Offshore Windfarms: Good or Bad?

there would also have to be some sort of cabling/wiring under or on top the ocean floor correct? THis could screw up the flow of sand affecting many breaks if these turbines are regulated to fairly short distances from the shore I would imagine. I don't know I cant speculate, I would love to see a drawing with the proposed locations of the major components. Something showing where and how many turbines with anchored platforms , power station, how the power gets form turbines to the existing grid, etc. Honestly though to loose a few spots along our stretch of beach would be worth it if it meant my kids wouldn't be spending $12 for a gallon of gas when they are 35 years old and paying $1200 power bills because at the rate we are heading it can happen. At 36 years old in two decades I have personally seen gas prices triple, no reason to think that will not be a continuing trend.

 

no one has mentioned the effect on the animals

Thousands of aging turbines stud the brown rolling hills of the Altamont Pass on I-580 east of San Francisco Bay, a testament to one of the nation's oldest and best-known experiments in green energy.

Though the Altamont Pass is known for its strong winds, it also lies on an
important bird-migration route, and its grass-covered hills provide food for
several types of raptors. "It's the worst possible place to put a wind farm,"
said Jeff Miller, a wildlife advocate at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. "It's responsible for an astronomical level of bird kills."

A 2004 report by the California Energy Commission found that 880 to 1,300 raptors are killed at Altamont every year, such as red-tailed hawks and the federally protected golden eagle.

Altamont isn't the only scene of a showdown. Environmental groups have already blocked a proposed wind-power facility in the Mojave Desert, and opponents of another project, in Nantucket Sound, have cited wildlife concerns in their lobbying efforts. A recent government report found that sites in other regions could pose a threat to bats.

According to the American Wind Energy Association, wind farms in 34 states were generating 6,740 megawatts as of January, enough juice to power 1.6 million homes. Another 2,500 megawatts of wind power is expected to come on line this year. Though nobody is saying that wildlife issues will curtail wind development, some environmentalists say that much more care should go into picking locations for wind farms.

Miller stressed that the Center for Biological Diversity is not opposed to wind farms, but said they must be built in areas where they will have minimal impact on wildlife. "We definitely support wind power, but it needs to be sited in appropriate areas."

One area that his group says is definitely not appropriate for wind power is Altamont Pass. Miller said more than 5,000 turbines were installed there in the 1970s without any type of environmental impact study.

Steve Stengel, a spokesman for FPL Energy, one of several power companies that collectively operate the Altamont windmills, said the goal is to reduce avian collisions by 35 percent in three years, and to determine which turbines are the most dangerous. "If they aren't running, birds won't fly into them," he said.

Stengel also said the Altamont site is an anomaly. Besides its poor location, he said many of the turbines there, some decades old, use older designs, with faster-spinning blades that reach closer to the ground than recent models --
where birds are more likely to be flying as they hunt for prey.

FPL and its partners are also replacing some turbines with newer ones that the company says are safer for birds, and are relocating or removing about 100 of the most dangerous windmills from locations such as ridge tops.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NAAzBArYdw&feature=related

Installing a 40-story tall structure with spinning blades in the middle of a wildlife region off the Atlantic coast. Who is the Einstein behind this one? Another paid-off, corrupt energy company robot ?

The gulls, egrets, pelicans, ospreys.....they, and many thousands more, will die ugly, horrific deaths. But, hey, it's out of sight of the humans on land, so what the humans don't know doesn't matter, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NAAzBArYdw&feature=related

WTF is wrong with that picture.

Install that same massive structure in VB & let your little kiddies stand underneath it. Let their little designer togs & their expensive Nikes get spattered by the blood & the gore & the once-beautiful crippled creatures crashing to earth. I bet it would be an issue then, wouldn't it ?

Green energy ? My a s s. Humans are aggressively destroying the planet & everything on it in search of a cheap gallon of gasoline.

 

& who pays for this? Oh, the government …….which is on the verge of a financial collapse since it spent & borrowed more so in the past 2 years than ever before (Can you say Greece). Unless this comes from the private market, I’m not buying it. How bout all you who support it step up & subsidize the cost for the project instead of assuming that it will be absorb by the American taxpayer!! We have 5 windmills in Atlantic City that are subsidized by the state. Why? Because it feels good? We pay the highest taxes in the frickin country!!! More government? Give me a break. This attitude will crush this country sooner than you know. I hope your buying gold & silver.

 

Maybe advocates of this approach should stop driving a car and riding on the highways. The government pays for those things ya know, except for some of the costs for your toll roads in NJ. Did you forget about the huge subsidies to oil and nuclear industries?

Go back and "take back America"... take it back to the day of the horse and buggy when the "government" did not pay for the goat paths and trails.

Give ME a break!!!

 

Preach on brutha!! agree 1000% In an era of limited budgets, things need prioritized and our govt can do it core mission at about a 10th of its current size. So faced with a choice of govt subsidized windfarms of dubious value or fixing highways, the highways should win.

Yankee the old saying 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions' applies here. It is laudable to have renewable clean energy, but the consequences are rarely thought of.. same with the curly light bulbs..what a disaster those turned out to be.

And Groundswell, I'm buying something infinitely more valuable then gold or silver....guns and ammo.

 

Ok, please provide a US Government budget that is a 10th of its current size. Enlighten us! I assume you also mean state and local budgets a 10th of their current sizes. Enumerate!

 

Rod, don't you work for the govt?

 

"And Groundswell, I'm buying something infinitely more valuable then gold or silver....guns and ammo."

Hoorah

 

Read on: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11318sp.pdf

Also, eliminate the ATF and DEA
Eliminate the NEA
Eliminate the Dept of Education
Introduce a flat tax and gut the IRS
Shut down all European military bases
Implement a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution for force spending prioritization

I could go on all day.

 

Yes. I did. Now... can't you put up or shut up on the issue -- take the 2011 U.S. Federal Budget proposal sent to congress and show your audience which 90% you would cut and which 10% you would keep (re" "our govt can do it core mission at about a 10th of its current size").

 

See previous post.

 

The GAO report is a good start but the outlays identified are only a drop in the bucket in reducing 90% of the current (2011) Federal Budget. The items you listed are minor expenditures relative to the total Federal budget, but ever bit helps. Please dig a little deeper, identify the total Federal budget, listed by major line item and outlay (cost) and the items and amounts you would reduce from each of those top level line items. Please account for duplication (e.g., for all the European military bases you would close do you also assume the billet is eliminated or does the billet return to a base in the USA -- military personnel is a major cost in the DOD budget so that decision matters). Also address some basic issues such as logistical support to our military for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan and elsewhere from those bases in Europe, e.g., medical).

 

Your assertions are so reaching... here is something concrete:
US Fed Budget 2011 3,833,861,000,000
DEA 2,130,000,000
ATF 1,163,000,000

Two of the six items you listed are barely rounding error in context of the total budget, not even 0.09% (less than one-tenth of a percent) of the Federal budget proposed for 2011. Your 90% budget reduction goal is now at the 89.91% bar!!!

 

Gotta start somewhere. How about mandatory 5% staff reductions for all federal agencies except active military, followed by 5% pay cuts with no increase for 4 years. Eliminate the entitlement for welfare programs and replace with means testing with a work requirement.

 

Not good enough. Show the cuts without speaking in generalities. Fiver percent pay cuts or staff reductions for federal employees or the federal workforce is still a drop in the bucket and doesn't address your assertion of "core functions" that make up only 10% of the Federal budget. The generalities sound nice, but the devil is in the details. The Fiscal Year 2011 Federal Budget is on-line -- go to it and spell it out.

Don't forget the Department of Defense entitlement programs including its military personnel. DOD is the single largest "socialist" organization in the USA with government run health care, shopping, recreation, retirement, housing, insurance, etc. Is it fair to assume you believe government run = bad? Then there are the multitude of defense pork barrel programs. And speaking of duplication, does the Dept of Defense need 5 navies, 5 air forces, and 3 armies?

 

Some food for thought:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13964661

 

LOL. Well, as expected.....

 

LMAO!

sad, but true.

 

Very sad and so true. The moral of the story is, "I like to spend on things I like, not on things I do not like." The crux of the above argument above... I want the gov't to pay for roads, not wind farms.

Yup, the debt is very high -- not surprising in a time of economic downturn. Maybe the Swedish model isn't so bad... save money in times of plenty for times in need. In other words, don't roll up debt in good times (~2002-2007) so you have some left over when needed (2008-2011?).