It would be nice to claim absolute knowledge of mankind's first original intent in using wind as energy. Seeing as the first use of windmills goes back to the Persians some 500-900 years before the birth of Christ, long before the invention of the modern day grid, that is impossible to do. The first known uses for the energy produced from windmills was the pumping of water, and from there, the grinding of grains. One of the most beautifully scenic and successful applications of windpower based on longevity (and one that still exists), is use of water pumping machines on the island of Crete. Here, hundreds of sail-rotor windmills pump water for crops and livestock. Regardless of original intent, wind energy has a long, clean and noble heritage
As a child growing up in rural America, I have fond memories of small windmills operating on nearby farms. To this day, cannot drive past one of the old steel bladed water pumping windmills without stopping to take a picture, though most of them are now rusted and inoperable. Time rushes down the river into the ocean of forever, and the world changes in the blink of an eye. Perhaps it is these childhood memories of mine, a leftover naivete from youth that had me believing in wind as a pure, clean and noble source of renewable energy.
So, what went wrong, when did wind become corrupt? Or perhaps, it is not the wind itself, but the wind industry that has become corrupt, its honor tarnished, its nobility long ago lost as it prostitutes itself to the highest bidder as earth raping utilities fight among themselves in the war to green their images in the public eye.
As we have seen, wind energy is not new, nor is the concept of using wind mills for the production of electricity. The first use of a large windmill to generate electricity was built in 1888 by Charles F. Brush in Cleveland, Ohio and operated successfully for almost 20 years. The wind industry as we know it today was born. In 1891, the Dane Poul La Cour designed and built the first electrical output wind machine to incorporate the aerodynamic design principles used in the best European tower mills. These safe, vital and secure wind mills were quite practical for electricity generation. At the end of World War I, the use of 25 kilowatt electrical output wind machines had spread throughout Denmark, but sadly larger fossil-fuel steam plants soon put the operators of these mills out of business and wind energy was relegated to some shelf waiting for a time when it would be of use and value once more.
Find it rather tragic that a renewable energy so pure, that was pushed aside by the vast over consumption and burning of fossil fuels, is now being adopted as the bastard child of the coming Nuclear Renaissance, given a place at the table for no other reason than to green the image of some of the largest and most vile polluters of the 20th and young 21st century. Some folks, including, ACE NY, tell me it does not matter how the windmills are built, only that they are...their reasoning, we need the energy. Where is the nobleness in that, where is a concern for making our mother earth a cleaner greener place in such mindsets? If wind power is nothing more than an addition to the grid to feed our ever growing demand for more and more electrons, rather than a means to remove foul, polluted energy from it, what is the purpose, why are we fooling ourselves with yet another feel good placebo that we gladly pay an extra 2.5 cents a unit for?
Can see all the PTA mothers in their Hummers strutting their stuff, proudly proclaiming their self important contribution to a cleaner, greener earth thanks to their participation in Exelon's Pecowind green energy program. It's OK, Exelon tells you so on their GREEN SITE when they state, "Strengthen your organization’s image while doing your part for the environment and your community." Am I the only one hearing the voice of the Church Lady as she loudly exclaims, " Well, isn't that SPECIAL?" Al Gore, and his inconvenient electric bill, Patrick Moore cashing in his honor for a pocket full of gold as the iceburgs melt away towards the ocean's floor.
Lemmings marching towards the cliff, ready to plunge to their death, and most seem so self absorbed that they have no clue. We have John Hall in the Congress, but he seems to have sold out to the perks that come with the title in front of his name. Hillary is the forked tongue Mistress of the dark dreaming of being president, and even Barrack Obama is not without sin as we wait for Mr. Bojangles or the Tamborine Man to ride into town to save the day. Wake up America, it does not happen that way, the world cannot be saved waiting on others to do the work. Global Warming will not dissappear if Wind Energy is used as a feel good placebo, instead of a true alternative energy.
EXAMPLES OF THE UGLY TRUTH THAT IS WIND ENERGYAMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER (AEP)-spent $175 million to buy the 160-megawatt (MW) Indian Mesa wind plant in West Texas. Previously, AEP had invested $160 million to build its own 150-MW wind farm at Trent Mesa, also in West Texas.
Criminal Investigation Sought Following Whistleblower Claims of Pollution ViolationsBy Sandy Smith
http://www.occupationalhazards.com/News/Article/37092/Criminal_Investigation_Sought_Following_Whistleblower_Claims_of_Pollution_Violations.aspx"BP's chief pipeline inspection expert in the United States took the Fifth Amendment under oath rather than explain what he knew about corrosion in the company's oil pipelines in Prudhoe Bay."
Bowoto v. ChevronTexaco Case History
http://www.earthrights.org/site_blurbs/bowoto_v._chevrontexaco_case_history.htmlWritten by Marco Simons
In May of 1999, victims of gross human rights abuses associated with Chevron's oil production activities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria filed suit against Chevron in federal court in San Francisco. The case is based on two incidents: the shooting of peaceful protestors at Chevron's Parabe offshore platform and the destruction of two villages by soldiers in Chevron helicopters and boats. It was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which permits suits in U.S. courts against individuals or corporations that commit international human rights violations anywhere in the world, if that person or corporation resides in or visits the United States, as well as under several other laws. The lawsuit has been brought by a coalition of private civil rights and human rights lawyers
ENTERGY, a major utility based in New Orleans, La., purchased a majority interest in the 80-MW Top of Iowa wind farm from Houston, Tex.-based Zilkha Renewable Energy and its partner, Midwest Renewable Energy Corp. Lets not forget, second largest owner of aging reactors in America.
http://riverkeeper.org/campaign.php/indian_point/the_facts/1169RIVERKEEPER NOTIFIES ENTERGY NUCLEAR NORTHEAST OF INTENT TO SUE FOR VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL TOXIC WASTE LAW AT INDIAN POINT
Under a green pricing program, Entergy Gulf States customers in Baton Rouge and western Louisiana can choose to pay 2.25 cents per kilowatt hour more to buy green or renewable power.
FPL ENERGY, a subsidiary of FPL Corp., which also owns the large utility Florida Power & Light, announced that it had added 844 MW of wind power to its power generation portfolio during 2001. FPL Energy owns 43 wind farms in 15 states throughout the U.S. One particular wind farm, Cerro Gordo Wind Farm, is located in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa.
FPL has a HORRID Nuclear Safety record.
GE POWER SYSTEMS signed an agreement to purchase the manufacturing capability of Enron Wind Corp., the largest U.S.-based utility-scale wind turbine manufacturer.
http://www.cleanupge.org/gemisdeeds.htmlGE has a lengthy record of criminal, civil, political and ethical transgressions. Here are a few examples:
In 1995 -- with the establishment of a Presidential Advisory Commission -- the full extent of GE's human experiments with nuclear radiation were revealed. General Electric ran the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Richland, Washington as part of America's weapons program; beginning in 1949, General Electric deliberately released radioactive material to see how far downwind the radioactive material would travel. One cloud drifted four hundred miles, all the way down to the California-Oregon border, carrying perhaps thousands of times more radiation than that emitted at Three Mile Island.
In 1986 Congressman Edward Markey held hearings in which he disclosed that the United States and General Electric had conducted experiments on hundreds of United States citizens who became "nuclear calibration devices for experimenters run amok." According to Markey: "Too many of these experiments used human subjects that were captive audiences or populations ...considered 'expendable' ...the elderly, prisoners and hospital patients who might not have retained their full faculties for informed consent. "
One of GE's most gruesome experiments --disclosed in the Markey hearings --was performed on inmates at a prison in Walla Walla, Washington, near Hanford. Starting in 1963, sixty-four prisoners had their scrotums and testes irradiated to determine the effects of radiation on human reproductive organs.
PACIFICORP POWER MARKETING (PPM), affiliated with Pacificorp, a large utility based in Portland, Ore., is playing a major role in building the market for wind in the Northwest. The company is purchasing and marketing power from three wind plants in the West, including the 261-MW Stateline Project, and has said it plans to add substantial wind capacity to its portfolio over the next few years.
http://rogueimc.org/en/2007/01/7821.shtmlPacifiCorp to be sued for polluting KlamathKlamath Riverkeeper , 18.01.2007 13:36
YREKA, CA- Klamath Riverkeeper sent a 60 day notice of intent to file a lawsuit today against Warren Buffett’s PacifiCorp for polluting one of the nation’s most important and controversial salmon rivers, the Klamath. Klamath Riverkeeper’s lawsuit asserts that operation of the Iron Gate Dam hatchery is just one of the ways that PacifiCorp, as the owner of the four Klamath dams, is destroying the River, its salmon runs, and the coastal fishing economies.
SHELL subsidiary Shell WindEnergy, Inc., purchased an 80-MW wind plant near Amarillo, Tex. "We are delighted to have moved so quickly in making a second major investment in the U.S. wind power market," said David Jones, Director of Shell WindEnergy, Inc. "Wind energy is not only the fastest-growing area of power generation worldwide but it is also one of the cleanest sources of energy." Shell WindEnergy also owns a 50-MW wind project in Wyoming, and Shell is developing or operating more than 1,000 MW of wind in the U.S. and Europe.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aFuUrktb3BjM&refer=europeRussia Sues to Halt Shell's $20 Billion Oil Project (Update5)
By Lucian Kim
Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Russia sued to halt Royal Dutch Shell Plc's $20 billion Sakhalin oil and gas project as President Vladimir Putin's government increased pressure to gain control of the development.
The Natural Resources Ministry is citing environmental violations at Sakhalin-2, which will produce the equivalent of a third of China's gas needs. Sakhalin is key to Shell's plans to increase output and take on more projects in Russia, the world's biggest exporter of natural gas and second-largest oil supplier.
TXU, a large utility based in Dallas, Tex., announced in early January that it plans to purchase a 40% equity stake in two wind farms under construction in central Spain. TXU is already one of the largest U.S. purchasers of wind-generated electricity, buying the output of several Texas wind plants. Also has ugly ties to nuclear.
http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2006/10/02/daily5.htmlGroups give TXU 60-day warningTwo environmental groups have sent a letter to TXU telling the company to correct alleged violations of clean air standards related to a proposed coal-fired plant -- or else.
CleanCOALition and Robertson County Our Land Our Lives, say TXU's permit application for the Oak Grove coal-fired plant in Robertson County fails to analyze the impact of the plant's emissions on downwind cities. Some preliminary research has found wind blows nitrogen oxide, or NOx, into the Dallas-Fort Worth area from outside nine area counties.
*TXU is also in the nuclear reactor business.PECOwind, Owned by Exelon-largest owner of failing reactors in America.
Strengthen your organization’s image while doing your part for the environment and your community. Exelon's sales pitch to companies wanting to GREEN their image. 
My morning coffee was interrupted by the ringing of the phone...it turned out to be the reverse 911 system calling to let me know that Entergy's new siren close to my home will be sounding off today somewhere between 9-11:30 AM as Indian Point tries to get its new system to perform correctly. Happy, happy, joy, joy. Being in a generous mood this morning, lets assume that the system actually works. Now, lets assume there is a fast breaking event at the facility, and the alarms are going off in at least 94 percent (The NRC benchmark for pass/fail) of the affected area.
