An Ill Wind Blows For Wind Farms

With so many other frauds driving ever-increasing debt to occupy our attention, criticising the fraud of “wind farming” has not been our raison d’être here at barnabyisright.com

Although, we have turned our attention to it once or twice.

Most memorably, we turned our guns on University of Adelaide nutritionist, Professor Gary Wittert, over his ludicrously insulting “science” in support of wind farms … and his next government grant application ( see TurbineGate: More #JAFA Fraud Posing As “Science” ).

And during our lengthy research for the exclusive exposé, The “500 Biggest Polluters” Exposed – Everything The Government Is Not Telling You, we uncovered two classic examples of the abject financial failure … and taxpayer ripoff … that is wind farming.

First there was Infigen Energy – the central figure in the Government’s TV propaganda campaign for its Clean Energy Future scam. In Ka Ching! Here Comes Australia’s Carbon-Baggers, we even made a little video to celebrate Infigen’s blatant rent-seeking to stave off imminent financial collapse:

We also uncovered Hydro Tasmania’s “Roaring Forties” we-can-sell-wind-farms-to-China disaster ( see Carbon Pricing Sounds Death Knell For Wind Farms? ).

Today, we again turn our attention to this symbol of the green religion’s caring for the planet.

Because it would appear that an ill wind is blowing upon it.

And it is coming from within the ranks of the eco-elite themselves:

Wind farms are useless, says Duke

The Duke of Edinburgh has made a fierce attack on wind farms, describing them as “absolutely useless”.

In a withering assault on the onshore wind turbine industry, the Duke said the farms were “a disgrace”.

He also criticised the industry’s reliance on subsidies from electricity customers, claimed wind farms would “never work” and accused people who support them of believing in a “fairy tale”.

The Duke’s comments will be seized upon by the burgeoning lobby who say wind farms are ruining the countryside and forcing up energy bills.

Criticism of their effect on the environment has mounted, with The Sunday Telegraph disclosing today that turbines are being switched off during strong winds following complaints about their noise.

The Duke’s views are politically charged, as they put him at odds with the Government’s policy significantly to increase the amount of electricity generated by wind turbines…

When Esbjorn Wilmar, of Infinergy, which builds and operates turbines, introduced himself to the Duke at a reception in London, he found himself on the end of an outspoken attack on his industry.

“He said they were absolutely useless, completely reliant on subsidies and an absolute disgrace,” said Mr Wilmar. “I was surprised by his very frank views.”

Mr Wilmar said his attempts to argue that onshore wind farms were one of the most cost-effective forms of renewable energy received a fierce response from the Duke.

“He said, ‘You don’t believe in fairy tales do you?’” said Mr Wilmar. “He said that they would never work as they need back-up capacity.”

Bravo!

However, let’s not get too excited.

While agreeing wholeheartedly with the above, your humble blogger is immediately prompted to even greater scepticism.

WHY would one of the eco-elite, a man who purportedly said that he wishes to be reincarnated as a human-killing virus, only now make these comments that are so apparently at odds with his fellow eco-elite’s religion?

What is the motive? What is there to gain, from ruffling feathers like this? (sorry, poor taste pun)

Some might say that the motive for this outburst is purely profit. And indeed, the same article does appear to imply this possibility:

While they are opposed to onshore wind farms, the Royal family stands to earn millions of pounds from those placed offshore.

Last year, the Crown Estate, the £7billion land and property portfolio, approved an increase in the number of sites around the coast of England. The Crown Estate owns almost all of the seabed off Britain’s 7,700-mile coastline.

But I don’t buy it.

If the Duke were simply wanting to influence opinion away from onshore wind farms, in favour of offshore wind farms, then bollocking wind farms full stop would seem a pretty stupid way to go about it.

And I doubt the Duke is that stupid.

What I do find very interesting … and strikingly “coincidental” … is that on the very same weekend as the Duke is reported as making these comments, and on the eve of the IPCC’s 2012 Durban conference, the updated and revised bible of the Global Warming Faith also appears to subtly cast doubt on its own core beliefs:

Climate change effects unknown: IPCC report

GREAT uncertainty remains about how much of an impact climate change will have on future extreme weather events, the world’s leading climate scientists have found.

While there has been an increase in warm days and a decrease in cold nights, the likely impact on future weather events would not be evident for decades because of natural variability, the scientists say in a key review prepared for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…

IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri said it was “very likely” there had been an overall decrease in cold days and nights and an increase in warm days and nights. He said there had clearly been “statistically significant” trends in heavy rain events in some regions.

However, Dr Pachauri said there had been “strong variations to the trend”…

Global Warming Policy Foundation director Benny Peiser said the overall message was “there was not a strong empirical link between anthropogenic climate change and weather events”.

“It is unlikely there will be one for 20 to 30 years,” he said.

He said any suggestion that recent weather events could be directly linked to climate change went directly against the general scientific consensus.

Kathy McInnes, lead author of chapter three – Changes in Climate Extremes and their Impacts on the Natural Physical Environment – said a lot of uncertainty remained.

“Extreme events are by nature very rare so we don’t have a lot of data that we can assess for a climate change signal,” Dr McInnes said. “Depending on the type of extreme, there can be a lot of different contributing factors, some naturally occurring and other human activity that is not necessarily climate change.”

Your humble blogger warns AGW-sceptic readers not to be naïve.

We are being “played”.

The eco-elite are not “waking up”.

They are not trying to slowly and gently “weasel out” of their long-held pro-AGW position.

Far more likely, is that they are deliberately sowing the seeds of confusion.

With the result? Anger and distrust.

Want to rule the world?

Want the peoples of the world to willingly and happily abandon the idea of national governance, and embrace the idea of supranational (ie, World) Government?

This is how to do it.

A carefully planned, far-sighted program of dividing the people’s of the world into For and Against the green religion.

Create lots … and lots … and LOTS … of fear.

(Throw in “terrorism”, “flu” outbreaks, a few wars, and a global financial crisis or two for good measure)

Get the national governments’ politicians on board the Great Global Warming Hoax.

Then … begin to pull the intellectual rug out from under them. All of them. Our leaders. Our authorities. Our “experts”. Our (more or less) trusted, familiar institutions.

(Recall the ClimateGate email “hack”, pre-Copenhagen)

Slowly but surely leaving the masses confused, angry, strongly distrusting of all “sides” in their national governments … and looking for a Saviour.

Perhaps one who will clean up all the expensive, taxpayer-financed litter of a planned-to-fail Green Religion?

14000 Abandoned Wind Turbines In The USA

The symbol of Green renewable energy, our saviour from the non existent problem of Global Warming, abandoned wind farms are starting to litter the planet as globally governments cut the subsidies taxes that consumers pay for the privilege of having a very expensive power source that does not work every day for various reasons like it’s too cold or  the wind speed is too high.

The US experience with wind farms has left over 14,000 wind turbines abandoned and slowly decaying, in most instances the turbines are just left as symbols of a dying Climate Religion, nowhere have the Green Environmentalists appeared to clear up their mess or even complain about the abandoned wind farms…

…

Imagine the outraged Green chorus if those turbines were abandoned oil drilling rigs.

It took nearly a decade from the time the first flimsy wind turbines were installed before the performance of California wind projects could dispel the widespread belief among the public and investors that wind energy was just a tax scam.

Ben Lieberman, a senior policy analyst focusing on energy and environmental issues for the Heritage Foundation, is not surprised. He asks:

“If wind power made sense, why would it need a government subsidy in the first place? It’s a bubble which bursts as soon as the government subsidies end.”

“It’s a bubble which bursts as soon as the government subsidies end” therein lies a lesson that is going be learnt by those that sought to make fortunes out of tax payer subsidies, the whole renewables industry of solar, wind and biomass is just an artificial bubble incapable of surviving without subsides from governments and tax payers which many businesses and NGO’s like WWF, FoE and Greenpeace now think is their god given right, as the money is going on Green Climate Religion approved clean energy.

The Green evangelists who push so hard for these wind farms, as usual have not thought the whole idea through, no surprises for a left agenda like Climate Change, which like all things Green and socialist is just a knee jerk reaction:

Altamont’s turbines have since 2008 been tethered four months of every year in an effort to protect migrating birds after environmentalists filed suit. According to the Golden Gate Audubon Society, 75 to 110 Golden Eagles, 380 Burrowing Owls, 300 Red-tailed Hawks, and 333 American Kestrels (falcons) are killed by Altamont turbines annually. A July, 2008 study by the Alameda County Community Development Agency points to 10,000 annual bird deaths from Altamont Pass wind turbines. Audubon calls Altamont, “probably the worst site ever chosen for a wind energy project.”

The same areas that are good for siting wind farms are also good for birds of prey and migrating birds to pass through, shame for the birds that none of the Green mental midgets who care so much about everything in nature, thought that one through when pushing their anti fossil fuel agenda.

(h/t ToryAardvark.com)

Tags: 4 corners, duke of edinburgh, gary wittert, green energy, renewable energy, turbinegate, wind farms