A recent article on “renewable” energy in California
reports that, besides all the windmills that are already marring what
once was the beautiful state of California, we’ll need to cover an area
the size of Rhode Island with solar panels. In total 150 projects
covering 1.8 million acres have been proposed for western states. We’ll
need delivery lines for all this and backup power too since solar and
wind-based renewables do not always deliver electricity.
But it gets worse. The prime areas for paving over with solar panels in California are home to the endangered desert tortoise. So government biologists proposed relocating tortoises at a cost of $25 million! Since solar doesn’t generate taxable profits, that’ll be $25 million in “green” jobs paid for by taxpayer dollars!
To
generate 20% of our energy from wind, we’ll need 18 million acres. (The
U.S. is only 2.3 billion acres.) Most of the components and rare earth
minerals for the windmills are now mined in China. We can see this
reflected in the fact that one Texas wind field claimed 2,800 “green”
jobs — but fully 2,400 of those are in China! We are exchanging energy sources dependent on Middle East oil for energy sources dependent on Chinese mines.
It’s all complete nonsense, of course, but it does make one almost nostalgic for oil wells that actually generated profits and created jobs right here at home, doesn’t it?
NOTE: Want to know more about the United Nations (UN) “climate change” campaign which created a lot of the momentum to abandon US-drilled/mined energy sources. You’ll love this commentary, Tyranny by Treaty, which links to a database at www.thegef.org which details where your taxpayer dollars go. Sort by “enabling activity” — that’s paperwork — and you’ll really be upset!
For more on rare earth minerals, see this link.
UPDATED: May 10, 2010: Article you’ll want to read by Paul Driessen.