"HeyBub" writes:

Warning: It's not pretty. Summary of a report based on power usage by about
1/3rd of the nation's consumers (110 million) over three years.

"For years, it's been an article of faith among advocates of renewables that
increased use of wind energy can provide a cost-effective method of reducing
carbon dioxide emissions. The reality: wind energy's carbon dioxide-cutting
benefits are vastly overstated. Furthermore, if wind energy does help reduce
carbon emissions, those reductions are too expensive to be used on any kind
of scale. "

And in conclusion:

"The wind energy business is the electric sector's equivalent of the corn
ethanol scam: it's an over-subsidized industry that depends wholly on
taxpayer dollars to remain solvent while providing an inferior product to
consumers that does little, if anything, to reduce our need for hydrocarbons
or cut carbon dioxide emissions. The latest Bentek study should be required
reading for policymakers. It's a much-needed reminder of how the pesky facts
about wind energy have been obscured by the tsunami of hype about green
energy."

http://www.forbes.com/2011/07/19/win...-carbon_2.html

The report overlooks the fact that wind energy is for the children.

If that's a "fact" I guess there's no point, but what the hell...

The link provided refers to a "Bentek" report but if there is a link to
the report, I must have missed it.

Here's the Bentek web site:

http://www.bentekenergy.com/

"We are a recognized leader in natural gas, oil and NGL market
fundamental analysis."

On the link provided, there's this odd bit:

The Global Wind Energy Council, one of the industry's main lobby
groups, claims that reducing the amount of carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere "is the most important environmental benefit from wind
power generation."

I suppose CO2 emissions could be important, but it seems to me, having
a power source that doesn't run out seems pretty strategic to me.
The rest of the page deals with CO2.

I don't know about you, but I LIKE power sources that don't pollute.
I'm willing to pay a little more just for that benefit.

But the real issue is being prepared for the future.

We're hearing all this crazy deficit talk as if we're creating a problem
for our children. I think using up resources on the only planet we have
is much more important.


--
Dan Espen