Are windmills in the sea 'environmentally friendly'? Not even close
According to a 2021 report, the United States of America uses 97,331,601,000,000,000 Btu, or about 97 quadrillion Btu (British thermal units) of energy per year. Wind energy contributes 3.24% of the 12% of U.S. energy use that is renewable, with the remaining 88% coming from natural gas (32%), petroleum (36%) nuclear electric power (8%), and coal (11%).
The Biden-Harris administration is pushing hard their wind energy ambitions by granting offshore leases on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Leases are being sought for areas as vast as 3.9 million acres 20 nautical miles off the central Atlantic shore and about 1.2 million acres 12 nautical miles off the coast of Oregon, which will permanently scar these shorelines.
What is worse than thinking of these huge wind farms off our coast, consisting of tens of thousands of windmills, is the fact that the bulk of the companies seeking these leases are foreign companies that get U.S. tax breaks. Something I found odd is that "as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," wind energy companies get major tax breaks "whether the technology worked or not." It seems odd that you get the money whether your technology works or not, but not making monetary sense is typical of Biden economics.
One thing not being taken into account is the large embedded cost with windmills. Each windmill weighs 1,688 tons, which is equivalent to 23 houses. They also contain the hardest to extract rare earth elements neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium, the mining of which causes huge environmental issues. The blades are another issue. The 81,000 pound non-recyclable blades only last for 15 to 20 years. They then must be replaced. Landfills cannot take these 100 to 300 feet long blades because specialized equipment is needed to move and cut them, as they are too big for landfill crushers. How much do you want to bet that the old ones replaced in the ocean will be dropped into the water, eventually washing ashore on our recreational beaches, or blocking our shipping lanes and waterways?
We're just getting started; there are more problems with this "world saving" technology. Windmills make a lot of noise, which reverberates under water, causing problems for marine life. Already questions are being asked about all the whales that are beaching themselves near the present wind energy farms with 30 whales dying between December 2022 and March of 2023. Marine life uses sound to navigate, and "whales are extremely sensitive to noise." Note that already there are only about 400 remaining of the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. Getting caught in the middle of a maze of hundreds of operating windmills would totally disorient and exhaust whales and other marine life trying to navigate. So, while "saving the planet," no one is mentioning the killing of the whales. "Save the whales" used to be the big cry.
In addition, the commercial fishing industry is being majorly impacted and faces decimation, putting thousands of people out of work, as stated in a Jesse Watters episode at Fox News. The marine environment will be altered by noise, vibration, electromagnetic fields and heat transfer. Relax, Joe Biden proves that he has it all under control when he whispers to us that he thinks windmills are "pretty."
There is also the issue of chopping flocks of birds as they come into a windmill farm with blades spinning at speeds up to 200 mph – but don't worry, the Obama and Biden administrations have issued waivers that exempt wind companies from the Endangered Species Act in case endangered animals and birds are impacted. At least bats won't have to be concerned about being chopped, as their lungs explode midair from the pressure vortex produced by these windmills. Remember, this is all OK, because they are saving the planet and planning to do an environmental impact study once the windmills are in place. Isn't that brilliant?
And then there's the impact on our national defense. Apparently, the Pentagon has stated that windmill farms will negatively impact our nation's defensive radar systems, including the Air Route Surveillance Radars (ARSR). Above the wind farms, aircraft detection will be difficult because of signal degradation and false targets. They continued by stating that this same problem will occur in detection of missiles launched against the United States. It has been said, "A short-range missile launched from a ship could not reach nuclear command-and-control facilities in the Midwestern United States, but might be able to attack a naval base or coastal city." So, as long as "command-and-control facilities" are safe, we're safe. Right?
Similarly, this impacts weather radar as well.
There is another thing that seems to be being totally ignored concerning putting the source of your nation's power grid 12 to 20 nautical miles off the coast of your country. How are you going to effectively defend these windmills against attack from hostile nations? It seems offshore windmills could be knocked out every other week, meaning you will need to hitch up an ox to move your EV.
I have not even mentioned the unreliable nature of weather-dependent energy sources, which require backup power plants, transmission lines and people who can make electricity reliable, all of which drive up energy costs.
Is all this wind energy blow really about "saving the planet" from a manufactured non-scientific lie that is either global warming, global cooling, or climate change (depending upon how the wind blows), or is all this wind energy blow about lining the pockets of investors and politicians, and in particular one family. What family could that be? Let's see, I know the "big guy" owns a vintage Corvette, and his no-experience son is involved with numerous foreign negotiations making America more dependent upon foreign powers.
As the U.S. and U.K. are putting tens of thousands of windmills off their coasts, China is building 43 new coal-fired power plants – but don't worry, China and other nations are planning to get in on the "end game" selling us the "disposable" windmill blades.
And one more thing: With the combined effect of 30,000 windmills producing wind, heat and electromagnetic radiation on the U.S. coast, has anyone thought about the effects on the weather?
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