Wind energy is subsidized slaughter - and should be stopped

As Paul Driessen writes, "wind energy is not green, eco-friendly, sustainable or sensible" - it is subsidized slaughter, which should be stopped: 

Industrial wind is actually our least sustainable energy resource.It requires perpetual subsidies to survive. The tax revenues it takes from productive sectors of the economy, the insufficient and unreliable nature of wind electricity, and the exorbitant electricity rates that wind turbines impose on factories and businesses, kill two to four jobsfor every "green" job created. Wind is a net job loser .

Big Wind also imposes excessive environmental impacts. It requires vast amounts of raw materials and land for turbines, backup power and long transmission lines. The extraction and processing of rare earth metals and other materials devastates large agricultural, scenic and wildlife habitat areas and harms people’s health, especially in China. Worst, the turbines are returning numerous bird and bat species to the edge of extinction, after decades of patient, costly efforts to nurse them back to health.

These are not sparrows and pigeons killed by housecats. They are bats that eat insects and protect crops . They are some of our most important and magnificent raptors, herons, cranes, condors and other majestic sovereigns of our skies. They are being chopped out of the air and driven from numerous habitats.

The American Bird Conservancy (ABC)and other experts estimate that well over 500,000 birds and countless bats are already being killed annually by turbines. The subsidized slaughter “could easily be over 500” golden eagles a year in our western states, Save the Eagles Internationalbiologist Jim Wiegand told me. Bald eagles are also being killed at alarming rates that could soon reach 1,000 per year.

In the 86-square-mile area blanketed by the Altamont Pass wind facility, no eagles have nested for over 20 years, and golden eagle nest sites have declined by half near the actual facility, even though both areas are prime eagle habitat, says Wiegand. Wildlife expert Dr. Shawn Smallwood estimates that 2,300 golden eagles have been killed by Altamont turbines over the past 25 years.


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Another vital, majestic species being “sliced” back to the verge of extinction is the whooping crane, North America’s tallest bird. Since 2006, installed turbine capacity within the six-state whooping crane flyway has skyrocketed from 3,600 megawatts to some 16,000 MW – and several hundred tagged and numbered whooping cranes “have turned up missing and are unaccounted for,” says Wiegand. And yet, another 136,700 MW of new bird Cuisinarts are planned for these six states!

The Service knows this is happening, and yet turns a blind eye – and Big Wind is not about to admit that its turbines are butchering whooping cranes, bald eagles, Peregrine falcons, bats and other rare species.

This subsidized slaughter and legalized carnage cannot continue. Every vote to extend the PTC, or approve wind turbines in or near important bird habitats and flyways, is a vote for ultimate extinction of majestic and vital species in numerous areas all over the United States.

Wind energy is not green, eco-friendly, sustainable or sensible. Extending the subsidized slaughter is not something any members of Congress, state legislatures or county commissions – Republican or Democrat – should want to have on their conscience.


Read the entire article here

Czech President: Eight measures that could save Europe

Czech President Václav Klaus is just about the only European leader who dares to tell the truth about the present state of the euro and the European Union. And he knows what should be done in order to make the necessary changes: 

.. there is time for a fundamental decision: should we continue believing in the dogma that politics can dictate economics and continue defending the common currency at whatever costs or should we finally accept that we have to return to economic rationality?

The answer to such a question given by the overwhelming majority of European politicians has been until now YES, we should continue. Our task is to tell them that the consequences of such a policy will be higher and higher costs for all of us. At one moment, these costs will become intolerable and unbearable.

We should say NO. The European politicians should be forced to admit that we find ourselves in a blind alley and that in such a case the only possible way out is the way back.

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Europeans should say NO and start introducing radical systemic changes which have to include the following measures:

1. Europe has to get rid of the unproductive and paternalistic soziale Marktwirtschaft, “augmented” (which means further undermined) by the growing role of the green ideology.

2. Europe should accept that the economic adjustment processes take time and thatthe impatient politicians and governments usually make things worse. The politicians should not try to mastermind the markets, to micromanage the economy, to “produce” growth by government stimuli and incentives.

3. Europe should start preparing comprehensive reductions of government spending and forget flirting with solutions based on tax increases. The reductions must dominantly deal with mandatory expenditures, because discretionary spending cuts are – as a long term solution – quantitatively more or less insignificant.

4. Europe should interrupt the creeping, but constantly expanding green legislation.The Greens must be stopped from taking over much of our economy under the banner of such flawed ideas as the global warming doctrine.

5. Europe should get rid of the excessive centralization, harmonization, standardization of the continent and after half a century of such measures start decentralizing, deregulating and desubsidizing its society and economy.

6.Europe should make it possible for countries which are the victims of the European monetary union to leave it and to return to their own monetary arrangements.

7.Europe should forget such plans as a fiscal union or a banking union, not to speak about antidemocratic ambitions to politically unify the whole continent.

8. Europe should return to democracy which can exist only at the level of nation-states, not at the level of the whole continent. It requires returning from supranationalism to intergovernmentalism.

Read the entire speech here

US heatwave: Wind energy powered 4000 blow dryers in Illinois when the demand was greatest!

The hype:

"Last week wind industry leaders and advocates gathered in Normal, Illinois to discuss the progress we're making in harnessing the power of the wind in the Prairie State.

A highlight of the gathering was the release of a new report documenting the economic impact wind is making in Illinois, and the numbers are striking. Among the key results, the study finds that the 3,334 megawatts of wind generation in Illinois:

· Will generate a total economic benefit of $5.98 billion over the projects' 25-year lifespan"

The reality: 
During the recent heatwave in Illinois nuclear, coal and gas-fired plants were running at full capacity. But we did not see any reports by the otherwise so active "progressive" enviro-fundamentalists about the great contribution of the much touted wind turbines. Jonathan Lesser, PhD, and President of Continental Economics, tells us why:


Illinois wind generated less than five percent of its capacity during the record breaking heat last week, producing only an average of 120 MW of electricity from the over 2,700 MW installed. On July 6th, when the demand for electricity in northern Illinois and Chicago averaged 22,000 MW, the average amount of wind power available during the day was a virtually nonexistent four MW, less than the output of two large wind turbines, or about and enough power to operate 4,000 blow dryers.


Wind power’s failure during last week’s extended heat wave is no fluke. When I performed a similar analysis last summer, the results were the same: the hotter the weather and greater customers’ demand for electricity, the less electricity produced from wind. Of course, this should not really be surprising. After all, the most miserable summer days are hot, humid, and still. What is surprising, however, is that policymakers keep throwing consumers’ and taxpayers’ hard-earned money at wind generation. And, because Illinois has one of the most aggressive renewable portfolio standards in the country, those subsidies, and electricity bills, will continue to soar, driving more businesses away from a state that continues to hemorrhage jobs in tough economic times. It is difficult to imagine a worse energy policy.


Read the entire article here

The truth about Putin´s mafia state

Vladimir Kara-Murza, Washington bureau chief of Russian Television International, on the  impending Magnitsky Act: 
This bill, a rare example of congressional bipartisanship, proposes to introduce a targeted visa ban and asset freeze for Russian officials “responsible for the detention, abuse, or death of Sergei Magnitsky” — an anti-corruption lawyer tortured to death in a Moscow prison in 2009 — as well as for any “extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” (among them, “the freedoms of religion, expression, association, and assembly, and the rights to a fair trial and democratic elections”). The Magnitsky Act would bring a much-needed measure of accountability to corrupt Russian officials and human rights violators who prefer to rule in the manner of Zimbabwe or Belarus but opt for such destinations as the United States or Britain when it comes to storing and spending their ill-gotten gains.



In any civilized country a thief and criminal like Vladimir Putin would be locked up in a well guarded prison. But instead of serving a deserved lifetime sentence, Putin has elevated himself to de facto lifetime president. 

Bill Browder, founder of the Hermitage Fund, and the moving spirit behind the impending Magnitsky Act in the US Congress, tells reveals the reality of Putin´s Russia in a must read article: 

Putin’s interests flipped at the end of 2003, when he arrested Mikhail Khodorkovsky. That arrest had an extremely powerful effect on the country’s remaining oligarchs. Just imagine: you are the seventeenth richest oligarch in Russia. You turn on the TV on your yacht moored off the Hôtel du Cap in Antibes, and you see the richest guy in Russia — someone far better than you in all respects — sitting in a cage in a Moscow court. Your natural reaction is, ‘What do I have to do to not sit in a cage?’ In the summer of 2004, one by one, the oligarchs went back to Moscow, met with Putin and asked, ‘Vladimir Vladimirovich, what do we have to do to make sure we don’t sit in a cage?’

Putin’s answer was ‘50%’. I’ve surmised this from dozens of conversations and anecdotes I’ve heard since then. Of course, it could be 40%, or even 60% — I don’t know the exact number. But what I am sure of is that all the guys who said no to that deal ended up being run out of the country, losing all of their assets, or being sent to jail.

How can this amount of money go to Putin without anyone noticing? What needs to be understood about all these Russian oligarchs who are on the Forbes rich list, and who are supposedly worth 10, 15, 20 billion dollars is this:  it is not actually all their money. In most cases, the people who are labelled as oligarchs are just extremely wealthy trustees.

For example, there’s a well-known Russian oligarch who owns four enormous mansions in North London. In my business I’ve come across many wealthy people and I can tell you that it is not normal behaviour to have four mansions in one city. In normal circumstances rich people will own a mansion in London, maybe one in the south of France, perhaps one in Miami. But it’s irrational to own four in North London. Unless, of course, three of them don’t belong to you.

As soon as Putin acquired a hefty interest in the assets of these oligarchs, his incentives changed. He was no longer interested in controlling or crushing these guys, since they were no longer independently wealthy. I, on the other hand, hadn’t noticed that the game had changed and had continued exposing the corruption in major Russian companies.

Read the entire article here

Good news: A sharp downturn in global wind turbine orders

There will - fortunately - be fewer of these ugly convoys in the coming years

Global orders for wind turbines are down by 30% during the first half of this year. The largest wind turbines companies are fighting for survival, as governments have begun to cut the generous subsidies on which the manufacturers are totally dependent: 

MAKE Consulting has examined global order intake for 1H/2012, and we 

note that wind turbine order intake (MW) in 1H/2012 fell by 30%  YoY, 

principally due to weakness in core markets  in  Asia Pacific and Europe, in 

particular China, India, UK and Germany (offshore). Regulatory uncertainty, 

subsidy cuts and grid connectivity issues all contributed to the weakness and 

offset good growth in new emerging markets.  

The  Americas held up well driven by the U.S. where developers endeavor to squeeze in projects before 

the PTC expires at the end of 2012 and high order activity in several  Latin 

American markets.

Weak orders in 1H/2012 support MAKE’s view that 2013 will be a weaker 

year for installations (-5% vs 2011).  However, we expect that order flow 

could improve in 2013 and beyond.

MAKE´s expectation of an improving order flow next year should be taken with a pinch of salt. The consulting company is not a neutral actor, but exists mainly in order to assist the wind turbine industry. That is obvious when one reads how they choose to describe themselves:

MAKE Consulting is a professional team of independent advisors with proven experience in the international wind energy industry. This has given us detailed insight and market intelligence which we make every effort to translate into an end product that provides our clients with a competitive advantage.

We are as passionate about renewable energy as you are, and have developed the analytical skills and tools to match.

The sharp downturn in wind turbine orders is evident also in the order books of two of the industry´s main actors, Siemens and Vestas: 

German engineering conglomerate Siemens reported on Thursday a 66 percent drop from a year earlier in new third-quarter orders for its renewable energy business, which includes its wind and solar units.

Danish wind turbine maker Vestas has announced first-half orders for turbines with total capacity 1,973 megawatts, down from 2,895 MW in the first half of 2011.

Read the entire article here

PS

The bad news for the turbine makers is good news for the growing number of people all over the world who oppose these inefficient, bird killing and landscape destroying monsters, which for totally irrational reasons became the darlings of the "progressive" enviromentalists. 

(image by wikipedia)

"The EU and Russia hold human rights consultations"

The media service of the Brussels based EUSSR has published another useless press release (A 350/12):

The EU and Russia hold human rights consultations 


On 20 July 2012, the European Union and the Russian Federation held their fifteenth round of 
human rights consultations in Brussels. The consultations were held in an open atmosphere. 
The EU and Russia focussed in particular on the work of civil society in light of the recent legal 
developments in Russia affecting NGOs receiving foreign funding, tightening rules on freedom of 
assembly, reinstating slander as a criminal offence as well as the strengthening of the state control 
over the internet. The EU and Russia also discussed developments in the rule of law, notably the 
investigation into the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009, the reform of the judiciary and the 
implementation of European Court of Human Rights judgements. As usual, both sides also explored 
ways to improve their cooperation in international fora (UN General Assembly and Human Rights 
Council; OSCE and Council of Europe).  
The EU raised a number of concerns related to specific human rights issues in the Russian 
Federation, including issues pertaining to freedom of expression and freedom of the media 
including online media, LGBT rights, freedom of religion or belief (notably the implementation of 
anti-extremism legislation), as well as continuing intimidation and impunity, especially regarding 
cases involving human rights defenders (e.g.Natalia Estemirova), journalists (e.g. Anna 
Politkovskaya) and lawyers in the Northern Caucasus. Both sides agreed to provide further 
clarification on individual cases of concern.  

One has to ask the question, what´s the point of carrying on with these empty consultations, which have not produced the slightest results in the way of improving human rights in Russia. On the contrary, as we all know, Russian dictator Putin´s first 60 days as the "new" president have been disastrous:

In the two months since returning to the Russian presidency, Vladimir Putin has pursued a stunningly retrograde agenda with stunning alacrity.

“… it has taken no more than 60 days to reverse the few timid positive steps on civil and political freedom that took place during the Medvedev interregnum,” writes Rachel Denber of Human Rights Watch.

Putin’s United Russia party has blitzed parliament with bills to impose massive fines for violating public assembly rules, recriminalize libel, expand the government’s power to restrict Web content – especially regarding gay and lesbian issues – and require internationally-funded civic groups to register as “foreign agents,” which connotes “foreign spy” in Russian, Denber notes. Today, these separate measures are either law or fast on their way to becoming law.

So, to sum up, in just over 60 days Putin has taken on freedom of association and assembly, freedom of the press, and freedom of expression. And all this while launching a campaign of arrest and intimidation against the growing opposition movement that has seen tens of thousands of Russians take to the street since December to challenge Putin’s rule. Shudder at what the next 12 years could bring.

“… Putin has singlehandedly quashed the long-held myth that he himself propagated: personalized power can modernize the country while preserving stability,” writes Lilia Shevtsova of the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank. “After waiting 12 years for change from the top, Russians finally understand that their political system can be transformed only from the bottom – through popular revolution.”

PS

 "As usual, both sides also explored ways to improve their cooperation in international fora (UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council; OSCE and Council of Europe)." 

Hopefully the EU side at least pointed out that the best way for Russia to improve "cooperation in international fora" would be to stop the human rights violations in their own country. But that would of course be too much to ask from the Brussels apparatchiks, who specialize in empty rhetorics.  

Our forebears lived in peaceful harmony with nature - or did they?

The so-called “developed” countries must reduce their levels of over-consumption to reestablish harmony among human beings and with nature, allowing for the sustainable development of all developing countries. 
“Harmony with Nature”
 Resolution approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations




Before the introduction of the ecologically degrading, evil capitalist system of production, humans lived in peaceful harmony with nature. Except that before our forebears reached this state of harmony, they had to fix the Neanderthal problem:


The recent news coming from scientists seems to confirm suspicions about "social Darwinism." Modern man or homo sapiens outperformed, out-maneuvered and outright slaughtered the less advanced Neanderthals. A study of volcanic ash suggests that it was this factor, and not the ice age, that led to the extinction of this forerunner of humanity. 
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"Neanderthal extinction in Europe was not associated with the CI eruption," researchers from an international team led by Professor John Lowe from Royal Holloway, University of London say.

"Our evidence indicates that, on a continental scale, modern humans were a greater competitive threat to indigenous populations than the largest known volcanic eruption in Europe, even if combined with the deleterious effects of climate cooling.


(image by wikipedia)