Taking Even More Wind Out of Wind Power

In this blog, I have been consistently negative on any hopes that wind power will be the "savior" of our planet and the "future" of our energy needs. No matter what T. Boone Pickens, Barack Obama, and Nancy Pelosi (who owns a lot of T.Boone's Clean Energy Company stock) say, wind power is not our future. At best, wind might supply 20% of our Nation's power requirements. But, in getting to that level of power production in this country, it will be a road of one court battle after another. Ted Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. famously proved this when they blocked a wind farm near their precious "Kennedy compound" off the shores of Hyannis Port, Mass (See Full News Story). As you can see from that news story, the Pentagon joined the Kennedy's in blocking that Wind Farm because it posed a potential "radar blocking" effect. While that news story is over 2 years old, the wind farm off Cape Cod has been in litigation and the process of environmental impact studies since 2002. Now, after nearly 6 years, the studies continue (See Full Story). The current plans are to "start" building in 2010. All tolled, this project will probably be more than 12 years in the process. Does anyone remember the Democrats and Barack Obama quoting 8-10 years before we would get any oil out of the Arctic National Wildlife Resource (ANWR)? Also, as noted in that first news story, the objections by the Pentagon have jeopardized other wind project projects around this country.

The Pentagon and the wealthy elitists like the Kennedy's aren't the only one's that the wind farm proponents across this country will have to worry about and battle. There are always the environmental and conservationist elitists who are ready to block anything that hasn't been put on earth by God. They will be blocking wind farms because of the impact on wildlife. They will argue that these structures will have detrimental impact on bird migration and their foraging and nesting habits and habitats. Wind farms will pose a threat to wildlife and insects because of the noise and ground vibration they create. For sure, the great "vistas" of this country will need to be protected from these gigantic monstrosities of mankind.

Now, taking even more wind out of wind power, there comes this latest impediment: a health risk to man (See Full Story). You can also expect that many communities will simply fight wind farm implementation over the noise that they produce or how ugly they look (See Full Story). In this country, even if a million land owners agree to put tens of millions of wind turbines on their "own" land, it only takes one lawsuit from an average citizen and one sympathetic judge or jury to put the whole thing on ice.

Believe me, all this campaign rhetoric over wind power is just that. When people like Nancy Pelosi block this country's drilling for its own oil because she's "saving the planet" is just bunk. As you can see, it can take years (12 or more in the case of Cape Code) for a single wind project to be completed. In the mean time, the national oil supply will keep dwindling and our foreign dependence on oil will keep increasing. All this "hope" from the Democrats is pure idiocy. In 2006, Nancy Pelosi "promised" that, if the Democrats won, they would "Take Back America". In her statement of June 2006, she "promised" to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and lower our costs. Two years later and nothing has happened. We have increased our dependence on foreign oil and our price at the pump has nearly doubled. We are nowtwelve years past the date when Bill Clinton vetoed the bill that would have allowed us to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Twelve years!

To me, the only thing standing between the United States and any true energy independence is reason and our courts. We need to be realistic about wind power. We are not going to have millions of wind turbines blanketing our country. The environmentalists, the conservationists, and the average Joe (who doesn't want to live next to one) aren't going to let it happen. I find it interesting that in 2007, Nancy Pelosi, in her required financial disclosure forms, declared that she got upwards of $250,000 in interest/income benefits from the company called Clean Energy Fuels Corp. That is a T. Boone Pickens company and the same company that will be building the wind farms that T.Boone keeps talk about in his TV commercials (See Full Story). A smart investment? Sure! Especially, if you in a position of power to make that company more profitable. T. Boone Pickens and Nancy Pelosi might be just a little self-serving in their plans for America's energy.

As Americans, we need to send a message that we aren't happy with the status quo. We just can't remain in a state of frozen animation on energy. We can do this in writing to our Representatives or, we can send a message in the General Election with our votes. I would hope that more than just a few Americans choose the latter action.