{"id":349777,"date":"2024-11-01T16:05:54","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T15:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=349777"},"modified":"2024-11-01T16:05:56","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T15:05:56","slug":"greens-detest-little-guys-who-get-in-their-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=349777","title":{"rendered":"Greens Detest \u2018Little Guys\u2019 Who Get in Their Way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rural and coastal little guys delay and block massive \u2018green\u2019 energy projects<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Driessen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Environmentalists insist they love \u201clittle guys.\u201d At least in the abstract, until those folks get in the way, raise inconvenient questions, or try to block \u201crenewable energy\u201d projects intended to \u201csave the planet\u201d from \u201cmanmade climate cataclysms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the little folks learn the environmentalists are really working with (and for) Big Wind, Big Solar, Big Utilities, Big Finance, powerful politicians and crony bureaucrats \u2013 the Climate Industrial Complex. Stand in its way, and farm families, small rural communities and even Native American groups<\/a> can face protracted, expensive battles. But they often emerge victorious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Energy analyst and journalist Robert Bryce reports that these little guys have rejected or restricted<\/a> 735 US wind and solar projects since 2015, including 58 solar and 35 wind proposals so far this year. Transmission line, grid-scale battery and other plans also face growing resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rural Americas don\u2019t want these huge installations destroying traditional ways of life, hurting property values, raising electricity rates, wrecking vital croplands and habitats, ruining scenic vistas, killing birds, bats and other wildlife \u2013 and creating serious fire and toxic gas risks<\/a> from lithium-ion electricity storage batteries<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They don\u2019t want their countryside dotted with huge landfills, piled high with billions of tons<\/a> of broken, storm-destroyed<\/a> and obsolete solar panels<\/a>, wind turbine blades<\/a> and other renewables trash<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number and scale of many proposed projects is daunting \u2013 and the Complex\u2019s dream of \u201ctransitioning\u201d the entire United States from fossil fuels to an all-electric energy, transportation and industrial system would require vastly more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before being scaled back in a failed effort to reduce local and state opposition<\/a>, the Lava Ridge Wind Project<\/a> would have installed 400 huge turbines on some 200,000 acres of federal land in Idaho. That\u2019s 310 square miles; 5.5 times Washington, DC. Most of its output would go to California, which already imports nearly one-third of its electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Koshkonong solar project<\/a> near Christiana, WI would cover 6,400 acres (10 sq mi) and put a 667-MWh battery storage system near a local elementary school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden-Harris plan for 30,000 megawatts<\/a> of offshore wind energy translates into 2,500 12-megawatt turbines rising 850 feet above the waves. But all those turbines wouldn\u2019t provide enough electricity (31,541 MW<\/a>) to power New York State on a hot summer day, if<\/em> the wind is blowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state\u2019s plan to spend $2 billion<\/a> for 24,000 MWh of backup batteries<\/a> for windless\/sunless days would provide enough electricity to run the state for barely 45 minutes<\/em>! Sufficient batteries would cost trillions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each offshore blade<\/a> is 350 feet long and 140,000 pounds; 2,5000 turbines would mean almost 500 miles of blades weighing 1,050,000,000 pounds! Imagine cleanup and landfill costs after a major hurricane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet a 2020 Princeton University report<\/a> called for massively expanding US wind and solar capacity, to fight climate change and rebuild America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as Mr. Bryce points out, those plans would require solar projects blanketing an area the size of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut combined \u2013 plus wind installations sprawling across lands equal to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s without factoring in wind and solar power needed to charge grid-scale backup batteries to store enough electricity to power America for even a day or week of windless, sunless days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other projects are equally enormous, expensive and fanciful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summit Carbon Solutions wants to build a pipeline to carry carbon dioxide<\/a> from 57 ethanol plants in five states \u2013 and inject the CO2 into geologic formations beneath North Dakota. Summit can provide no guarantees that the pressurized gas will stay in the ground, and not erupt suddenly and violently, killing wildlife and people<\/a> by rapidly replacing breathable air \u2013 as a natural CO2 reservoir did at Cameroon\u2019s Lake Nyos in 1986.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cumulative<\/em> impacts of all these wind, solar, battery, transmission line and other projects would be incalculable \u2013 on lands, wildlife, families, budgets and human health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding to the cost, construction and raw material requirements, home, neighborhood and regional grids would have to be expanded and upgraded to handle the ballooning electricity demands, and the surges and plummets associated with unpredictable, weather-dependent wind and solar power.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this is irrelevant to Climate Industrial Complex members, who want to virtue-signal and  extol the \u201cpivotal role\u201d they<\/a> are playing in driving America\u2019s \u201crenewable energy transformation,\u201d meeting arbitrary greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, and preventing \u201cclimate catastrophes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Property rights advocate Tom DeWeese says concerned citizens can fight back by asking tough questions<\/a> about these policies and projects. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* What benefits has our community gotten from the massive solar and wind farms we already have? From the taxpayer subsidies and rate hikes we already have to pay? What benefits will we receive from the huge new projects you are promoting now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Why are you trying to end local land use controls, use eminent domain to take our property, and destroy small local and minority businesses to build these enormous projects?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* How will ruining our wild and agricultural areas, killing wildlife and reducing our living standards reduce global greenhouse and \u201csave the planet,\u201d if China and India alone<\/a> emit 38% of the world\u2019s greenhouse gases (versus 11% by the USA) and are building new coal-fired generating plants every week?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proud, principled, vocal resistance is essential, if citizens are to defend their jobs, lands, health, living standards and freedoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org<\/a>) and author of books and articles on energy, environmental, climate and human rights issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article originally appeared in the Washington Times online (10\/22\/24) and print (10\/23\/24) editions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.WashingtonTimes.com\/news\/2024\/oct\/22\/environmentalists-detest-little-guys-who-get-in-th<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Environmentalists insist they love \u201clittle guys.\u201d At least in the abstract, until those folks get in the way, raise inconvenient questions, or try to block \u201crenewable energy\u201d projects intended to \u201csave the planet\u201d from \u201cmanmade climate cataclysms.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":349779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691827130,691830765,691819509,691831269,691823217],"class_list":{"0":"post-349777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-carbon-dioxide-co2","9":"tag-climate-industrial-complex-2","10":"tag-green-energy-projects","11":"tag-solar-and-wind-farms","12":"tag-taxpayer-subsidies","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0Wind-and-Solar-energy.jpg?fit=1344%2C896&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1sZz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":348708,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=348708","url_meta":{"origin":349777,"position":0},"title":"Rural and coastal residents delay, block green energy projects","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"24\/10\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Environmentalists insist that they love the \u201clittle guys\u201d \u2014 until they get in their way, ask inconvenient questions or try to block renewable energy projects intended to save the planet from \u201chuman-caused climate cataclysms.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In \"Biden-Harris Administration\"","block_context":{"text":"Biden-Harris Administration","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=biden-harris-administration"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Wind-solar-sky.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Wind-solar-sky.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Wind-solar-sky.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Wind-solar-sky.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Wind-solar-sky.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Wind-solar-sky.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":349717,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=349717","url_meta":{"origin":349777,"position":1},"title":"Big Green projects hoisted by their own petards","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/11\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"For decades environmentalists raised questionable, but often successful, objections to block mines, pipelines, nuclear power, and oil and gas operations. 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The complete\u00a0MBN\u00a0for this post can be found\u00a0here. 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