A power plant near me produces 1,100,000 kilowatts (1.1 gigawatts) of power. At a 25% capacity factor it would take nearly 2600 large wind turbines to produce the same power as this nuclear power plant. And this is not a particularly large plant.
If you placed these 2600 wind turbines the recommended 5 rotor-blade diameters apart, they would stretch for 600 miles. That’s as far as the distance from Michigan to Georgia. In practice wind turbines are not placed single file, they are placed in several rows, like crops, in what are called wind farms, but you get the idea.

That’s the required amount to replace 1 of the nations nuclear power plants. One. Note, we haven’t even touched on the maintenance and lifespan of a typical wind turbine. It’s not trivial, turbines are expensive and need to be replaced every 15-20 years, depending on conditions. But those are ‘green jobs’ you say? Wrong, those are ‘green bubble jobs’. When the government generates false demand for a good or service, not required by market forces, is how bubbles are created. These jobs will amount to another government wealth redistribution program. Bear in mind, we could create more ‘green jobs’ along these lines by eliminating tractor trailers rigs, hitching up ropes and harnesses to the trailers and employing humans to pull these trailers down the highway to their destinations. Not efficient, but creates a lot of ‘green jobs’. What’s the difference? None.
Now, take a look at which areas of the country can have electricity generated via wind power and those that can’t.

The darker the color, the better for wind power.

From WSJOnline…

Not mentioned in here is the recent United Nations report that says this proposed cap and trade regime might (might!) reduce global temperatures by .1% by 2050. More remarkable because the UN buys into all this bunk and that’s the best they could come up with. That’s because human activity does not have an appreciable effect on the Earth’s cooling and warming cycles, or climate change in general. (They call it climate change now because the Earth actually entered another cooling cycle about ten years ago.) Sorry AlGore, but facts are stubborn things.

I know, I know, hundreds of experts whose livelihoods depend on continued public funding of their research into global warming all say it’s a fact. Hundreds more say it’s just normal cycles and there ain’t much we can do about, but we’re not allowed to listen to those guys.

This is what you get when junk science, anti-capitalists and politicians get together. These are the same people that won’t let us build any nuclear power plants or develop our huge natural gas reserves from shale. Like it or not our energy needs will continue to increase (growing population, advances in technology, etc…) unless of course we dramatically lower our standard of living. By the way, have you noticed that the free market is already capitalizing on the demand for environmentally sound products? So why distort the market with ill conceived government mandates? Isn’t that what happened in the mortgage market and got us into the economic mess we’re in today? (See also – Medicare)

So feel free to ask the questions – If this is settled science, why do they have to ram this bill through under cover of darkness? What exactly are the benefits compared to a significant decline in our standard of living and economic competitiveness, not to mention the as yet unknown unintended consequences? Or is this just another way for liberals to control as much of our lives as they can, and in a very big way?

Finally, a nod to the preferences of the ‘unbiased’ mainstream media. I bet most of you didn’t even know this was happening.

***Update – read this from WSJ Online – From Australia to France, politicians are running AWAY from the Climate Change hysteria. There is no Man Made Global Warming, the truth is finally coming out. Yet Chairman Obeyme is bent on destroying our economy, and Capitalism in general, through energy taxes. Does anyone really think this is about saving the environment?***

-The Libinator

LONDON — President Barack Obama suggested that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy _ provided it proves by the end of the year that its aspirations are peaceful. In a BBC interview broadcast Tuesday, he also restated plans to pursue direct diplomacy with Tehran to encourage it set aside any ambitions for nuclear weapons it might harbor.
Iran has insisted its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity. But the U.S. and other Western governments accuse Tehran of seeking atomic weapons.
“What I do believe is that Iran has legitimate energy concerns, legitimate aspirations,” Obama said, adding that the international community also “has a very real interest” in preventing a nuclear arms race.

So, let me get this straight. It’s ok for Iran to develop nuclear energy as long as its used for the generation of electricity, but its not acceptable for America to do the same?
If the energy crisis, or even the climate change crisis is real, the most direct path to relief for the American people is nuclear energy. Our development work is done and our reactor designs are the safest in the world, but somehow, we can’t build a plant in the U.S.? I wonder why that is? The Europeans have them everywhere, with France generating 80% of it’s electricity from nuclear reactors – I guess this is one more area in which we haven’t ‘recognized their leading role in the world’? Damn, we are arrogant!
Since 2002, it has been known that OH, PA, NY, WV sat atop a natural gas field estimated at 1.9T cubic feet called the Marcellus Shale Region. A more recent survey now estimates that region to contain 500T cubic feet, 10% of which could be immediately tapped by fracture drilling techniques.
That’s a lot of gas. So what’s happening? Are they preparing the rigs for drilling? Are they hiring the necessary workers from the unemployment roles to access this national asset? Uhhh, no. Per moonbattery, the field will be put off limits in the Waxman-Markey cap and tax bill because fracture drilling will be controlled by the EPA – which means ‘not allowed’.
So no clean burning natural gas, no nuclear power, no domestic or offshore oil exploration, but by all means, let’s encourage Iran to build some nuclear power plants? Am I the only one who feels like they’ve taken crazy pills here?
The only conclusion to reach from this is that cap and tax legislation has nothing to do with the so called climate change and everything to do with social control and extorting money from the populace. (Which we already knew, this is just more confirmation.)
The second conclusion to reach is that Obama hates Israel, and wants to see it destroyed. I have some problems with Israel but none of them have to do with the Palestinians – I could give a shit about them,( my issues date back to 1967 and the USS Liberty incident, for which I think Israel still needs to atone). But that aside, its pretty handy to have a friendly Democracy in the den of snakes that is the Middle East. Remember, many of the same Middle Eastern countries that hate Israel so much wore the Nazi uniform during WWII.
Without digressing too much, it is amazing to see how Obeyme publicly recognizes Iran’s legitimate need for nuclear energy, yet fails to recognize that of his own country. Well, maybe it’s not that amazing, when you consider what his agenda for our nation is.
-OMB

The market has been developing environmentally sound products, processes and services at an accelerating rate for three decades because 1) there used to be pervasive and massive abuses and the government with the clear support of the electorate forced us to stop, 2 ) people want a cleaner environment, 3 ) it’s good business and 4 ) we as a country (just like Western Europe) can afford it. Our environment is getting cleaner and cleaner and greenhouse gas emissions are declining, or at least increasing at a slower rate. Why don’t we just let the process continue? The private sector has made thousands of cost benefit decisions along the way. Some ideas make sense, others don’t. The ones that do create benefits to the environment and society in general. The ones that don’t either a) go away or b) get government subsidies and distort the normal workings of the market.

This cap and trade thing is the ultimate distortion. It’s about to be rammed down our throats without much debate or analysis about the benefits (arguable) or consequences, both intended and unintended. This may be the worst thing the federal government has imposed on us since the income tax, and I bet if you ask ten people at random what they think of cap and trade, nine will have no idea what you’re talking about and the other one will say something like “Oh I think it’s a good idea because it will stop global warming.”

By the way, would somebody explain to me why global warming is, or more accurately WAS, a bad thing? Let’s just say, for sake of argument, that the earth is warming. Wouldn’t a warmer Earth yield more farmable land to feed the masses? How about less energy usage to produce heat in the winter? And this argument that the U.S. is to blame because with only 5% of the world’s population we produce 25% of the greenhouse gasses. So what? We also produce about 30% of the world’s goods and services!! The countries that pollute the most are either the poorest, like most of Africa, or the fasting growing emerging industrial economies like China, India, Russia and Brazil. Those countries, by the way are exempt from the Kyoto Protocols, which Congress wisely rejected ten years ago but which are being resurrected as we speak.
Does anyone other than the religiously zealous true believers really think any of this will have any impact on the climate? Despite all the conflicting and contradictory evidence, despite the lack of an honest national debate, despite all the analyses that predict enormous financial and social costs, these assholes are going to do it anyway. That’s what liberals do – punish the successful by dragging them down to everyone else’s level by whatever means necessary and no matter what the costs. This is all nothing more than a massive (really massive!!) tax increase on the United States which will result in slower growth, lower living standards, a lack of competitiveness on world markets, and an ever increasing share of the federal government’s ownership of the private sector. It’s also a purely regressive tax, at least initially. EVERYONE will pay for this, a lot, until the liberals get around to subsidizing the costs for the poor (that would be the fifty percent of Americans who pay no income taxes). And how will they pay for that? That’s right.

Finally, now that CO2 has been declared a hazardous substance by the EPA, all you law abiding citizens must consider the logical impact – Stop exhaling all you polluters!!
?I need a drink.??

The Libinator

“The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves.”

“A truth’s initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. It wasn’t the world being round that agitated people, but that the world wasn’t flat. When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.”

I found these two quotes attributed to someone named Dresden James.  Although I have no idea of who Dresden James is, whether or not he actually said this or in what context it was said, I like the quotes so I’m posting them for your consideration.  

-OMB

Goresquatch

Much has been written already about former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Al Gore’s propensity for spanning the globe in private jets, sounding the alarm over the sure to be devastating impact of Global Warming – er, I mean ‘Climate Change’, which amounts to nothing more than that which we used to refer to as weather.  There are numerous links(here’s one) which detail Algore’s $30,000 annual utility bills at his palatial estate, and the ‘carbon credits’ which he purchases from his London based company, set up to trade in these eco equities.  As with most politicians, if you want to know his motivations, follow the money (here).

But that’s not what I want to discuss, here.  True, Gore’s ‘carbon footprint’, as defined by the eco-fascists, is enormous when compared to that of the average American.  But what can you say, the nut doesn’t fall too far from the tree.   What am I talking about?  Al Gore Sr., his relationship with Armand Hammer of Occidental Petroleum, and the Gore family carbon footprint.

Back in the late 70’s, Al Gore Sr. together with his pal, and noted part time Communist spy and money laundered, Armand Hammer, to whom he had years before sold a lucrative and indefinite mineral rights deal on his land holdings, were parties on a State visit to China.  The senior Gore, acted to secure rights for Occidental to develop a coal mine in Shanxi province, China.  This was the first major project undertaken by a Western company in China since before the cultural revolution

When Gore Sr. failed to win reelection to the Senate in 1970, he was promptly appointed to Occidental’s board of directors, and later was made Chariman of Island Creek Coal, Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum and tasked with development of the Pingshuo coal mine, in Shanxi province.  This is the largest open pit surface coal mine in the world covering about twenty square miles, and was developed by Gore and company.  The coal is burned throughout Central China’s electrical power plants in mass quantities.

Google Earth, ~20 sqmi

Now, as much as I wish I could, I’m not blaming this mine on Al Jr,  I just find it ironic that that this green Nobel Laureate is so closely tied to this mine and its environmental impact.   Al Jr. has had his own shady dealings with both the Chinese (recall “There’s no controlling legal authority”) and the Soviet Communist tool, Hammer.  Gore Jr., as Vice President, recommended the sale of the Navy’s Elk Hills oil reserve in the San Joaquin Valley in California, to Occidental in 1998.  This is considered by many industry analysts to have been the biggest oil scandal since The Teapot Dome Scandal of 1920’s- in fact, it was part of the same oil field.

Occidental’s bid on the reserve was $3.65B, about half of the estimated value of the oil in the ground at the time.  Occidental had always been a big supporter of the Gores at campaign time.  The Elk Hills purchase made Occidental the third largest oil producer in the State of California.  Gore has always had his own ties to ‘big oil’.  At the time of the Elk Hills deal, it is estimated that he held in his trust about $500k worth of Occidental stock, in addition to receiving his annual mineral rights payments from the same.  It stinks.  As I said earlier, just follow the money.

Gore is a charlatan, its obvious to any who take an objective view of his actions and motivations.  It is people like him that will be complicit in stripping away more of your liberty, surrendering our sovereignty to some international body, and granting the right of taxation through carbon credits to the U.N. and, by the way, Obeyme has already said that he supports this plan. 

Whether you agree with this crap Global Warming-Climate Change-Save the Polar Bears-Glaciars are Melting- or whatever we need to call it today in order to take some more of your rights and run your lives brand of fascism or not, there’s no denying that between him and his dad, that’s one huge ass carbon footprint!

-OMB