The idea here is to change that (from AP):
"In what experts say is the biggest investment in the clean and renewable energy in U.S. history, utility officials in the Lone Star State gave preliminary approval Thursday to a $4.9 billion plan to build new transmission lines to carry wind-generated electricity from gusty West Texas to urban areas like Dallas."
I guess this is what T. Boone Pickens has been blabbing about on his radio ads here in D/FW.
The idea causes me mixed feelings. I'm doubtful of wind energy: It's not affordable without a tax break, takes up a lot of space and kills lots of little birds. (Still better than ethanol, which is driving up food costs and killing lots of little African children.)
On the other hand, something that can bring back Fluvanna can't be all that bad.
6 comments:
Even though Seagraves is mixed on wind energy his wife isn't. That is why the electric provider of choice at the Seagraves household is all about wind energy. So what if it takes tax breaks to get an industry off the ground. I would rather my tax subsidies go to something that will be helpful to the planet than something like the oil industry, which has been less than kind to Mother Nature.
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Good for the wife. Other energy sources are subsidized in a variety of ways by the government and have been for many years. As you correctly point out, we're building a new, domestic, clean energy industry that requires no fuel and emits no pollution.
Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.powerofwind.org
www.awea.org
www.20percentwind.org
I don't think the wind turbines kill as many little birds as the tree huggers say. The blades turn slowly enough so that any bird with a brain can avoid them.
And it's good to have Thom Gray come by when I'm linking comments about kicking people in the nuts.
And to the bird thing: They just look slow. Out at the edges those babies are turning at about 150 mph, if memory serves correctly.
Well, probably some people deserve it--or at least a kick in the butt.
Anyway...of course, I think everyone in the wind industry would prefer it if no birds ever collided with turbines. I know I would. However:
Bird surveys have been done at a number of wind farms and the average number of bird kills appears to be about three per megawatt per year.
In the overall picture of human-related avian mortality, wind is hardly visible. A reasonable estimate is that house and feral cats kill up to two billion per year, buildings 100 million to one billion, autos 80 to 100 million, and so on. Even if wind generated all of our electricity, it would be unlikely to approach any of these numbers.
Texas has a special issue along the Gulf Coast where there are many migratory birds and a wind project is proposed. However, the project developer has agreed to use radar to see when large numbers of birds are migrating and shut down the turbines during adverse weather conditions.
I hope that helps. As I say, I'd rather no birds collided with turbines. But it's my understanding that they will collide occasionally with any structure above ground. (I live in a rural area and several per year collide with windows in my home.)
Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.powerofwind.org
www.awea.org
www.20percentwind.org
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