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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
Around the same time a company came to the town and wanted to build something like several dozen windmills to generate electricity. It would have provided jobs to build the windmills and maintain the facilities. Needless to say the small town was opposed to the windmills because they weren't what the town was about and, this was seriously maintained, windmills cause pollution.
Moral of the story, most small town folks are just stupid people who live in a world cloaked in fear.
The humming city you love is made possible by salmon-killing hydropower and carbon fuming fossil fuels. And it will continue to be, likely for at least a century to come.
It runs from Washington to Virginia.
If you have a couple of hours to spare, you could do worse than drive over to the Wild Horse Wind Farm, which is only 15 miles east of Ellensburg on the Old Vantage Highway (an interesting drive in itself). The visitor center is lame beyond belief, but driving up the hillside surrounded by these humming giants is really, really cool.
It's super-easy to find -- just head east on I-90, take the main Ellensburg exit (business loop), and keep going on 8th instead of turning right on Main. 8th/University will turn into the Vantage Highway after it passes the university.
The Gingko Petrified Forest, further east on the Old Vantage, is worth a visit too. The visitor center there is a charming slice of 1958 architecture and science exhibit, with amazing views.
This post alone insures you will lose.
When a "farmer" is deemed unimportant, but some Green Fantasy that allows you to play your iPod without guilt, merely sacrificing a few people in the hinterland.
Urbist Dictators Must Fall
http://www.heatingoil.com/wp-content/upl…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbk81X6WH…
About turbines: I personally find them very aesthetic and beautiful. The constant hum could be a real problem, as could be the allegations that they kill birds and bats at a high rate. (details up unclear to me, but worth researching more). I wouldn't want to live next to a giant turbine, so I can empathize.
However, we do have to decentralize our energy production... That's the only clear solution for the present and the future. So we need wind power, as well as all other options. I can hardly wait until fusion is finally operative.
Anyways, nuclear is the future of America. Heads up Noble Farmers Of The Heartland: you're going to hate those also.
city dwellers have reasonable expectation for access to things like public transport. turn off those buses and light rail that charles rides on every day...hear him squeal.
If I'd never seen or heard a wind turbine I'd give wind-haters the benefit of the doubt, but I have, so I have to call NIMBY. Either that or it's political--you just can't stand for anybody to get electricity without somehow giving Dick Cheney a piece of the action.
Go to Palm Springs (in California, east of LA) and you can see how benign wind farms can be.
The newer models are very quiet.
Go check it out before anyone reaches a conclusion.
I think they are beautiful, too,
But I will say this: Not all rural types hate wind power. Iowa, for example, is second only to Texas in wind power generation. Wind supplies 20% of Iowa's electrical load.
Also, many people who grew up in a multi-generational farm family will remember that the windmill is what filled the cistern, which was a real labor saver. The downside was that you had to make sure you shut it down when there was a storm coming.
As for the Kennedy family and wind: As I understand it, Teddy was sort of a butt bag about it, but RFK was opposed to the location based on enviro concerns and the fact they would be turning control of public waters over to a private generation company. When they relocated it further off-shore, he was fine with it.
The one that was planned off of Cape Cod (which Kennedy opposed) would be hardly noticeable from, say, Nantucket - which is 14 miles away, but it'd be as close as 4 miles from other shorelines, where it indeed would be an eyesore.
However, back to rural: If each farmer had one turbine on his land (or maybe one per 100 acres for large farms), that could have a nice look to it. A solo turbine is stately and elegant - just as a solo grain silo is. (Or, for an urban comparison, as a solo water tower is.)
It's the concentration that makes wind farms ugly. A grid of 50 grain silos (or 50 water towers) would be hideous, too.
The wind farm company sued the town but has recently dropped the lawsuit - presumably because 1). it would cost more than the entire town and land is worth; and 2). The wind farm company may be able to put some up in near future.
I'm pretty sure that humming noise becomes a lot more tolerable when you have a personal investment in it.
Of course, wind power isn't a replacement for hydro, or coal burning, or nuclear power. Bottom line is, switching to "green" power will mean using less power, period.
And it's not about going "off the grid", it's about augmenting the grid. You are right that wind is transitory, just like solar, but those issues can and are managed by system operators - more of those meddling citified idiots.
Now do go sniff some Round Up or make some meth, or whatever it is you people do.
A quiet, rural home is not just a mythical folk idea. It actually exists, and a lot of people prefer it. People who are no better or worse than you are. Is your self esteem so poor that you have to loudly denigrate everyone who does not believe everything you do, or has differing ideas of how to live?
The air cannons they use to keep the birds off the cherries are a whole other story... I never got used to those.
The country isn't quiet. The desert isn't quiet. The forest isn't quiet. These are noisy places. The only truly quiet place I have ever been is White Sands, which I imagine is a lot like being on a glacier - sound just doesn't travel well.
Okay. So urban noise doesn't bother you. A lot of people feel that way, but will start screaming bloody murder if they don't like a new piece of large urban art or the design of a new major building in the skyline (or the removal or renovation of a beloved existing one.)
What I do object to is the "I'm country and I'm stupid and belligerent" meme that you see these days. Farming is hard work and takes brainpower. Real farmers retire from it and move to town. Some Schmuck sitting out on an acreage gassing on about how they're a self-made rugged individual is just a parody.
It's just a shame you had to be such an uptight narrow-minded douche bag about it.
They're brick chimneys with a big flashing light on top. We just like them because they're emblematic of a trip to the coast. In a generation, windfarms would be the same way.
You'd think it would be easy to draw the conclusion that maybe a lot of wind farm opponents are rural because THOSE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE NEAR PROPOSED SITES.
If a wind farm is proposed in Burns, Oregon, then of course the opposition is going to be comprised of people from Burns rather than from Portland.
If we want to pretend that urbanites are well-informed sophisticates, we need to work on our "putting 2 and 2 together" skills.