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NRDC Wind Jobs Report Doesn't Make the Grade (250 MW does not create 1,000+ jobs)

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#john-droz">John Droz, Jr.</a> -- September 19, 2012

The carefully-crafted press release by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) presents their new wind-energy jobs report as thorough, objective, and academically sound. Although such an assessment would be very welcome, their “report” is no more than marketing propaganda. Their blatant bias here gives further credence to a piece by Henry Miller of the Hoover Institution, “Bad Faith and Bad Science at the NRDC,” which concluded that “NRDC continues to peddle junk science” for their own financial gain.

Energy specialists ordinarily don’t have the time to critique sales brochures, but here are some quick observations on this material:

1 – There is a strong implication given that a 250 MW wind energy facility creates “1,079 jobs.” That is not true. The vast majority of the jobs cited are for people already employed — e.g.

Wimp Power: Some Quotations from Wind's Critics

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#john-droz">John Droz, Jr.</a> -- June 21, 2012

Energy and environmental issues need to be addressed using logic and scientific thinking, not emotion, wishes, and depiction.  On a realistic basis, industrial wind energy fails to deliver the goods. By this I mean that windpower:

1) Is not a technically sound solution to provide us electricity, or to meaningfully reduce global warming, and

2) Is not an economically viable source of energy on its own, and

3) Is not environmentally responsible

When you take away the wind lobbyists’ fast-talking shenanigans, their con comes down to these two things: They are telling us what we want to hear, and we’re not really verifying the truth of what they’re saying.

The intellectual conjurers have a clever one-two marketing campaign. First we’re told that the planet is facing imminent catastrophe. And then a salesman comes to our community with a solution!

Fighting AGW Religion in North Carolina (sea-level-rise debate gets political)

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#john-droz">John Droz, Jr.</a> -- June 12, 2012

What’s been happening recently in North Carolina (NC) is a microcosm of the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) story: politics versus science, ad-hominems versus journalism, evangelists versus pragmatists, etc.

The contentiousness is over one of the main AGW battlefields: sea-level rise (SLR). North Carolina happens to have a large amount of coastline and has become the U.S. epicenter for this issue.

Background

The brief version is that this began several years ago when a state agency, the Coastal Resources Commission (CRC), selected a 20± member “science panel” to do a scientific assessment of the NC SLR situation through 2100. This could have been a very useful project if there had been balance in the personnel selections, and the panel’s assessment adhered to scientific standards. Regrettably, neither happened and the project soon jumped the rails, landing in the political agenda ditch.…

Wind Spin: Misdirection and Fluff by a Taxpayer-enabled Industry

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#john-droz">John Droz, Jr.</a> -- February 24, 2012

Wind Energy: A Review of Human Health & Safety Concerns

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#john-droz">John Droz, Jr.</a> -- July 6, 2011

North Carolina Onshore Wind Development: Look Before You Leap (Part II)

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#john-droz">John Droz, Jr.</a> -- June 27, 2011

Wind Turbines Offshore North Carolina: Look Before You Dive (Part I)

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#john-droz">John Droz, Jr.</a> -- May 19, 2011

Call for Comments: Proposed U.S. National Clean Energy Standard

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#john-droz">John Droz, Jr.</a> -- April 7, 2011

The Case Against Section 1603 Grants ($5 billion easy pieces)

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#john-droz">John Droz, Jr.</a> -- February 28, 2011

Jane Talks About Wind with a Town Representative (Part II)

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#john-droz">John Droz, Jr.</a> -- December 9, 2010