer-reviewed study reports U.S. wind turbines kill 1.4 million birds and bats every year, even while producing just 3 percent of U.S. electricity. The numbers reveal that President Obama’s global warming plan will kill hundreds of millions of birds and bats while doing little if anything to reduce global temperatures.

Even if no new wind turbines are ever built, turbine blades will slice 14 million birds and bats to death in mid-flight during the next decade. However, global warming alarmists say we must reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 or even 80 percent. President Obama’s recently announced assault on climate change appears likely to seek such numbers. Given that most global warming alarmists also vigorously oppose hydropower, natural gas power and nuclear power, reducing emissions by 50 to 80 percent would require increasing the number of wind turbines roughly 25 fold. That means killing 350 million birds and bats in the United States every decade. Continue Reading at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2013/07/29/president-obamas-climate-plan-would-kill-hundreds-of-millions-of-birds-and-bats/