Guest post by Candace Sheppard Wind energy production in New York State is expected to double in the next five years. Photo by U.S. Department of Energy. A day after a study was released last week about wind turbines killing more than 600,000 bats in the United States in 2012, the Environment America Research Policy Center released its second report about…Continue Reading…
In March, several green groups, notably the Environmental Defense Fund, formed a partnership with Chevron and other energy companies to, as the LA Times reported, provide more stringent standards for fracking of natural gas in parts of the eastern United States. The collaboration, which also includes several philanthropies, has been formalized with a non-profit organization called…Continue Reading…
I was goofing around on Twitter today: I’m pretty sure all da GMOs, flame retardants & WiFi electromagnetic radiation cancel out my wind turbine syndrome. — keith kloor (@keithkloor) April 18, 2013 If you’re unfamiliar with that last reference, I refer you to my recent Slate piece:
I’m often fascinated by what’s left out of environmental stories. Tim McDonnell has written a piece for Mother Jones that is picked up by the Guardian. It’s titled: “Why the U.S. still doesn’t have a single offshore wind turbine.” There is a major omission in this section on wind opponents: Blowback from “stakeholders”: Whale and bird…Continue Reading…
If you google Wind Turbine Syndrome, the first link will take you to a book by Nina Pierpont, an author with all sorts of impressive-looking medical credentials, who wastes no time in revealing “wind energy’s dirty little secret”: Many people living within 2 km (1.25 miles) of these spinning giants get sick. So sick that…Continue Reading…
Every energy source comes with its own set of problems that give rise to a passionate opposition. In the United States today, we see it with shale gas and the anti-fracking movement. In Britain, Australia and other countries where wind farms have proliferated across rural landscapes, we see fierce anti-wind campaigns gaining strength. Like gas…Continue Reading…
In 2005, after Robert Kennedy Jr. published an op-ed in The New York Times opposing an offshore wind energy project in Nantucket Sound, environmentalists were plenty pissed. Since then, RFKJr has offered numerous arguments against Cape Wind, but none of them has stuck. I thought he had reached a hypocritical apex a few years ago when he…Continue Reading…
In 2007, I wrote a cover story for Audubon magazine about Wyoming’s imperiled sage grouse population. New research had shown that the iconic bird avoided using habitat in the vicinity of roads, gas wells and other related energy infrastructure. All the noise and traffic was a big turnoff. As the scientist who led one of…Continue Reading…
And some climate activists chided me for making hay out of the Mojave desert/renewable energy controversy. Looks like Romm is taking on Feinstein over this and in doing so, he’s ignited a zesty debate among his loyalists, revealing a green schism that is sure to grow wider and nastier. Or has it already? Craig Goodrich,…Continue Reading…