The first US offshore wind farm has had no negative effect on fish, finds groundbreaking study

[Carolinian]

You should read up on Thorium reactors before you get too excited about them. They have their own set of problems that are expensive to overcome.

Pebble Bed modular reactors were widely discussed 10 years ago. Looked great on the drawing board, but never overcame problems with the coating on the "pebbles"

I read where a large Polish industrial electric user announced they were going to install a modular nuclear reactor to make their own electricity after the EU "Green Deal" imposed big surcharges on Poland's mostly coal-fired electric generation, and Poland's prime minister announced that large electric rate increases would be necessary as a result of "EU's expensive climate policy". The factory owners said it would give them cheaper electricity than having to pay those EU surcharges.

In North Carolina, there was a bill introduced in the State House last year to encourage use of modular nuclear power plants in the state, and it had a lot of support, but got rewritten in committee as a vehicle for an NC green new deal, and after the second rewrite, all mention of the modular reactors got removed. The Duke Energy lobbyists are all into ESG and want their wind and solar.

I have read Senator Tuberville's materials on the Thorium reactors and they do seem quite promising.

On a positive climate note, I see where the Great Barrier Reef, in the latest report by marine scientists now has the greatest coral cover in 36 years.

Great Barrier Reef Defies Doomsayers with Record Coral Growth

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is thriving and defying every forecast of impending doom made for the past 25 years - and longer.

www.breitbart.com

 

[Carolinian]

How many posters here at TUG support nuclear power?? I am a supporter.

Here is another advocate of nuclear power, as well as fracking. Lord Frost, who served in Boris Johnson's cabinet, has said that the UK should go "all in" on nuclear and fracking:

Lord Frost says Britain should end focus on 'medieval' wind power

The former Brexit negotiator, who is backing Liz Truss for the Tory leadership, hit out at a 'totally unrealistic approach to climate and energy policy' over the past two decades.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[MrockStar]

Go big, go nuclear.

 

[Carolinian]

Here is more on the environmental downside of "green" energy, whether EV's or wind turbines.

https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/natural-resource-governance/myanmars-poisoned-mountains/

In China, the true cost of Britain's clean, green wind power experiment: Pollution on a disastrous scale

This toxic lake poisons Chinese farmers, their children and their land. It is what's left behind after making the magnets for Britain's latest wind turbines...

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[geist1223]

This is only the beginning. Then there is the Hugh problems at the end of life of the Green Energy Parts. Many ending up in Landfills with the special metals leaching into the soil and water.

 

[MrockStar]

Yuck.

 

[Carolinian]

This is only the beginning. Then there is the Hugh problems at the end of life of the Green Energy Parts. Many ending up in Landfills with the special metals leaching into the soil and water.

The big problems with wind turbines are the narcells which contain carcinogenic fluids and the blades which have a number of toxic components. The blades cannot be recycled and are difficult to dispose of. Cutting them releases toxic particles into the air. In Germany, many used wind turbines are being shipped to the Third World while they still have a little useful life left, so that those countries can worry with decommissioning them.

Solar panels contain many toxic substances and the entire panel is considered toxic waste. They are way too labor intensive to recycle even though some components would have value. Many end up in landfills where those toxic substances can leach into the ground water.

 

[Carolinian]

Here is a new analysis by a local NGO on how offshore wind would damage ecology on NC's coast. Our commercial fishing industry would also be devastated, not a good thing for those of us who love fresh local seafood.

Offshore Wind Turbine - Devastating Impacts on North Carolina

This study finds proposed wind turbine projects off the NC coast will harm North Carolina's ecology and economy: tourism, fishing, bird habitat, and more.

www.johnlocke.org

 

[Carolinian]

The Atlantic Right Whale may be the undoing of Dominion Power's massive proposed offshore wind farm near Virginia Beach. They have placed the wind farm directly in the ancient migration path of the Atlantic Right Whale, a critically endangered species of which there are only about 300 left in the world. The American Coalition for Ocean Protection, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, and the Heartland Institute have joined forces and hired legal counsel to put a stop to the wind farm and protect the whales.

CFACT & Public Interest Groups Hire Counsel to Protect Endangered Right Whale from Offshore Virginia Wind Project - CFACT

“We are very pleased to have retained the services of a law firm with such extensive expertise in the requirements of federal laws such as NEPA and ESA,” said CFACT President Craig Rucker.

www.cfact.org

The commercial fishermen are also dead set against this project which would severely hurt their industry.

 

[MrockStar]

The Atlantic Right Whale may be the undoing of Dominion Power's massive proposed offshore wind farm near Virginia Beach. They have placed the wind farm directly in the ancient migration path of the Atlantic Right Whale, a critically endangered species of which there are only about 300 left in the world. The American Coalition for Ocean Protection, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, and the Heartland Institute have joined forces and hired legal counsel to put a stop to the wind farm and protect the whales.

CFACT & Public Interest Groups Hire Counsel to Protect Endangered Right Whale from Offshore Virginia Wind Project - CFACT

“We are very pleased to have retained the services of a law firm with such extensive expertise in the requirements of federal laws such as NEPA and ESA,” said CFACT President Craig Rucker.

www.cfact.org

The commercial fishermen are also dead set against this project which would severely hurt their industry.

Save the Whales.

 

[Carolinian]

Save the Whales.

More on the whale impact situation from Clean Ocean Action:

Groups seek probe of NY-NJ whale deaths amid wind power prep

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — As the stench of a dead whale hung in the air, environmentalists and opponents of offshore wind stood on a beach where the marine mammal lay buried Monday and called for a federal probe into a spate of whale deaths in New Jersey and New York.

apnews.com

 

[Carolinian]

7th dead whale washes up at Jersey Shore. Calls to stop offshore wind work grow.

The whale washed up at a beach in Brigantine just miles from where two others were found dead in Atlantic City.

www.nj.com

 

["Roger"]

To be honest, this is a political thread. Since it is here, rather than piling on, you might want to look at other articles that suggest something different ...

What's killing whales off the Northeast coast? It's not wind farm projects, experts say | CNN

Nine recent whale deaths in New York and New Jersey have prompted several New Jersey GOP lawmakers to question whether the deaths were linked to development of a major offshore wind farm. Experts say there's no known connection.

www.cnn.com

Feds say offshore wind-farm work not to blame for East Coast whale deaths

Federal environmental and energy officials say there is no evidence that work done by the offshore wind power industry is killing whales in the northeastern U.S. On Wednesday, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management addressed the...

www.opb.org

NOAA officials said they have been studying the phenomenon of humpback whales dying at elevated rates along the East Coast since January 2016. During that period, 178 of the animals have washed ashore dead between Maine and Florida.

Post-mortem examinations were able to be done on about half the animals, and of those, 40% showed evidence of “human interaction,” such as entanglement with fishing gear or being struck by vessels, said Lauren Gaches, a NOAA spokesperson.

In no case, authorities said, has a whale been proven to have been killed by offshore wind activity.

 

[callwill]

There is a solar farm near rochester NY that is montored and reported on regularly. Annualized it produces at about 9% of its capacity (Nuclear avgs closer to 93% BTW). The national annual average for solar is 25% Some months that one get close to 20! Fans got real excited when it hit 12% in september...a new september record! . Geothermal can hit close to 74, Natural gas 57, wind 35. The thing i see is that they are going solar in areas where its a poor business model even if the equipment is getting cheaper. The old saying Make hay while the sun shines applies...sort of...for solar it should be make power where the sun shines. With an average of 200 cloudy days a year its a bad business in the great lakes region. On top of that, if you want those cells working, you need to get up on your roof and get the snow off them! Yeah, thats fun! Apply these enhancers (because that all they are) where they work best. Its not one size fits all.

 

[Carolinian]

Here is what a British environmental journalist had to say about offshore wind turbines:

Offshore Wind Farms Could Cause ‘Cataclysmic Destruction’ Of Ecosystems

The UK’s plan to rapidly expand industrial wind farms around the coast will be at the expense of the environment and biodiversity

jasonendfield.medium.com

There is a big division among environmentalists. On one hand are those who care about wildlife habitat, ecosystems, deforestation, biodiversity, bird and bat mortality, and the like. On the other are the CO2 one-trick ponies. These two groups have often fought each other in Europe, and are beginning to do so in the US. Most windfarm proposals in Germany, for example are being challenged in court and most of those challenges are coming from environmentalists. Indeed, last year, local environmentalists saved a medieval old growth forest that was the setting for the Brahms fairy tales from being clear cut for a wind farm. Even if one focuses on CO2, they ought to grasp that trees do more do diminish CO2 in the atmosphere than wind turbines do. In the US, we are now seeing environmental groups sue to stop offshore wind turbines, joining others like commercial fishermen who would be adversly impacted.

 

[Brett]

There is a solar farm near rochester NY that is montored and reported on regularly. Annualized it produces at about 9% of its capacity (Nuclear avgs closer to 93% BTW). The national annual average for solar is 25% Some months that one get close to 20! Fans got real excited when it hit 12% in september...a new september record! . Geothermal can hit close to 74, Natural gas 57, wind 35. The thing i see is that they are going solar in areas where its a poor business model even if the equipment is getting cheaper. The old saying Make hay while the sun shines applies...sort of...for solar it should be make power where the sun shines. With an average of 200 cloudy days a year its a bad business in the great lakes region. On top of that, if you want those cells working, you need to get up on your roof and get the snow off them! Yeah, thats fun! Apply these enhancers (because that all they are) where they work best. Its not one size fits all.

good business for Disney -- I rode past Disney's huge solar farm near Lake Apopka this morning

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-bz-disney-solar-farm-20190418-story.html
"At any moment, more than 500,000 panels that came online in December, 2018 produce enough electricity to run two theme parks. Under pristine sunny conditions, up to 25 percent of Walt Disney World Resort runs on solar power"

 

[Carolinian]

Opinion: ‘Strategy’ to protect right whales from offshore wind development is recipe for extinction - The New Bedford Light

"The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s 'strategy' is cover-your-behind political chicanery in service of the offshore wind industry’s furious rush toward cashing in on enormous amounts of public monies."

newbedfordlight.org

Are Wind Turbines Killing Whales in New Jersey? | Eastern North Carolina Now

Cities across New Jersey coastline are banning together to request an investigation into a series of recent whale deaths

www.beaufortcountynow.com

Well, I guess they could start "dead whale watching" as a new tourist attraction. Last I saw the body count of whales dead on the beach in New York and New Jersey in the last three months is 25, much more than normal.

 

[Tia]

would delete my reply if I could figure out how

To be honest, this is a political thread. Since it is here, rather than piling on, you might want to look at other articles that suggest something different ...

 

[Carolinian]

New documentary ‘proves’ building offshore wind farms does kill whales

Michael Shellenberger charges a government cover-up of whale deaths in new doc “Thrown To The Wind.” Three died off New York and New Jersey in August alone.

nypost.com