Storm damaged Invenergy’s Windfarm in Vermilion County –

That is the most ridiculous statement I have heard yet about wind turbines. No tax dollars?? Every flipping one of them is a boondoggle. I’ve even heard Siemens reps say not a single turbine can pay for themselves over their lifetime. How can that be sustainable? Turbines are nothing more than a jobs program and from mining, to refining, to fabrication, to transportation, to construction on site, to power lines there is virtually no difference in emissions from a natural gas pipe from North Dakota to your nearest gas turbine plant which happens to be firing up every time the wind ain’t blowing. Go read about rare earth neodymium magnets in turbines. The mining and refining and final fabrication of a magnet that weighs up to a ton. 30% of the residual mining/refining waste of that rare earth metal is radioactive. Sitting in pits in China and Malaysia. Tailings that will polluting the soil and water until the sun finally melts the earth. Then think of the amount of fossil fuels used to make the rubber, the monstrous carbon fiber blades, the 50 gallons or more of gear oil. Then all the copper in the turbine motor itself. The copper power lines all over the place inefficiently carrying energy from miles and miles away from where it is needed. Then you have the steel towers and rebar. Filthy coke coal is used to make that steel. Then the huge concrete pads that need to be poured. All that concrete is made with natural gas or coal. Then think of the tens of thousands of gallons of diesel needed to transport all the parts of a turbine and get them to the site and finally assemble it. I could go on and on. All those resources for a pittance of energy. Plus we will soon see the end of migratory bats. Why? When a bat or an insect flies near a spinning blade their lungs explode. Bats and bugs are attracted to those turbines and you can watch infrared videos of bats flying toward the blades and they drop. Imagine a Hoary bat trying to migrate from Minnesota to Mexico. Chiroptologists estimate extinction of migratory bats in 30 years DUE to turbines alone. A german study estimates one turbine kills 70 pounds of insects a year. Think of how many monarchs die from those turbines. 60% insect decline in 20 years in the US. Turbines are part of the problem. Then you have the birds of prey deaths. One wind farm in California has killed over 200 golden eagles over the years. Like bats they have such a low reproductive rate it will take decades for that population to recover even if they shut that farm down. Hopefully our country and state will be so strapped for cash we don’t fund these damn boondoggles anymore. Build a natural gas pipe to a plant for efficient energy with minimal emissions. Or go nuke plants. But this solar, wind turbine, electric battery nonsense are impractical inefficient toxic waste dumps that are going to kill our biodiversity and soil and water pollution forever. I have articles and sources to back all this up if wanted.