Trump Mouths off About “Windmills”

David Posnett — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 17:29:50 +0000

Submitted by Judith Hope:

In an Aug. 30 rally in Evansville, Indiana, President Donald Trump made three unsubstantiated claims about wind turbines, which he calls “windmills”:

Trump suggested that a single turbine can be responsible for “thousands” of bird deaths. Birds are killed by turbines, but the real death toll from a single turbine is orders of magnitude lower than this. A 2013 study estimated an average of just over five bird deaths per turbine per year.
He repeatedly referred to “problems” when the wind doesn’t blow. It’s true that lack of wind prevents turbines from generating energy, but these pauses do not create problems that power grid operators can’t handle.
Trump also stated that living near turbines is noisy, enough to make someone “go crazy after a couple of years.” Studies indicate that people living near turbines are rarely exposed to average sound levels beyond 45 decibels, which is akin to the hum of a refrigerator. There is no direct evidence that the sound is detrimental to physical or mental health, although it may be annoying to some people.

Here is the full source: https://www.factcheck.org/2018/09/trump-again-overblows-risks-of-wind-power/

Editorial remark (D. Posnett):

I can remember visiting the wind turbines off of Block Island in a chartered party boat in October 2017. I remember,

they are huge when you are right next to them
they are completely silent – I just heard the waves, the wind and the people talking on the boat
there were private fishing boats at the base of some turbines, because that is where the fish were

Those Bothersome Facts

David Posnett — Sat, 04 Nov 2017 21:16:04 +0000

In the age of “alternative facts”, Breitbart and Fox faux news,
we can all make an effort to point out BS when we recognize it! Bravo Nigel, an R&R regular, for his Letter to the Editor of the East Hampton Star Nov. 2nd, titled “Their Facts”:

Last week I attended the presentation of 8 of the Republican candidates for the East Hampton Town trustees. Each one spoke against the offshore wind farm, over which their jurisdiction has no control. In conversation after the event, I was told by one of the candidates, a previous member of the trustees, that the turbines only operated at winds from 10 m.p.h. to 30 m.p.h. This is incorrect. If you think about it, there would be little motivation to build a wind farm with such a small opportunity for success. The turbines rated wind tolerances are 3 to 25 milliseconds, which is 6.7 m.p.h. to 56 m.p.h. I really wish candidates would get their facts correct before they speak.

NIGEL NOBILE

turbines – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Trump Mouths off About “Windmills”

Those Bothersome Facts