The only way of explaining the push for subsidised wind and solar is money. And when we say money, we mean hundreds of billions of dollars of other people’s money.
In Australia alone, the Federal Government’s Large-Scale Renewable Energy Target will redirect over $60 billion in subsidies to wind and large-scale solar operators (all drawn from Australian power consumers and added to their power bills) over the life of that scheme.
Although, to use the term ‘scheme’ is to add varnish to one of the greatest scams in history.
Rocketing power prices and a grid on the brink of collapse are the only ‘dividends’ to be returned from the LRET, the largest single industry subsidy scheme in the history of the Commonwealth.
Australia’s obsession with chaotically intermittent wind and solar means not only spiralling retail power prices, but guarantees widespread load shedding (aka “demand management”) and blackouts (‘demand mismanagement’), as demand peaks over the summer and wind and solar output collapses around sunset and calm weather.
In Australia, the Greens, Labor Party and their propaganda/marketing wing, GetUp! have received $millions in ‘donations’ from the likes of Danish turbine maker, Vestas; compensating them for their sweat and toil in covering up the troublesome facts above.
In the USA, there are the obvious suspects, such as the American Wind Energy Association. Then there are the not so obvious suspects, such as the Sierra Club.
Once upon a time, the Sierra Club was peopled by sandal wearing tree-huggers, who would die in a ditch to prevent the death of a single furry or feathered critter. These days, however, it’s all about endorsing an utterly pointless power source, abandoned centuries ago for pretty obvious reasons.
This new-found love affair is, of course, all about power, influence and, most of all, mountains of money.
Here’s a trifecta from the States detailing how – among so-called environmental groups – ‘grubby green’ is the new black.
Sierra Club joins Big Wind Bullies at Apex, Diminishing our Environment
By Mary Kay Barton — November 27, 2018
“Today’s Sierra Club has strayed so far from [John] Muir’s original mission of protecting life and our natural environment it is unbelievable. We are greatly saddened to see the Sierra Club (a group many of us used to support) now lobbying for the destruction of vast swaths of rural America with industrial wind sprawl,…”
Sierra Club founder, John Muir, must be rolling over in his grave.
Recent news reports and advertisements indicate the Sierra Club’s uncritical support for Apex Clean Energy‘s proposed industrial wind project along the shores of Lake Ontario — despite the massive environmental destruction such a large-scale industrial project (600-foot-tall turbines with 240-foot blades) will cause!
Never forget, it was a brave representative of the Los Angeles chapter of the Sierra Club, Bob Hattoy, who coined the term “the Cuisinarts of the air” in a late 1980s battle against a wind project in Gorman, California.
Apparently the Sierra Club is ignorant of the local citizenry’s overwhelming opposition to the project in groups such as American Bird Conservancy; Braddock Bay Bird Observatory; Burroughs Audubon Nature Club; Federation of Monroe County Environmentalists; Genesee Valley Audubon Society; Great Lakes Seaway Trail; Hawk Migration Association of North America; New York State Ornithological Association; Niagara USA Chamber; Orleans County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs; Rochester Birding Association; Save Ontario Shores, Inc.
Or, like the Big Wind Bully Apex, they just don’t care.
Sierra Club founder, John Muir (1838–1914) was one of America’s first and most highly regarded advocates for environmental protection. Muir dedicated his life to exploring, writing and working tirelessly to make sure the beauty of our natural environment was preserved for the generations.
Muir was instrumental in the founding of one of our nation’s oldest National Parks, Yosemite. He helped draw up Yosemite’s proposed boundaries in 1889, wrote magazine articles that led to its creation in 1890, and co-founded the Sierra Club in 1892 to protect it.
John Muir believed God was found in the beauty of nature, declaring to a person he was guiding through Yosemite, “Listen to the voice of the Lord; how he speaks in the sublimity of his power and glory!” Muir’s message was that “God wants humans to care for nature and not destroy the systems of life,” a belief that guided his life’s work of educating people about the importance of preserving nature.
Today’s Sierra Club has strayed so far from Muir’s original mission of protecting life and our natural environment it is unbelievable. We are greatly saddened to see the Sierra Club (a group many of us used to support) now lobbying for the destruction of vast swaths of rural America with industrial wind sprawl, while also shamelessly advocating for abortion and other far-left ideologies that have nothing to do with protecting the environment.
Things Apex and the Sierra Club are NOT telling you when it comes to the industrial wind debacle include, but are not limited to:
1) The diffuse energy of wind provides NO firm capacity, and therefore, does NOT provide RELIABLE, dispatchable baseload power, and can NOT replace conventional power generators that do.
2) Niagra Falls hydro plant is producing an excess of emissions-free power that is being sold on the open market because we do not need it here. Building new generation in the face of this excess supply is a blatant RIP-OFF of New York State taxpayers and ratepayers and an unnecessary ASSAULT on our environment – something the Sierra Club used to rail against.
3) The World Health Organization (WHO) and others have stated that wind turbine noise and infrasound is a human health hazard. Despite WHO guidelines being recognized as the ‘Gold Standard’ worldwide, New York State officials are ignoring WHO recommendations and the negative impacts being experienced by citizens across the state, instead choosing to place their ‘green’ agenda above the health, safety and welfare of the citizens they are in office to serve and protect.
4) Towns in Iowa and Massachusetts are tearing down wind factories because they have so negatively-impacted their neighbors.
5) 308 industrial wind turbines in 5 Towns in Wyoming County have provided NO meaningful permanent local jobs. Wyoming County’s tax rate has skyrocketed by over 85% since 2000, in direct correlation with the installation of wind factories here. Properties in the wind company-owned towns are selling well BELOW their assessed values (IF they sell at all), while the County’s population has steadily declined.
6) Miles and miles of industrial wind sprawl cause massive Habitat Fragmentation. Habitat loss is cited as one of the main causes of species decline worldwide.
7) Bird and bat populations are natural insect controllers and pollinators, and are being decimated by industrial wind factories. Farmers will deal with the resulting insect problems by having to apply more insecticides.
8) Irony of ironies – Harvard recently released a study showing industrial wind factories are actually causing warming.
All of this information, and much more, is accessible online.
New York State residents (and residents across the nation for that matter), have a message for the Sierra Club and its’ Big Wind Bully pals:
We LOVE the natural environment God has blessed us with here in Western, Central and Upstate New York State! We have NO intention of allowing money-grubbing Big Wind Bullies to force us to DESTROY the beauty God has blessed us with in exchange for the CONSUMER FRAUD that is industrial wind.
We hope and pray the Sierra Club will return to the group’s original mission of appreciating all of God’s creation and working to protect it, as John Muir intended. However, regardless of whatever the Sierra Club does, we will fight anyone who tries to force these “monuments of subjugation” upon our communities.
—————–
Mary Kay Barton is a life-long Western New York State resident, New York State-certified Health Science educator (retired), Cornell-certified Master Gardener, and tireless advocate for RELIABLE, affordable electricity for ALL Americans. This is an edited and slightly expanded version of her letter-to-the-editor published in the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (November 19).
MasterResource
Sierra Club deals in fake news, fake endorsements
Union-Sun Journal
Daniel Engert
7 January 2019
The ill-conceived Lighthouse Wind project in Somerset was first proposed by Apex Clean Energy in 2014. The Sierra Club consistently stated that “they WILL NOT endorse the Lighthouse project because they need to wait until they see the final siting and plan before they can endorse this project.”
I was perplexed when the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter recently announced that it had voted to “unanimously and formally endorse the proposed Lighthouse Wind project.” The Sierra Club went even further to state that the project is “environmentally sound.”
This seemed incredibly suspicious to me because an application with a final siting plan has not even been filed in this matter and not a single state or federal agency has approved any of the currently proposed environmental, economic or health impact studies submitted by Apex. Not a single sign-off, even after many, many months of review after Apex proposed its studies.
In any event, I was very interested to know what environmental assessment reports the Sierra Club had reviewed, what studies it relied upon and what evidence had been looked at while reviewing the potential environmental impacts specifically associated with the Lighthouse Wind project.
In November, I sent a letter to Kate Bartholomew, chair of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, asking for any reports, studies or materials that were provided by Apex specific to the Lighthouse Wind project and for any conclusionary reports that were produced by the Sierra Club as a result of its review. I also sent a letter to Paul Williamson, project manager for Apex Clean Energy, asking him to provide any reports, studies or materials specific to the Lighthouse Wind project that were provided to the Sierra Club.
Mr. Williamson replied to my letter and confirmed that Apex had not provided the Sierra Club with any materials specific to the Lighthouse Wind project, except material generally available to the public, and he told me to ask the Sierra Club how it came to its conclusions.
Kate Bartholomew never responded to my letter. Instead, Ellen Banks of the Niagara Group of the Sierra Club sent me a note. The Sierra Club’s response did not include a shred of information or even one study that related to or even referenced the Lighthouse Wind project. Not a single one. The materials the Sierra Club reviewed to form its conclusion that the Lighthouse Wind project is “environmentally sound” dated back to 2005.
Clearly, if the Sierra Club did not review any detailed information specific to the Lighthouse Wind project and did not review studies and findings related to the Lighthouse Wind project, then the Sierra Club has no basis to offer opinions about the environmental impacts of the Lighthouse Wind project in Somerset. This raises serious concerns about the validity of the Sierra Club and the sincerity of their positions. This was clearly a political endorsement. Did money change hands? How can any legitimate non-profit environmental organization endorse a wildly unpopular project as being “environmentally sound” when it has not even reviewed a single study or report related to the project?
The simple answer is, it cannot. This was not an endorsement of a broad state or national policy. It was an endorsement of a single specific project as being “environmentally sound” without reviewing any environmental studies that pertain to the specific project.
No one in Somerset is fooled by the games being played by Apex or the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club used to be a responsible advocate for the environment, but has clearly shown itself to be a dealer in “fake science” and “fake endorsements.” In my opinion, this was an intentional and coordinated act by Apex and the Sierra Club intended to mislead and misinform the good people of Somerset and our region.
Apex, you failed miserably.
Union-Sun Journal
Sierra Club disputed on wind power claims
Buffalo News
Sherri Lange
18 January 2019
Regrettably, the Sierra Club, in its Another Voice column, has issued egregious errors of fact.
The U.S. does not garner 30 percent of its power from industrial wind. The real number is around 4 percent (some say 8 percent and others, 6.3 percent) and this is often disputed as well, as these heavy fossil fuel constructed and maintained machines also draw conventional power when the wind does not blow, to stabilize, heat and cool.
Facts are also: bird and bat kills are voluntarily reported by the industry, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service massively under reports as well. (Actual U.S. numbers are between 13 and 31 million per year.) No other industry has such lax permissions for environmental killing. Developers do not search for areas with fewer nests. They hire technicians even to bury dead and dying birds, and not report.
Not clean, not safe, not free by any stretch of the imagination. Each machine contains up to 400 gallons of oil and lubricants, which leak and have to be replenished.
In recounting the Oct. 2 information meeting, Sierra Club writes that the developers prepared a list of “no harms: from sound from wind turbines, which is like the hum of an air conditioner,” and that rigorous approvals are being followed. All of these are from the wind developer’s playbook and are not factual.
Addressing the issue of harm to humans, ample evidence exists about the cocktail of noise events and ILFN (Infrasound and Low-Frequency Noise) impacts; that people have had to vacate homes, have had cardiac events; and that the unique sound impacts of all kinds are devastating to humans, wildlife, husbanded animals and pets.
It is now known that climate will never be positively impacted by industrial wind proliferation, and indeed, turbines may add pressures to those changes, whether warming or cooling.
Additionally, the underlying assumption that CO2 levels can be reduced with massive wind turbine proliferation (another claim of the industry) is also false.
Sherri Lange, CEO
North American Platform Against Wind Power
Buffalo News
STOP THESE THINGS 
Reblogged this on "Mothers Against Wind Turbines™" Phoenix Rising….
we hit 2.3K per MWH for a brief period yesterday……just so you understand the level of stupid you are dealing with here there are people in SA that believe as we have dynamited our coal plants SA does not use coal power anymore.
The stupid, it burns as bright as the sun
Reblogged this on ajmarciniak.
Hmmm…… this Tuesday afternoon with temps hovering around 40C in the renewable wonderland of SA, I decided to have a peak at Ruin Economy’s power generation chart and my pocket NEM app.
Gee the wholesale pice of power seems to be linked to the temperature and heaven forbid there seems to be 138 Mw/h produced from “liquid fuels” in SA.
I reckon the Lovely Audrey might need a stiff gin and tonic by the end of this week. She might need to call on the Messiah and Yoda to calm the masses if we have load shedding.