That’s a phrase used by the Locke Foundation’s Legal and Regulatory Policy Analyst Daren Bakst to describe what happens when wind power plants are operating. Despite the slicing and dicing of 37,000 birds each year according to the National Academy of Sciences, environmentalists continue to push for mandates on the construction and use of wind power plants.
It’s a fascinating subject as we debate energy policy in this country, so be sure to log on to www.carolinajournal.com tomorrow to read the full Q&A with Daren from a recent Carolina Journal Radio interview with me about the problems with wind power.
Here’s a sample of Bakst’s critique from the interview about whether wind power plants reduce the need for other forms of energy:
You have to have a backup. And what they will do is, they might put the natural gas plant on what’s called standby — spinning standby technically — but the problem is, it’s still emitting pollutants while it’s doing that. It may not be producing electricity, but it’s still running, burning fuel, making pollutants. So you’re not accomplishing anything. And really, what wind power does is — it just increases the supply of electricity, but does not replace the need for new conventional coal plants, for nuclear plants, or for anything else.
There’s more data and analysis of wind power in this recent Spotlight report: A Wind Power Primer.
Bakst and JLF Research Intern Geoff Lawrence write about the critical need for low-cost energy in this report.
