Oh God this thread brings back horrible memories from my public planning days.

It always amused me to no end that people like str8/teg could even talk with straight faces.

Ashe County windfarm projects - "Turbines cause cancer in cattle!" (cancelled)

Surry County chicken-litter powerplants - "It's stinky!" (cancelled)

Blowing Rock power substation replacement - "The humming makes squirrels aggressive!" (not cancelled, but instead spent incredible amount of money on arguably the fanciest substation in the nation). Still hums.

Actually nevermind, it's not amusing. People like str8/teg don't actually talk at these meetings; they sit in the back with these shitty little smug looks on their faces. They whip the local elderly population into a frenzy before the meeting with a stack of Google research, and then they think it's hilarious when the ignorant fools break into tears at the podium. As long as the project is cancelled that's all that matters.

Yes old people cried over a bunch of windmills causing tumors in their livestock. Genuinely cried. Manipulated by people who simply think they're ugly, but want to hide behind a bunch of "save the animals" bullshit. All this bird nonsense is the exact same thing.

3/13/2013 5:14:08 PM

rawr rawr rawr we want clean energy. we want it cheap. by the way, don't put that shit anywhere near me.

3/13/2013 5:34:51 PM

Hey I grew up near the north wake landfill, it smelled like shit on hot days, but it was at least quiet and now that its over they can just cover it up and make it a park.

The wind farms are ugly as hell and cover huge swaths of landscape. Maybe they could work, but quieter less deadly turbines would be a start, and they would still be ugly, maybe they can paint them green or whatever the color of the backdrop is.

3/13/2013 6:16:15 PM

Quote :

"for dtownral: Quote : "“However, there is an increasing body of evidence to suggest that there are physiological effects of infrasound and low frequency noise on the ear. Until these effects are fully understood it is impossible to say that exposure to wind turbine noise does not cause any of the symptoms described." http://blog.journals.cambridge.org/2013/01/wind-turbine-syndrome-fact-or-fiction/ [Edited on March 13, 2013 at 4:29 PM. Reason : 5 second google search] "

for tke-teg:

Quote :

"Conclusion: There is some evidence of symptoms in patients exposed to wind turbine noise. The effects of infrasound require further investigation."

translation: there is no causal link and symptoms that could be explained by many things are reported and this report is not based on any new research and does nothing except say that they were mentioned in other things

wind turbine syndrome is fake, there is no evidence of it (another 5 second google: http://www.mass.gov/dep/energy/wind/panel.htm) but instead of responding to you I will let Colbert:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/420904/november-07-2012/wind-power-s-health-hazards
(embed please)

3/13/2013 6:16:49 PM

Dang, I agree with yowilly

3/13/2013 6:20:26 PM

worth an embed

3/13/2013 6:23:35 PM

The cartoons from the website on the previous page are pure fuckin' genious. They totally made me change my mind. I'm sorry guys, I don't know how I didnt see all these grave faults of wind power before. Let's stop these assholes before Santa suffers!

3/13/2013 6:52:08 PM

hahaha

3/13/2013 8:10:35 PM

Quote :

"Maybe they could work, but quieter less deadly turbines would be a start, and they would still be ugly, maybe they can paint them green or whatever the color of the backdrop is."

Yes, let's make wind power less economic than it already is.

At least for the NC coast, can we stop with the talk of low frequency sound? Maybe you still think they'll be ugly, nothing to do about that. I don't think the FAA will let you paint them camouflage.

[Edited on March 13, 2013 at 8:24 PM. Reason : ]

3/13/2013 8:23:54 PM

just put the pine tree branches on the blades like the cell phone tower near SAS

3/13/2013 8:25:07 PM

^

3/13/2013 9:26:44 PM

Cover them in LCDs and cameras so when you look at them you'll always see behind them.

3/14/2013 8:30:12 AM

when a hurricane is coming we will just send a bunch of power to them and point them away from shore to send the storm back out to sea

3/14/2013 9:24:00 AM

^LOL.

Quote :

"Ugh. You guys are hopeless. Can you open your eyes to the big picture? Did you even take time to digest anything I wrote? "

Sorry I was in a rush and didn't have time to read everything before replying previously. Not that I didn't intend to eventually.

Quote :

"I would start with heating/cooling efficiency mostly centered around insulation. you cant imagine how bad the insulation is in a lot of homes and they just run their heat/ac constantly while the heat just goes right thru their walls and windows. tax credits or other incentives to get individuals and businesses to update their homes and businesses would create a mini job boom for the people who do that work. even if the government foots most of the bill its still worth it over time. its probably the single best thing the government could spend money on since the long term rewards are so high and the implementation effort is so low. like cash for clunkers but with a worthwhile goal."

I support this 100%. In fact this is related to one of my company's core business departments - Energy Solutions. A department I wouldn't mind transferring over to actually.

Quote :

"I honestly think a more effective tactic would be to tax the fuck out of electricity to where it is expensive enough for people to at least try to monitor and save it, then use that tax revenue towards advancement of renewable sources. But that would never fly because people are too lazy and used to cheap power."

The problem with this idea is that it is a regressive tax and will hurt the poor the most.

3/14/2013 9:55:27 AM

"Wind Power is dangerous" - Spoken shortly after inhaling carcinogenic hexavalent chromium from local coal plant

3/14/2013 10:15:02 AM

its been proven that coal plant emissions are diluted & dispersed over a very wide area, so that the health risk to any local inhabitants is no higher than anywhere else. Nice try though.

3/14/2013 10:30:28 AM

Translation: Acid Rain for Everyone!!!

3/14/2013 2:51:51 PM

Quote :

"health risk to any local inhabitants is no higher than anywhere else"

Sounds like some commy share the wealth health risk solution. This is 'Murica, not socialist Europe.

I still haven't seen a good argument against offshore wind farms to convince me that this isn't a good option to supplement some of our energy needs.
Bird Deaths - Negligible
Noise - Its offshore (where no one can hear you scream)
Visual - This is the only one that has teeth, though I'd say it's extremely weak seeing as how much damage we've already done to our scenic coastlines (House rows on or against the dune line, commercial fishing/crabbing only yards from the shoreline, piers, large scale commercial development along sound-side shorelines, night-time lightpollution from heavily developed coastal communities)
Interruption of transportation routes - This only seems to be a concern for large container vessels, of which I don't see why we should put the needs of a large scale international shipping company over those of domestic energy production.
And according to those brilliant cartoons Santa - I didn't get what I wanted for Christmas this year anyway, so he's free to brave those death blades as far as I care.

3/14/2013 3:43:30 PM

Question: To you folks who are against offshore windmills because you think they are "ugly", how do you feel about seawalls?

Bonus: Are oil platforms more, less, or equally aesthetically appealing?

3/14/2013 3:52:12 PM

how far out are they putting these, i though they were going to be pretty far. the visual impact should be limited.

3/14/2013 4:07:45 PM

I'm pretty conservative in a lot of areas, but wind power makes a LOT of sense to me. Is the technology perfect? no. Does it have the potential to provide a majority of our power? not anytime soon. Does the technology need to become more prevalent and given the opportunity to mature? Definitely. It's about the cleanest type of power out there.


Oh and we need new modern nuclear plants/policies to replace the aging reactors, which were mostly designed in the 60's and build in the 70's and 80's.

3/14/2013 8:37:30 PM

Quote :

"When I visited Maui I was quite disappointed to see 10-15 turbines on the side of the island off in the distance marring what was otherwise a beautiful view."

I'm disappointed every month when my power bill arrives. As it turns out, shipping coal and oil is kinda expensive.

3/15/2013 12:03:43 AM

Nuclear Power is great.

The only thing besides human error that brings it down would be like a meteor hitting one or a god awful earthquake. That would fucking suck.

Other than that if we build them in safe locations, and manage them correctly, they are the least polluting form of energy we have.

3/15/2013 11:02:42 AM

Nuclear is such a great option, it's sad that so many people are so fucking stupid and have so many ridiculous objections to it.

3/15/2013 11:35:48 AM

Also, storage of waste is an issue. Over 50 years after we started using nuclear power for deneration of electricity, we still don't have a permanent solution in this country for storing nuclear waste. Spent rods just sit all over the country inside dilapidating drums full of radioactive water.

3/15/2013 4:49:56 PM

It's still the best option available as the stepping stone to green/renewable energy sources.

Ultimately down the line it would be ideal to have an energy solution that is 100% renewable with no emissions. To get there we still have to meet the growing domestic energy needs and building a grid of solar/wind/geothermal/etc. power sources is improbable. Those industries are still in their infancy and have yet to come up with a cost effective solution for large scale power.

Until we get there though, its either more of the same (coal, natural gas, etc.) or nuclear. They all create problematic waste, but at least with nuclear its no emissions, a comparatively low environmental impact to gather fuel, it accomplishes the task of removing dependence on foreign oil, and at least the waste is something we can sweep under the carpet until there's a good solution. With Oil, Coal, Gas that waste just floats off into the environment.

3/15/2013 5:02:23 PM

Lets just put the spent rods in a used cruise ship and then sink the ship.

3/15/2013 5:08:45 PM

Just to state the [hopefully] obvious:

Quote :

"Also, storage of waste is an a political issue."

3/15/2013 10:16:16 PM

Obama's first action as president was to cancel the Yucca mountain nuclear waste repository

3/16/2013 9:55:55 AM

I'm not a fan of centralized storage since studying Asse in Germany in one of my remediation courses

3/16/2013 10:21:42 AM

Quote :

"Spent rods just sit all over the country inside dilapidating drums full of radioactive water."

No, they don't, and the rest of your claims should be disregarded because of what you've demonstrated here - a propensity to speak with certainty on an issue where you are demonstrably incorrect.

3/16/2013 12:07:42 PM

Quote :

"studying Asse in Germany"

3/16/2013 2:43:56 PM

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/06/28/birdwatchers-flock-to-see-rare-bird-then-watch-it-killed-by-wind-turbine/

6/28/2013 7:22:08 PM

Shoot all feral cats and then come back to me about windmills.

6/28/2013 7:29:28 PM

^^of course that story is on foxnews

6/29/2013 10:37:38 AM

i guess we should just ignore the effects of our preferred source of energy.

6/30/2013 9:07:57 PM

Or just ignore statistics

6/30/2013 9:15:41 PM