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This article on a new Iowa wind farm explains a lot about wind farms being esseentially not worth it, unless government puts up huge tax breaks.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/e...edits-than
(Bold added by me)
Warren Buffett has admitted as much. In 2014 he explained: “I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire's tax rate [. . .] We get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit.”
and...
"
In other words, government policy is doing everything in its power to set the stage for wind. Those investing in wind stand to reap guaranteed profits, while taxpayers and ratepayers have to pay more in the end. In terms of tax dollars, the production tax credit for wind is estimated to cost taxpayers $13.8 billion between 2014 and 2018. Energy mandates, meanwhile, will drive up electricity prices as traditional energy sources are phased out for costlier power provided by wind and solar."
In other words, wind and solar is too expensive to build and operate without massive tax incentives - which means your tax money.
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Besides, they are ugly as sin!
Aren't we closer to making wave technology work for us anyway?
http://westhawaiitoday.com/news/local-ne...y-s-future
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Aren't we closer to making wave technology work for us anyway?
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Yes, but the same issue with costs. It cannot stand on its own. It ends up costing us consumers more to buy the electricity, and producers of goods also pay more which drives up all costs.
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In other words, wind and solar is too expensive to build and operate without massive tax incentives - which means your tax money.
The Iraq War, fought with my tax dollars for oil (yes Saddam Hussein was a bad, bad man, but a bad man with lots of oil) has cost us $2 trillion dollars so far. Wind and solar power can free this county from dependence on Middle East dictators, and any subsidy costs a lot less than another war. I would rather see subsidized wind towers and solar panels around the Big Island than chimneys and smoke.
When, not if, the price of oil doubles and triples, wind and solar power will look cheap in comparison, and it will be up and running.
No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind. -Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (1547-1616)
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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I would rather see subsidized wind towers and solar panels around the Big Island than chimneys and smoke.
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I would rather see a couple more small geothermal plants than wind turbines ruining the views, plus solar doesn't wok at night. Drop our electric costs and go with electric vehicles. We ARE on an island. How far can we really drive?
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I would rather see a couple more small geothermal plants than wind turbines
Geothermal is good too. Oil is a 19th century power source.
If you'd like to see how each advancement in technology brings down the cost of light (and by extension energy) take a look at page 11 of this PDF. 50,000 years ago it required hours of human effort to produce one hour of light. Today it's seconds:
http://www.nber.org/chapters/c6064.pdf
No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind. -Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (1547-1616)
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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When, not if, the price of oil doubles and triples
The solution is not to subsidize non-oil sources, but to heavily tax oil so that its "price" reflects the true "cost" -- we're already paying huge subsidies for oil, but it's all accounted for elsewhere, so we can't see how much it really costs.
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Oil companies profit about 8 cents per gallon of gas, Hawaii state plus federal gas tax "profit" is over 60 cents per gallon.
The federal tax portion is about 18 cents/gallon. The USA lost 2.2 billion dollars in "green energy" loans that went bad just since Obama. So it took the taxes on 12,222,222,222.2 gallons of gas just to pay for defunct green energy loans that never replaced a single gallon of gas.
Where is the "oil subsidy"? Really seems the other way around.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015...taxpayers/
ETA: grammar
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IMO, they are ugly and kill birds.. and Hawaii is big on saving native birds. Ive never read anything just heard from others this is some of the reason...
here is a link to the info on the windfarm near southpoint. its restored and back up now.. was all bust up and not working a few years back...
http://hawaii-kau.com/catalog/products.p..._Wind_Farm
ps. bird protection.... going so far as to kill night football on Kauai because of birds and the field lights..
ie
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/39799282/ns/us...all-kauai/
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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha
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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha
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Where is the "oil subsidy"?
Military occupation of countries in oil-producing regions. Huge tax breaks for the oil companies. Cheap land leases. Zero recapture of the externalized costs (pollution, global warming).
