Monday, April 20, 2009

Green Energy Bad For the Environment

First the ethanol debacle, now this....

"Green energy poses some sticky environmental questions; Push for cleaner power may hurt wildlife habitats" by Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, Washington Post | April 19, 2009

WASHINGTON - .... A priority for the Obama administration, renewable-energy development poses conflicts between economic interests and environmental concerns, not unlike how offshore drilling for oil and gas pits economics against environment. But because of climate concerns, environmentalists and government regulators could find themselves straddling both sides of the issue, especially in Western states where the US government is a major landowner....

Well, he's already letting down that interest group; however, let's see how far the truth will take 'bamer on this one.

As the push for renewable-energy development intensifies, scientists and activists have begun to voice concern that policy makers have underestimated the environmental impact of otherwise "green" projects....

You mean, like BIOFUELS?

"One major concern with biofuels such as corn-based ethanol is that they raise food prices and, in their growing and processing, cause more environmental harm than gasoline does."

"Studies in the past year have concluded that the rush to biofuels has had some disastrous if unintended consequences: less food available to eat in poor countries, skyrocketing global grain prices and a loss of forests as farmers create new fields to join in the biofuel boom"

"Well, besides using up food crops and driving up food prices, producing a far less energetic fuel that you have to buy and burn more of to get the same work, and setting aside the fact that ethanol fuel destroys the engine gaskets in the fuel system, what's to doubt? I mean, it's not like biofuel was supposed to actually work; it's just another sounds-good-on-TV not-quite-thought-all-the-way-through jingo for political campaigns." -- Mike Rivero of whatreallyhappened.com

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One of the biggest challenges renewable-energy projects pose is that they often take up much more land than conventional sources such as coal-fired power plants....

Gee, if that ain't enough to make you believe in the EndGame.

Also see: Bloggers See Through the Green Fart Mist

It can take 300 times as much land to produce a given amount of energy from soy biodiesel as from a nuclear power plant....

Why is the other option a NUKE, agenda-pushing MSM?

Regardless of the climate policy the nation adopts, the paper predicts that by 2030, energy production will occupy an additional 79,537 square miles of land. The impact will be "substantial," said Jimmie Powell, the Nature Conservancy's national energy leader and one of the paper's coauthors. "It's important to know where the footprint is going to be."

I'm as sick of that damn word as I am of their ceaseless agenda-pushing.

Footprint this: pfffffffttt!

In some cases, scientists are just beginning to discover the unintended effect of projects such as wind turbines.

Oh no, the GREAT FART-MISTING SAVIORS have ANOTHER POORLY-THOUGHT THROUGH PROJECT?

Grassland birds such as the lesser prairie chicken and the greater sage grouse, both of which are candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act, appear to avoid vertical structures such as wind turbines and transmission-line towers. This is proving to be a problem in states such as Kansas, an ideal site for wind power, because as more turbines are built, lesser prairie chickens will confine themselves to narrow ranges, fragmenting a population that must be connected to survive.

Think about it: they are more worried about birds than Palestinians.

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And lest you think I care less about the birds:

"About a billion birds - die each year by crashing into buildings they cannot see.... building collision is the second biggest cause of death to birds after habitat destruction.... But even for many ecoconscious building owners and developers, the price of preventing bird kills is too high"

WTF??

The elite-enviro, world-saving do-gooders really don't give a s*** about another LIFE FORM that is JUST AS WORTHY of RESPECT and has JUST AS MUCH RIGHT to LIFE as we do?

Say it ain't so, Irene!