Wind Turbines Out West, Epilogue
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Figure 1. The site of the recently approved Rail Tie wind project which will cover 41 square miles of this mountain terrain. The foreground mountains are part of the Laramie range in southern Wyoming. The distant snow covered peaks are Rocky Mountain Park and the Never Summer range in Colorado. This is one of the most scenic views along I-80 in southeastern Wyoming. Soon it will be populated by 500MW of 600 foot-tall wind turbines. The ranch steads in the foreground provide a reason for proponents to say this is an already altered viewshed suitable for industrial development.
Wind Turbines Out West, Epilogue
Kevin Kilty
Parts I and II of my Wind Turbines Out West essays didn’t exhaust this topic completely. In the meantime, some interesting developments relating to the topic have appeared. So, a closing essay seems appropriate. The structure of this final part in the series is to summarize claims made by wind turbine developers and which their proponents then repeat.
Claim: These projects bring prosperity, or at least good paying jobs and tax revenue.
I explained in Part I of this series that most rural locations in the West do not possess the economic infrastructure to gain much from these projects. The construction crews are transient and reside elsewhere. The manufacturing is elsewhere. There isn’t a pressing need for local warehousing of parts or supplies. There will be a few technicians and their families who add to the local population, but they will be few. On the positive side there will be new tax revenues but these benefits will be apportioned with politics in mind. Who knows how this will play out. In brief, I know of no prosperous communities built on wind turbine plants, but there are plenty built by fossil fuels and mines (Ref: Gillette, Newcastle, Casper, Cody, Wyoming)
Claim: These renewable energy plants are part of a new clean energy system that is badly needed to forestall climate change.
There is no point belaboring this fairy tale at WUWT. The idea that wind and solar are “clean energy” is based on a shell game where CO2 emissions and other environmental impacts are shifted from the U.S. to developing countries. Perhaps people will come to realize that the radiation impact of CO2 is not as large as the IPCC claim, or that adaptation to what harms might occur will be far less expensive than the proposed cures. Let’s hope that reason eventually prevails. And soon.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/05/14/wind-turbines-out-west-epilogue/
