Steve Wright
Kingdom Community Wind project, Lowell Mountains Vermont
Green power or green views? That’s the debate going on around the country right now.
As wind power grows more popular, local communities are being forced to decide if they would rather cut down on their carbon emissions or keep their mountains turbine free.
This is what’s happening right now in the Lowell Mountains of Vermont. Environmentalists are fighting environmentalists over whether or not a wind project should go ahead and forever change the ridgeline of the mountains.
Big projects like this can change water flow patterns and forever alter fragile ecosystems. Not to mention they simply change the way the landscape has looked for hundreds of years.
Donald Trump is currently in the middle of one of these battles in Scotland, although he’s not concerned about the environment, he just wants money.
So this is a debate that will be taken up more and more as our country moves to greener sources of power. The pros and cons of individual projects must be weighed and smart decisions must be made.
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Just a few problems here:
1. the wind does not blow 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
2. the trucks & trains that bring the goods & services to you do not run on wind mills or solar panels.
3. wind mills require oil for the bearings, and the equipment that delivers, installs, maintains the things all run on oil.
Wind mills will do nothing to get the USA off oil.
Every little bit helps. Wind sun, water, etc. New ways are being discover and used. The old ways will not be around for ever. Better now than too late.
No but I'm sure drilling for more oil will won't it
The nation has an oil addiction we're not going to get off it tomorrow to say otherwise is nothing but an attempt to impune all nonfossil fuel energy and thus keep their monolopy on energy sources
Green Power IS Green Views. It is a false choice to ask either/or. As it says above, each individual project has to be developed with respect for whatever environment it is impacting. Not all Green Power Projects will be the same.
I think you're missing the purpose of a wind turbine. It is not meant to replace transportation fuel. It's intended to supplement and perhaps replace fossil fueled power plants.
So how will a wind turbine NOT help to move us away from oil addiction???
The best and safest and cleanest way to generate electricity is hydro-electric dams.
But the EPA kills that idea before it ever hits the drawing broad
Although hydro-electric dams have generated untold megawatts of usable energy for our nation, they have decimated salmon runs, displaced entire nations of Native Americans and forever changed the flow of once wild rivers.
Try again.
Well there are no salmon runs in Wy, CO, NM,MT,ID,UT,AZ, and so on.
Get a map of the USA and look at it.
Stupid...
the wind does not blow 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
Sorry, my edit wasn't finished...
the wind does not blow 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
I used to work in the USAF Air Weather Service. The winds in the mountain states of New Hampshire and Vermont (Which, BTW, means 'Green Mountain') were the most constantly active and powerful in the continental US, due to terrain and wind tunnel effects.
The highest recorded wind speed , not associated with cyclonic weather like hurricanes or tornados, ever measured by an anemometer was recorded at the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hanpshire on April 12, 1934. The recorded wind speed was 231 mph (372 kmh).
This may have changed since the '70s,... Climate changes...
The fact is, economics is basically the science of figuring out the best way to try to meet infinite needs with finite resources...
When you pull a barrel of oil out of the ground, that is one less barrel of oil IN the ground. It took the Earth hundreds of thousands of years of pressure and chemical processes to create that oil - it will never reappear.
The more oil and coal we pull out of the ground, the more costly it will get to get more of it, the less there will be left. One day, scores of years or maybe a century from now, at our present rate of consumption, the coal and oil we can reach is going to run out. Not MIGHT run out; WILL run out... What happens then, to your children, to your grand-childrens' children?
We MUST start planning for that to happen, start developing substitutes, start mass-producing them, or the apocalyptic visions of the Mad Max films or other doomsday films will come to happen...
Living your life in an Ozzie-and-Harriet stupor is a hell of a way to waste your life...
And just where on earth does the wind blow 24/7??? No place on earth does the wind blow everyday of the week and 24 hours a day...
The funny thing is... You're absolutely correct! The Salmon runs in those great western states that you cited were destroyed quite some time ago.
those states are 100's- 1000's of miles from the sea...
and not all rivers run into the sea..
there has never been salom runs in those states.
For those that say the wind doesn't blow 24/7....that's why we have power grids to capture the energy produced by windmills, for later use ! Texas already has about 20% of it's energy in wind power and this in just a few short years. The windmills "arms" are quiet large...about 2 1/2 times the length of an airplane wing.
That is absolutely FALSE!
ID, Snake River? No Salmon run? Wrong! Along with most rivers in the western states had historic runs of Salmon and Steelhead. And yes , in the past they ran THOUSANDS of miles up stream to many of the small tributaries that are no longer accessible due to dams.
Schnoz...
You should never say 'absolutely FALSE"... Someone will point out you are wrong...
Most rivers do eventually have their water reach the ocean, though some, like the Chicago River, end in large lakes which after going through all the Great Lakes, does finally get there... However, not all lakes empty into the ocean...
The Bear River flows about 500 miles, from Utah through Wyoming and Idaho, back to Utah where it ends in the Great Salt Lake... The reason it is so saline, of course, is it doesn't empty into any ocean, so the main means of water loss from it is evaporation, leaving all the minerals collected...
There is no miracle cure to the energy problem. All potential energy sources have their positives and negatives. Wind power, like solar and geothermal, is clearly a vastly cleaner source than oil, coal, methane, or nuclear. It is obviously not appropriate for all environments, it does have limitations. Nevertheless, in many situations, it is a viable and desirable alternative that must be implemented as soon as possible. Flaws in design and operation will be worked out as the technology improves. Risks are minimal in comparison to oil, methane, or nuclear energy production. Losing a nice "view" and relatively minor changes to an environment are not justifiable reasons to prohibit wind power from development.
Where I live in Maine we have a company that is using the tide and a turbine like a wind mill but it is placed under the water it is just getting started but so far the test look promising
We can't have our cake and eat it too. Sometimes we have to pick the lesser of two evils. Blasting the tops off mountains to get the coal, now that's change that lasts forever. As far as wind energy not being reliable, here is my solution:
When the wind blows, we work. When it doesn't, we make love. Problem solved!
I think they should cut down the trees for lumber and then deny access for the windmills. I am tired of Environmentalist dictating Government Policy. Man Caused Global Warming is BS.
Wow!
I guess you're entitled to your point of view, but... WOW!!!
Schnoz, I am just a little frustrated with Environmentalist. You know the Guys like Greenpeace that say we are destroying the worlds oceans and protest driving inflatable boats made of materials that will be on this earth for 1000 years, with two stroke engines that dump oil in the water and smog in the air, or ELF that spike trees, burn down construction sites only to drive home to their wood framed stucco houses, or the Global Warming fanatics that fly from one convention to another to complain about CO2 omissions. They are the biggest bunch of hypocrites there is. I may understand them if they completely abandoned the products and services they protest but they don't. Its OK for them to, using their word, abuse the environment, they just don't want others to do the same. They remind me of a comedian I once saw. He said people that drive slower then he does are idiots and those that drive faster are insane. Pollution is fine as long as you only pollute as much or less than they do.
Wind turbines will help us to preserve the mountains. If we don't harness the wind the coal companies will come in and remove all of the mountain tops for the dirty black coal that lies beneath.
I live in Vermont.
I don't want 3oo foot tall windmills on every ridge line, but i don't want acid rain from power plants in the midwest killing all the trees on the our mountainsides either. Every area will have to decide which "Green" methods of electric production are best for the situation.
As far as the windmills ruining the pristine mountains, we have lived with the scarring of the landscape caused by ski resorts for over 50 years and learned to accept it. We've learned to sacrifice views of tree-topped ridgelines for the series of cell phone towers that allow uninterrupted phone service late at night on a wintery rural road.
Some of my neighbors will have to revise their "Not In My Backyard" version of environmental support in order achieve sustainable Green Power production.
I can certainly understand your concern but I think that to say "every ridgeline" will have windmills on it is an over dramatic view of things.
Of any power source available, I would be most inclined to have a turbine "In My Backyard".
at the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hanpshire on April 12, 1934. The recorded wind speed was 231 mph (372 kmh).
Bull$hit.... 231 MPH that is an F4 tornado!!!!!!!
Ever been on Pikes Peak ? I don't know how hard it was blowing the day we were up there, but I was almost blown off the mountain ! 231 does sound a little bit to much though.
http://weather.about.com/od/wind/f/wind_records.htm