John Kerry - "Just give wind a chance until 2050"

2010-11-18T14:17:27.000Z

John Kerry, who is Governor Baldacci's Director, Office of Energy Independence & Security is now on record (in this video) saying that wind may work by 2050, 40 years from now. I promise you, this is not what the state has been telling Mainers as it has tried to sell us on this useless old technology that does nothing but increase electricity rates and taxes.

These wind turbines at very best will last 20 years, probably less in our climate. But Kerry is telling us to wait 40 years.

Would it not be more prudent to just experiment in one place and then when the turbines are "ready for prime time" , if ever, roll them out? (By that time we also might have far better energy sources deployed).

It seems like this is the most basic of blunders wasting our taxpayer (and ratepayer) money - not something very popular in these times. "Let's build a massive and extremely costly system of airports using the taxpayer's money 40 years before we have airplanes"

As you will see in the video, the wind maps should have told Saco and Kittery that they had poor wind resource. Well, if one were to look at the wind maps of the entire U.S., it becomes instantly clear that Maine, which Angus King and John Baldacci repeatedly exaggerate as "the Saudi Arabia of Wind" have basically a poor to marginal wind resource - below what is needed for industrial scale wind:

http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/images/windmaps/me_50m_800.jpg

and

http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/pdfs/wind_maps/us_windmap.pdf

In fact most of Maine's wind "resource" is known as Class 1 and Class 2, and many projects are being explored in Class 2 areas. In the NREL Wind Resource Assessment Handbook on page 3-2 you will read "Class 2 areas are marginal and Class 1 areas are unsuitable for wind energy development." See:
http://www.nrel.gov/wind/pdfs/22223.pdf

Then why will wind complexes be sited in Class 2 areas? Well, the real crop is not wind at all, but rather subsidies, suckers and selectmen.

Governor LePage would send a no-nonsense message of Maine common sense out to the rest of the nation if he simply says, "Great idea - see you in 2050, in the meantime, Maine will not endorse federal policies of gross wastefulness".

There's a lot to be fixed across the U.S. economy and thrift starts at home.

See article at WCSH website at:
http://www.wcsh6.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=137043&catid=2

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All Videos Tagged the jig is up (Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine) - Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine

John Kerry - "Just give wind a chance until 2050"