THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIV, Issue # 119, June 10, 2012
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ONLY IF THE WIND IS BLOWING
By Alan Caruba
"GREEN ENERGY" SOURCES (WIND TURBINES & SOLAR PANELS) VERSUS TRADITIONAL ENERGY SOURCES (FOSSIL FUELS & NUCLEAR POWER): ADVOCATES
OF GREEN ENERGY IN A TAILSPIN, A DEATH SPIRAL OF AN INADEQUATE CAPACITY TO DELIVER ELECTRICITY & THE INABILITY TO COMPETE WITH MORE
RELIABLE, AFFORDABLE, & TRADITIONAL ENERGY SOURCES -- WIND & SOLAR ENERGY AS A FOOL'S DREAM, & ONE THAT MUST BE BACKED UP BY TRADITIONAL
ENERGY SOURCES AT ALL TIMES, IN THE EVENT THE WIND IS NOT BLOWING OR DURING THE NIGHTTIME OR IF CLOUDS OBSCURE THE SUN, CAUSING SOLAR
ENERGY TO CEASE PRODUCING ELECTRICITY
FULL STORY:
I’ll bet you didn’t know that June 15th is Global Wind Day. Wind is part of the Earth’s atmosphere and, depending on whether it is blowing gently or strongly, there
isn’t a darn thing anyone can do about it. Except for measuring its velocity and direction, wind, like clouds, remains largely a mystery to meteorologists.
Not so for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control, the people who brought you the global warming hoax, asserting that carbon dioxide, a gas
on which all vegetation depends, was raising the global temperature — largely as the result of burning coal and oil as sources of energy.
The Earth, however, has been in a natural cooling cycle since 1998, and the advocates of “green energy” have been in a tailspin, a death spiral of an inadequate
capacity to deliver electricity and the inability to compete with more reliable, affordable, and traditional energy sources.
Simply put, wind and solar energy is a fool’s dream, and one that must be backed up by traditional energy sources at all times, in the event the wind isn’t blowing or
during the nighttime or if clouds obscure the sun, causing solar energy to cease producing electricity. Only an idiot would want to be dependent on wind or solar to
provide a reliable source of electricity.
The Renewable Energy Industrial Index (RENIXX) tracks the stock value of wind and solar companies. In May, 2012 — though you did not read about it in the
mainstream media — it announced that thirty of the largest renewable energy companies were trading at “an all- time low” and the index “had lost over 90% of its
value since 2008.”
So, naturally, the Sierra Club was eager to tell me about Global Wind Day and that my home state of New Jersey had the “potential to replace all the dirty coal and gas
plants in the state.” The distance between “potential” and reality is roughly the distance between New Jersey and the planet Neptune.
The Sierra Club (along with a rogue’s gallery of environmentalist organizations) wages war on all forms of energy production and use. They urged me to join others “at
a beach near you for a kite-flying rally and celebration of New Jersey’s offshore wind potential.” Not only does it oppose the use of America’s vast reserves of coal,
but it also has a “Beyond Natural Gas” program, as well, another huge source of power for the nation.
I won’t bore you with the list of RENIXX companies that have filed bankruptcy, but they include the ill-famed Solyndra, Beacon Power, Ener1, and others in which the
Obama administration has “invested” and lost billions in taxpayer funds that could have been devoted to highway and bridge repair or restoring our ailing military
power. Another fourteen companies were listed as “teetering on the brink” of bankruptcy.
In May, 2011, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie pulled the state from membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the only mandatory
cap-and-trade program in the U.S.A. The RGGI would have required New Jersey to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (the vital carbon dioxide plants need). Maine
and New Hampshire had previously bowed out of the former ten-state coalition that would have reduced their capacity to provide electrical power. In doing so,
Governor Christie diverted $65 million from RGGI and helped balance the state budget.
It is worth mentioning that New Jersey derives 50% of its electrical power from nuclear facilities. For reasons beyond my understanding, Governor Christie signed off
on a project to build a grid of a wind farm of 96 turbines 16 to 20 miles off our shoreline. If the permitting process can be stopped, New Jersey’s shoreline will not be
saddled with this awful project and the miles of cable it will require to deliver the few megawatts its “potential” promises.
Europe, which led the charge to build wind and solar power projects, as the result of its obsession with carbon dioxide emissions, has since discovered that neither
can compete with fossil fuel and nuclear power. France is the exception, getting most of its power from nuclear facilities. In England, its citizens are increasingly
suffering from “fuel poverty” as the cost of electricity continues to soar, thanks to its reliance on wind and solar projects.
Not only is the European continent suffering a financial crisis, thanks to the failure of the European Union’s effort to get 27 sovereign member-nations to act in
concert with one another, it is facing a shortage of energy to maintain its industrial base and service the needs of its population.
So, on Global Wind Day, feel free to go to the beach, but remember that it is an extraordinary bad way to generate energy.
It will no doubt be on the agenda for the forthcoming June Rio+20 Earth Summit that is self-described as “the 'institutional framework for sustainable development'
-- a system of global governance” aimed at achieving the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel’s plan to control the world’s “social, environmental, and
economic” policies.
And you thought wind and solar power was just about electricity.
© Alan Caruba, 2012
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at Warning Signs, his popular blog -- and thereafter on dozens of other
websites and blogs. His monthly report on new books is posted at Bookviews.
A business and science writer, Caruba is the Founder of The National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information
about "scare campaigns" designed to influence public opinion and public policy.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity