By Alan Caruba
Like so much else that involves the absurd “renewable energy” scam—wind, solar power and ethanol—the public remains largely in the dark about its actual costs. They come straight out of their pockets in the form of higher costs for electricity and, in the cast of ethanol, lost mileage and engine damage.
At the end of this year, unless Congress does something spectacularly stupid—always a possibility—the Wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) will expire. If extended for just one more year, it will cost $12 billion. If wind energy was (1) reliable and (2) economical, one could make a case for it, but it is the very opposite.
Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, says “The wind industry claims a PTC extension will create 37,000 jobs. At a $12 billion price tag, that’s $327,000 taxpayer dollars for every job. But even with the PTC, the industry lost 10,000 jobs between 2009 and 2010, a 12% drop.”
Another way the wind industry has stayed in business, but not in the competitive sense of other industries, has been renewable energy mandates that require state utilities to purchase wind powered electricity generation. Many states have opted out of such mandates as they realized the cost to consumers.
The wind industry in America, according to Pyle, has cost taxpayers $20 billion over the past two decades “and, today, the PTC is so lavish that wind producers are actually paying the electricity grid to take their power, just so they can collect more taxpayer money.”
All the economic advances America has made have been the result of the discovery and utilization of energy generation from oil, natural gas, and coal. If you want to harm America in the most fundamental way, you would attack these sources of energy and that is exactly what the Obama administration has been doing since it took power. For decades coal represented fifty percent of all the electricity used, but incessant attacks by the Environmental Protection Agency, using clean air regulations, has reduced this significantly.
The reality is that 94% of all electricity generated in America comes from traditional sources, coal, natural gas, nuclear and hydroelectric power. America is home to century’s worth of inexpensive coal, is the largest producer of natural gas, and invented nuclear power.
The absolute least sensible way to generate electricity is wind power, followed closely by solar power. Since the wind does not blow all the time or with sufficient ability to turn the blades of the huge turbines, it would seem obvious that wind is a moronic way to produce electricity, but that has not kept those reaping taxpayer tax credits and benefitting from mandates for its use from lining their pockets.
It is a curiosity of the debate over wind power that its impact on bird and bat species is rarely, if ever, discussed or reported. In a recent article, Paul Driessen noted that “The impact of mandated, subsidized and ‘production tax credited’ industrial wind facilities on eagles, whooping cranes, bads, and other value species is horrendous, ecologically devastating, intolerable—and growing. In fact, it is infinitely worse than the widely quoted figure of 440,000 birds per year…the actual USA death toll is 13,000,000 to 39,000,000 birds and bats every year!”
The expert I turn to for information about wind power is John Droz, Jr., a physicist and a leading activist against its use whose website is worth visiting.
Wind power doesn’t meet any of the major criteria for the generation of electricity. Droz points out that it only produces about 30% of the power it allegedly can or should produce. This is because “it takes over one thousand times the amount of land for wind power” that a single nuclear power plant produces. Moreover, that land has to be located far from the cities and suburbs that need to access its power.
Is wind power reliable or even predictable? Compared to traditional power generators, it doesn’t come close compared to the standards set for them. Indeed, “when power is really needed,” notes Droz, such as hot summer afternoons, “wind is usually on vacation.” It most certainly cannot be depended upon to dispatch power to the grid on demand, nor can it supply power reliably to meet a 24/7 demand.
Along with the Wind Protection Tax Credit, the industry is subsidized far more than any conventional power source, Cost per megawatt-hour, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, is subsidized to the tune of $23 per megawatt-hour. Compare that with coal that receives 44 cents! Natural gas at 25 cents! Hydroelectric at 67 cents, and nuclear power at $1.59.
The advocates of wind power are the same charlatans who keep shouting about carbon dioxide (CO2) as the cause of global warming—and now “climate change—when CO2 plays no role whatever in causing or changing the climate. It is also touted as being environmentally beneficial, but tell that to the thousands of bird and bat species the wind turbines kill every year.
Allowing the PTC to expire at the end of the year will not mark the end of wind power, but it will surely make it even less competitive in the years ahead and, like other nations that bought into this fairy tale, those dependent on it are going to suffer some dire consequences, particularly as the current cooling cycle the Earth has been in for the last sixteen years deepens.
© Alan Caruba, 2012
Comment
Comment by Catherine on December 28, 2012 at 10:33am Why I and someone else mentioned that PETA has not made an appearance! I guess some animals deserve PETA privileges while others don't!
Comment by Louise Strauss on December 28, 2012 at 7:40am They never mention that these "wind mills" killed 5,000 eagles and hundreds of thousands of birds. Where are the agencies and organizations that protect our wildlife? This is cruel and inhuman and will only increase.
Comment by Catherine on December 26, 2012 at 9:27pm So, why doesn't gov't "try" something out first, before throwing billions of dollars at it? Because they have no regard for our money at all. When the Exxon Valdez oil spill happened, the feds literally threw away billions to show how much they cared! Fortunately, for some, they became what we call oil "spillionaires." Anything the gov't is interested in should make everyone else run the other way! (Except they always attach money to it, so the greediness in all of us is taunted into falling for it in some way or other especially if it feathers our own nests!)
Comment by Kurt Hanson on December 26, 2012 at 9:17pm Wind power is a fiasco. What factory would use wind power to run operations? Imagine Toyota switching to wind to run its assembly lines – not gonna happen.
Comment by Roger B. Baxter, Jr. on December 26, 2012 at 8:49pm I generally like what you write, but today your post was so un-edited as to be laughable. Check it yourself, please. The wrong word in the wrong places. A spelling checker cannot correct that. I wanted to forward it, but did not want to appear the idiot.
Comment by joana briggs on December 26, 2012 at 8:48pm Yes where are the usual chorus of animal protectors? I find it interesting how many layers buy into these schemes. Wind power sounded good a while back but now that it has been tried and studied it does not make sense.Ethanol at first made sense when they said cleaner gas at lower prices but now we know that is not the case. We need to learn and move on. No funding for what does not work.
Comment by Catherine on December 26, 2012 at 6:23pm info@offthegridnews.com
Off the Grid is a terrific newsletter who just did an article on the three main types of solar panels, their positives v negatives!
Comment by Randall on December 26, 2012 at 5:45pm I agree that the wind subsidies are wasteful. Far worse is the ethanol subsidies! In NC where I live, we have been able to buy pure gasoline until recently. Now, more stations are switching to 10% ethanol even as close as 3 miles to my house. Ethanol burns dirtier than gasoline, has less energy than gasoline, costs more to produce than gasoline and does not lower the price at the pump! Why do it?! Oh, I forgot, the corn growers have a strong lobby to keep it going! Please call or write your congressmen to let them know how you feel and get this fiasco abolished! By now, it will probably take an act of Congress to get rid of it!
Comment by Don Johnson on December 26, 2012 at 5:36pm I meant to also suggest that all we have to do to get these large wind farms and units in check, is to get P.E.T.A. / The Sierra Club / and the American (A.S.P.C.A ) on their cases and they will wrap them up in lawsuits for years to come since they are killing bats and birds, and hopefully keep any more from being built with our tax money !
Comment by Don Johnson on December 26, 2012 at 5:28pm To add some additional information to Alan's great article, each large wind turbine like shown in the picture, costs between 1.3 to 1.5 million dollars each on a average basis, plus construction costs to erect and hook up to the electrical grid ! Wind Power on a Individual basis from my research, is very expensive and undependable using the lower output units with in reach of most of us for our individual energy needs ! Solar power on a individual homeowner basis can be cost effective as a back up, or can be done "Off Grid" completely at a fairly cost effective basis "IF" you are handy and willing to assemble the systems your self ! Buying them off the shelf or to have them installed is rough on the wallet.
Solar "Heating" on the other hand, appears to be very efficient and is inexpensive if you can fabricate your own systems with simple hardware. As with most of this technology, the more you can learn and do yourself, the more likely the chance of affording it and retro-fitting it with your existing systems in your home and business.
Anyone thinking about this and other alternative power "On Grid / Off Grid" situations, needs to do a lot of homework like ( YouTube.com ) and ( MotherEarthNews.com ), Google, etc. /**Local and State
Building Codes, Home Owners Associations, etc; are another subject and possible roadblock to doing this stuff.
Thanks to Alan for his information and getting this out in the open for a close look by us and to understand better what our government does with our money every day !
© 2013 Created by Judson Phillips.
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