Video above takes on some of the more common, and of course, bogus, objections to wind turbines.
Wind energy is one of the cleanest, most abundant, sustainable — and increasingly cost-effective — ways to generate electricity. It is also one of the fastest growing electricity sources around the globe. In the United States alone, more than 13,000 megawatts of new capacity was installed in 2012, and by the year’s end, there were enough wind turbines to power 15 million typical American homes — without toxic pollutants or carbon emissions.
Still, wind has its detractors. One of the most prominent is Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a New York City-based, pro-market, anti-government think tank backed by ExxonMobil and Charles Koch, the billionaire co-owner of the coal, oil and gas conglomerate Koch Industries. Over the last few years, Bryce has been bashing wind energy in the pages of the New York Post, Wall Street Journal and other publications, charging that wind turbines are, among other things, ugly, noisy and a threat to public health.
But what really seems to stick in his craw is their purported impact on birds.
Bryce’s Oct.11, 2013, Wall Street Journal column is typical, rehashing an argument he made in a September 2009 column in the same newspaper, in the National Review last May and the Wall Street Journal again last February. Bryce contends that the wind industry kills a “vast” number of birds every year — especially eagles — and insists the administration of President Barack Obama is playing favorites, allowing wind developers to go scot-free while “aggressively” prosecuting the oil and gas industry for the same infraction. He calls it a “pernicious double standard.”
But before you let Bryce’s charges ruffle your feathers, you should know that they’re wildly overblown. Yes, wind turbines unfortunately do kill some birds, including eagles, and the industry needs to address that fact. But how big a threat do they pose compared with other culprits? You wouldn’t know by reading Bryce. Nor would you know that, if you compare the damage various energy technologies do to the environment, wildlife, public health and the climate, wind is one of the most benign.
In other words, context is everything, and Bryce doesn’t provide it.
Continue reading “Wind Turbines: Birds (and other species) Best Friend”