About 20 years ago I was ready to put up a windmill in my back yard to offset power consumption from the grid and thereby reduce my "carbon footprint" (catchy phrase, ain't it?).
Fortunately, I checked beforehand and found out there was a town ordinance that disallowed them on private property. The ordinance is still in place.
I investigated why this was the case.
The State of California taxes electrical consumption. If I generate my own power, it "cheats" the state and, indirectly, the locals out of my regular energy bill payments kicked back from the state. I can't see that our government wants individual self sufficiency, or cares much about energy expenditures/costs, as long as they have control over it and get their tax money percentage, from their cash cow residents.
It gets better.
(ain't net surfing fun?)
California has three major sites for wind farms.
"The Altamont wind resource area is one of three primary regions, the others being Tehachapi and San Gorgonio. Together these three areas account for nearly 95 percent of all commercial wind power generation in California, and approximately 11 percent of the world’s wind-generated electricity. In 2004, wind energy in California produced 4,258 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, about 1.5 percent of the state's total electricity. That's more than enough to light a city the size of San Francisco.
But, the spinning blades kill birds. "As a result of these bird fatalities, controversy developed between wind energy proponents and environmentalists."... " A September 2005 decision by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors passed a plan currently being implemented, to protect birds in the Altamont Pass, requiring that half the turbines be shut down each year in November and December, and the other half shut down in January and February."
Quoted excerpts from:
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Altamont_Pass,_CaliforniaFrom this, do I then believe environmentalists are far more worried about saving bird population than the human race from global warming?
I thought you might like to see one of these farms. They are quite a sight in person, and I've flown over the Altamont farm many times but haven't taken any pictures. Here is the caption for the picture below:
The majority of the San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm as viewed from the San Jacinto Mountains to the south. (The farm continues over the hills to the north along California State Route 62 and is not visible from this vantage point).
Cheers,
