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Posts tagged ‘environmentalists’

Apr 26

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U.S.- Environmentalists, Local Officials Oppose Wind Farms in Maryland

Bonner R. Cohen — Heartland.org — December 2012

Two wind farms in Maryland, one proposed and the other one already in operation, are running into stiff resistance from local authorities and residents, conservation groups, state officials, and the U.S. Navy.

Threat to Naval Radar

Plans to build a giant wind farm on 10,000 acres in rural Summerset County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore were put on hold indefinitely in early November after County Commissioners halted consideration of a proposed ordinance that would have allowed installation of turbines on local farmland.

In tabling the ordinance, county commissioners took into consideration a new study brought to their attention by officials at the Naval Air Station Patuxent. The study, performed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, outlines how large-scale wind-energy projects could interfere with radar systems at the base across the Chesapeake Bay in St. Mary’s County.

The proposed wind farm, a project of Texas-based Pioneer Green Energy, would have to be approved by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Maryland Public Service Commission. Fearing the Navy would ultimately block the project, county officials decided it would be pointless to green-light the wind farm.

Earlier in the year, the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill placing new restrictions on wind turbines located within a 46-mile radius of Patuxent Naval Air Station. The bill ends an exemption for wind farms smaller than 70 megawatts. Almost all of Summerset County falls within the 46-mile radius of the base.

Bird and Bat Deaths

Meanwhile, in the mountainous western part of Maryland, a coalition of eight conservation groups is rallying opposition to a 28-turbine wind project. The conservation groups say the Criterion Wind Project, located in Oakland, about 175 miles northwest of Washington, DC, is killing an unacceptable number of birds and bats.

In comments submitted to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), the environmental groups are seeking new limits on the operation of the Criterion Wind Project, a facility owned by Exelon Power. Criterion has requested an incidental take permit for the endangered Indiana bat from FWS.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) makes it illegal to “take” (kill or harm) wildlife listed as threatened or endangered by the federal government. An incidental take permit acknowledges that protected species can be accidentally or incidentally “taken” during the course of normal operations of a facility provided that its owner makes a reasonable effort to limit or minimize harm to a listed species.   Continue reading, here….

Dec 28

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U.S. — If ‘green’ energy advocates want clean, they can start among their own

James Stverak — Washington Examiner — December 27, 2012

Environmentalists and green activists have tried to regulate fossil fuels to death for decades and replace them with green, “clean” energy solutions. Despite all their efforts, the industry as a whole has had limited success. What many fail to notice, however, is that the green energy lobby is doing more damage to its cause than the coal or oil lobbies ever could.

Despite generous government funding and favorable regulations, the green energy industry has come up short on results. In fact, many green energy efforts, like ethanol, have done more harm than good.

U.S. energy subsidies, spending, tax breaks, and loan guarantees had increased to $37.2 billion in 2010, according to the Energy Department. But the market advantages of fossil fuels have led to a laundry list of clean-energy failures. In 2011, the federal government spent $24 billion on energy subsidies while the fossil-fuel industry received just $2.5 billion in tax breaks.

Immense amounts of money have gone to projects through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado, a government funded entity that has the power to decide which green initiatives live and die. NREL has offered many useless enterprises over the years, including the now bankrupt Abound Solar, but their role in promoting ethanol has been one of their most notably expensive failures.

 (To continue reading, click here)

Apr 16

The agony of David Suzuki

Margaret Wente — Globe and Mail — April 14, 2012

David Suzuki should be a happy man. As Canada’s patron saint of the environmental movement, he has led a seismic shift in public consciousness that has fundamentally changed the way we think and live. Fifty years after the birth of the environmental movement – which began in 1962 with Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring – it’s safe to say we’re all environmentalists now. …

But Mr. Suzuki now feels a sense of bitter defeat. When I suggested that the environmental movement has reached a dead end, he said: “I absolutely agree.” The federal government is hostile, and environmental agendas are being rolled back everywhere. Barack Obama may have cancelled the Keystone oil pipeline for now (or, at any rate, the bit that crosses the border), but he’s also expressed an enthusiasm for new drilling that’s positively Sarah Palinesque.

In Europe, governments are ditching their commitments to green energy as their economies tank. Hopes for a global climate treaty are dead. In retrospect, Mr. Suzuki says the whole idea was folly. “Copenhagen was trying to deal with something that didn’t belong to anybody – the atmosphere – through the lenses of borders, which the air doesn’t care about, and the economic interests of 192 countries,” he says. “We were trying to force nature into our agenda.”

Link to full article at the Globe and Mail

 

Mar 9

The Daily Bayonet

Great GREAT site, dealing with the lunacy of environmentalists and their rush towards complete insanity.

The Daily Bayonet

Some examples from this very funny site:

“California shore birds are threatened by rising sea levels. If only they had wings.”

“Good news for the spotted owl, the Obama administration is taking action to save it. By shooting barred owls. Wait, what?”

So hop on over to his site.  The chuckle that this man gives us, makes our burden seem a little bit lighter.

Mar 1

The Collapsing Case for ‘Green’ Energy

Berkeley’s Borenstein on an intellectual wrong turn

by RBradley

“Advocates of renewable energy feel cornered by the gridlock in Congress and waning interest in climate change. But arguing that renewable energy is the best way to address economic or security concerns isn’t the way to prevail. It just focuses the debate on issues where fossil fuels are almost sure to win.”

- Severin Borenstein, “Making the Wrong Case for Renewable Energy,” Bloomberg, February 13, 2012.

Severin Borenstein, Professor of Business and Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, and director of the U.C. Energy Institute, is firmly in the camp of climate alarmism and public policy activism. In a recent op-ed,  Borenstein argues that, absent the climate-change argument, the environmentalists are intellectually adrift trying to argue for their (politically correct) renewable energies–wind and solar (but not ethanol and hydroelectricity, mind you).

Left environmentalists are in a predicament trying to converse with a public that is fatigued about climate change and is interested in affordable energy and economic prosperity.

Full Article