We can’t drill there, but we can line the shore with wind farms?
Offshore wind farms may line U.S. coast
8 Comments to “Offshore wind farms may line U.S. coast”
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Yes, understand the difference between sustainable and unsustainable energy? We need to be putting our momentum towards wind power and the like.
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No doubt. My point was the people of Florida, the state where I grew up has complained, for one, about all those oil derricks off the coast hindering the view=tourism. How are wind farms different?
I take a free market view of energy production, but I’m not against solar (I’ve depended on it in the past), wind or anything else.
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Well it’s different because a wind turbine is a fraction of the size of an oil derrick. Not to mention their record of never having a major oil spill or not having environmental pollutants being spread far and wide because of a turning blade.
Anyone that complains about that is just complaining to complain. We need to get away from the idea of having our cake and eating it too. Everything is a trade off. In this case it’s either oil derricks or wind turbines. If they don’t like what they’ve got then this is an alternative. Or i guess Florida can just have neither and pay 5 times as much for their energy. Their choice I guess.
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I don’t know about anybody else, but if I were given the choice between seeing an oil derrick and a wind turbine, I’d choose the wind turbine. I think the only other alternative (I read an article about it once) is solar, there was a guy who covered his house (which looked normal) in solar panels, and it gave him enough power to do all the normal things we use electricity for. But I guess that only works in areas with enough sunlight.
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If you “line the coasts” with wind mills or oil derricks, I don’t see much difference. They’re both big and ugly.
Either way, both derricks and wind mills are designed to be “barely visible.”
Robert, when was the last time you heard about a spill from a derrick?
And wind mills kill bats and birds. Not exactly environmentally friendly.
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wind is forever, oil will be gone someday. thats the point behind it. and if you ever have the chance to drive through the yucca valley in california past the fields of wind mills, you’ll change your mind about them. the sight is really something. much more ascetically pleasing than an oil derrick.
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I have. There’s quite a large farm off I-39 in Illinois.
Aesthetically pleasing is quite subjective.
Birds and bats probably don’t care for them much.
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One of the differences with offshore wind is that the further from the shore a wind turbine is located, the bird/bat issue disappears, since they don’t really have anything for them out there, (10+ miles). To me the real factor that needs to drive offshore wind is sconomic. If it makes sense, then let’s do it.
