Wind Power Is Nothing But Hot Air

Not in my backyard:

Whenever anybody starts talking about how we can solve our energy problems and end oil imports, they always end up talking about windmills.

Wind is indeed the fastest growing form of energy generation in the U.S., expanding at a brisk 25 percent a year. Installed capacity now stands at 11,500 megawatts (MW) -- the equivalent of ten or twelve standard nuclear or coal plants. Huge projects are popping up everywhere -- driven by tax incentives and state demands for "renewable energy portfolio."

What's interesting is that these projects are not beginning to run into their own environmental opposition. It's not hard to see why. The standard 1.5 MW structure is now 40 stories, taller than the statue of liberty. The 3 MW towers waiting in the wings are as tall as New York's Citicorp Center, the third tallest building in Manhattan.

In the Midwest these giant structures are being located on farms, where landowners can collect a few thousand dollars rent a year. On the East and West Coasts, however, the best place is on mountaintops since -- according to Bernoulli's Principle -- the wind always accelerates as it as it is funneled through a narrower space. That means mountaintops all along the Alleghenies, in upper New York State, and in Washington and Oregon are being decorated with little distant pinwheels that make the landscape look like a carnival.

If we're going to do this, I recommend building windmill parks on every available inch of national park land.

That oughta produce a nice Sophie's Choice scenario for the environmental whackos.