Ed. note: This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete MBN for this post can be found here.

Greed Energy Economics:
*** ‘Green’ Energy Doesn’t Save Money, It’s 4 to 6 Times MORE Expensive
*** Total Failure: Britain’s Grand ‘Cheap’ Wind Power Plan Faces Total Collapse
*** RECs: The Hidden Costs of Renewables
Wind turbine makers selling at a loss and in a ‘self-destructive loop’, bosses admit
Ontario’s Industrial Wind Turbines dig Deep into Ratepayer’s & Taxpayer’s Pockets
NY Electricity prices to rise 12 percent this summer, say analysts

Renewable Energy Health and Ecosystem Consequences:
*** Plagued by wind turbine noise in Massachusetts
*** Unintended consequence: Turbines are impacting the health of nearby residents
*** Biologist’s presentation shows deadly impact of wind power on eagles

Renewables (General):
*** China and Russia rejoice at America’s quest to go green
*** Real Threats to Biodiversity and Humanity
Despicable for Biden to put green agenda ahead of American families’ economies
Renewable Energy, Open Space, and Agriculture – New York Can’t Have it All

Wind Energy — Offshore:
*** US Offshore Wind Jobs are Highly Exaggerated
Long Island (NY) Residents Sue to Stop Offshore Wind Cable
Danish Wind Giant Tries Solution for Cable Problem Affecting Offshore Turbines
Residents Protest Lake Erie Wind Energy Project

Wind Energy — Other:
*** Hundreds show up in opposition of proposed Nebraska wind project
*** Wind project opponents celebrate Ohio commissioners’ vote
Kansas Commissioners take steps to protect county as wind energy topic heats up
Middleburgh NY Residents Against Industrial Wind Turbines
Shasta County CA close to a complete ban on all large wind energy projects

Nuclear Energy:
*** I’m committed to the effort to keep California’s Nuclear facility open.…

Saturday (tomorrow), May 14, 2022, is World Migratory Bird Day 2022. The environmental group behind the campaign states:

Light pollution can adversely affect migratory birds on:
🔴 Behavior
🔴 Activity levels
🔴 Energy expenditure
🔴 Orientation when flying at night
🔴 Migration timing & routes

The theme this year is Dim the Lights:

Artificial light is increasing globally by at least 2 per cent per year and it is known to adversely affect many bird species. Light pollution is a significant threat to migratory birds, causing disorientation when they fly at night, leading to collisions with buildings, perturbing their internal clocks, or interfering with their ability to undertake long-distance migrations.  

Solutions to light pollution are readily available. For instance, more and more cities in the world are taking measures to dim building lights during migration phases in spring and autumn.

“Krista Kester of rural [Nebraska] said the noise, visual blight and lower land values she expects with proposed wind farm would be devastating to the countryside where her family built a house about 20 years ago. ‘I spend virtually all my time when the weather is permitting outside, I mean I’m an outside gal, that’s just what I am and the notion of that being gone was, you know, really disturbing.’”

– Quoted in Dan Swanson, “Opposition Rising Against Gigantic Windmill Turbines,” News Channel Nebraska, April 26, 2022.

It’s a quintessential American Midwest town that, among other things, hosts Food With Friends events. The last thing the neighbors want is politics necessitated by a government-enabled project that negatively affects their economics and even health.

A four-hour meeting this April 20 by the Fulton Township Board (Michigan) deliberated on issuing a special land use permit application to Heartland Farms Wind Project, consisting of 84 sites and 72 turbines in Fulton, Washington, Newark, New Haven, North Shade and North Star Townships.…

“ESI further acknowledged that at least 150 bald and golden eagles have died in total since 2012, across 50 of its 154 wind energy facilities. 136 of those deaths have been affirmatively determined to be attributable to the eagle being struck by a wind turbine blade.” (Justice Department, April 5, 2022)

For decades, the American Wind Energy Association (now part of the American Clean Power Association) has dismissed the “avian mortality problem” as little different than everyday deaths of birds from cats and windows. The Sierra Club echoes this argument in ground-zero wind growth states such as Michigan.

There are two problems with this argument. First, millions of deaths annually from wind blades is that amount too many given that wind power is uneconomic and unnecessary. Taxpayers and birds can be spared with a gain in resource efficiency.…