Jerkass of the Week Award: Senator Lamar Alexander- a true dunce of the highest order
Tennessee Senator (you guessed it, a Republican) Lamar Alexander is a moron. He thinks wind farms “destroy the landscape“.
To a lot of people, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would actually be against renewable energy. It’s a little bit like being against puppies. Yet these opponents exist, and I’m sorry to say some are warming seats in the United States Senate.
Take Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, for example. Sen. Alexander hails from a part of the country that is home to “six of the nation’s 10 largest carbon-dioxide-emitting coal-fired power plants,” according to Tennessean.com. You might think that Alexander is somehow beholden to the coal industry because of this, or that his Martha’s Vineyard property and the debate over the Cape Wind project might influence him, or that the campaign contributions that flow his way from the most carbon-dioxide producing utility in the country are the source of his clean energy antipathy. Not so, says the Senator. He doesn’t like wind power, he claims, for aesthetic reasons. “I think they absolutely destroy the landscape.”
Let’s look at some photos and see how his opinion stands up. First, we’ll start with coal. Here is a picture of a mountain top removal:
There used to be a mountain there, but coal miners have torn the WHOLE THING down to get at the coal. One could make the argument that removing an entire mountain and leaving behind a big scar of a hole could be considered “destroying the landscape.” (Photo credit: OVEC) But with coal our journey doesn’t end here- once it’s ripped out of the ground you’ve got to transport it by train and then burn it up. Here’s a photo of a coal
fueled power plant.
Not very pretty.
Which brings us to a wind farm. Here’s a photo of an industrial wind farm.
You can see a road and a small platform for each turbine. There’s a lot of green grass and trees and I don’t see anything that could be considered a destroyed landscape (by any rational person, Lamar is clearly not). There’s no smoke choking up the air and you don’t have to rip up whole mountains to get at the wind. I took an extensive tour of a wind farm in Wyoming a few years ago and can attest to how peaceful and quiet they are. Only someone who is crazy or in the pocket of the coal industry (or both) could possibly try to run with the argument that wind “destroys the landscape”.
Lamar Alexander, you sir, are a delusional jerkass.
To learn more about Mountaintop Removal mining and the great work being done to fight this stupidly moronic mining practice, head to the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.
Althgough I am a liberal Democrat I have to say that Alexander is right. Unlike most people, Alexander read the Department of energy reports, and found that the wind resources for the Eastern half of the United States are poor. He noted that TVA has a windfarm in Tennessee that was suppose to generate electricity 33% of the time, but basically the opperaters might as well go on vacation for the summer, because the wind does not blow. Alexander has rightly concluded that it is a waste of money to build windmills where the wind does not blow enough to make it worth while. Is he a dunce for thinking so? Not in my book. I call that horse sense.
The coal thing looked kind of cool…
The plant was VERY ugly…
however, the industrial wind farm IS kind of funny looking-I’m not against it, but I don’t want it by MY yard.
What if we do those Dutch mills? Now those are pretty!
P.S. I don’t like puppies OR liberals,(ok, I like puppies a little) and L. Alexander DOES suck. He is a fake republican.
God Bless and uphold the Constitution of the United States of America!!!
Hugs and kisses!
Shea…at least Donna gave an opinion in a mannor worthy of an educated person. Your “bashing” of someone who does not agree with you is pathetic. I will more often than not listen more readily to a polite, well thought out opinion than to an obnoxious, loud and demanding one.