Don Quixote, in one of his most delusional adventures, attacks a group of windmills after becoming convinced that they are mythological monsters.
In another example of real life imitating fiction, Big Coal and its allies in Congress are attacking the windmills of the 21st Century.
This attack is not only against one of the main sources of clean, renewable energy, but also against the health of our communities -- especially the Hispanic community.
In order for wind energy to prosper, it needs the Production Tax Credit (PTC), a federal policy that helps level the playing field and that has become a key driver in wind industry job growth over the past decade.
However, under strong lobbying from polluters, Congress is resisting renewing the PTC. If it is not renewed by December 31st, over half of the 75,000 jobs that the wind industry has created are expected to be lost.
Polluters like Big Coal are in desperate need of this dishonest help from their allies in Congress because, as it turns out, the coal industry is hitting strong head winds.
In recent years, and thanks in large part to the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, 112 coal-burning plants have been retired and the plans to build 166 coal plants have been scratched. Only four years ago, coal generated half of the country's power. Today, it generates just one third.
Furthermore, from an economic perspective, the industry is a losing proposition. According to a study by the Environmental Integrity Project, the country's dirtiest 51 coal plants cause 5,700 deaths and up to $47 billion every year. The report makes the salient point that the social costs of premature deaths caused by just 18 of those 51 plants are higher than the value of the electricity the plants generate. In fact, according to another study published by the American Economic Review, the $100 billion in health costs inflicted by Big Coal as a whole are higher than the value of the service it provides.
And who gets to pick up the bill for Big Coal's pollution in a disproportionate way? The Hispanic community. According to a LULAC study, almost 30 percent of Hispanics live dangerously close to a coal-burning plant. The Environmental Protection Agency tells us that 50 percent of Hispanics live in the counties that frequently violate federal standards for what is considered safe air quality. And the ones who suffer the most because of this toxic bombardment are Hispanic kids, whose asthma rates are considered an epidemic.
The wind industry, on the other hand, is sailing along. It generates 25 percent more energy than it did last year. Iowa and South Dakota already get 20 percent of their energy from wind and the entire country is on track to obtain 20 percent of its energy from wind by 2030.
More than 400 American manufacturing plants build wind components, and more than 60 percent of the U.S.-installed turbine value is produced right here in the U.S. This means tens of thousands of good-quality jobs that cannot be exported and that also benefit Hispanic workers.
Wind Works: it produces clean, renewable energy right here in our country; it creates tens of thousands of jobs in an economy that so desperately needs them; it is a safe alternative to electricity generated by the country's dirtiest energy sector, and, most importantly, it has the potential to avoid thousands of premature deaths.
Congress's refusal to extend the PTC right now is, well, delusional.
Javier Sierra is a Sierra Club columnist. Follow him on Twitter @javier_sc.
Follow Javier Sierra on Twitter: www.twitter.com/javier_sc
Thanks for dumping them in my backyard.
Many scientists are far more concerned with land-use changes than climate change. Can a windmill, unlike an ecosystem, release oxygen, balance the gaseous composition of the atmosphere, naturally regulate and moderate the climate; sequester those climate warming heat trapping gases that will be re-released into the atmosphere when the soil is disturbed and the plant biodiversity slaughtered for these immense, frantic swords that butcher the strands in the web of all life, like birds and bats?
provide the nitrogen cycle, fresh water, create and renew a life giving soil, purify the air and water, to name a few ecosystem life giving and sustaining services, and all ecosystems have loops and ties to both the atmosphere and the climate.
Kill the Earth for windmills? We've already destroyed 43 to 50% of Earth's terrestrial ecosystems, and now more dead planet, more dead plant and animal biodiversity, about as intelligent as promoting thermonuclear war.
Those of us who care about the planet, ratepayers, and taxpayers say NO MORE BIG ENERGY OF ANY KIND and support clean, affordable, non-deadly solutions sited in the built environment like democratically-owned rooftop solar, efficiency upgrades, and passive heating and cooling - and we say no to dead wilderness for Big Energy profits, greenwashed or not. Join us or be on the wrong side of history...
Adding foundations to ridgelines, or razing them and strip mining?
All to produce three times the CO2 emissions of gas.
As ever... count up all roof area. It helps, but it's not enough. You need some sort of `big energy', or some sort of much less consumption.
it is telling that you consider the dynamiting of ridgelines to be a great idea, even greenwashing it by calling it "adding foundations!" what? each base of each turbine uses 35-50 concrete trucks full of emissions-intensive concrete and thousands of pounds of emissions-intensive chinese steel. then they kill the migrating birds, local raptors and bats, which throws the entire ecosystem off and increases disease vectors, and produce at ~15 to 20% of rated capacity, usually when power is not needed. come on.
don't compare them to coal, compare them to rooftop solar. NREL has - there is plenty of in-city rooftop, parking lot, brownfield and marginal land to fully power the country during daylight hours - when power is needed. Let's START there.
Eco-science states clearly, man is suicidal when he kills ecosystems and pushing extinct biodiversity is about as safe for mankind as thermonuclear war. Recently, a paper appeared on the internet, that windmills heat up the climate, and "climate regulation and moderation" are listed as a natural ecosystem service.
Therein is the problem. To-date, we have destroyed 43 to 50 percent of the Earth's, natural surface, the life giving of Earth. All ecosystems are integrated, and they all have loops and feedbacks to the very atmosphere and the climate, and they all, altogether create and take care of Earth's life zone, the biosphere/ecosphere.