Sep 23 2008
Another Unintended Consequence of Going Green
By: Greg Henss
The Ski Area at Snowmass, Colorado, has decided that it wants to do its part and try to go “Green”, and reduce Global Warming by installing wind turbines on top of the mountain to generate electricity for the Ski area operations. But as it turns out, it may have an ‘unintended consequence’ as they may be a hazard for bats.
Wind generator turbines are required to have identifying lights on them for aircraft to see at night, when the turbines get up above a certain height. Being that the turbines will be on top of the mountain, and are 200 feet tall, these qualify for navigation lighting. That now makes it a problem for the bats in the area since the lights will likely attract insects which will in turn attract bats. With a concentration of insects, there is likely to be a concentration of bats which could then be ‘batted’ out of the sky by the spinning blades of the turbine.
The Aspen Skiing Company and the Forest Service are considering placing three tall wind turbines atop the ski mountain in a effort to generate electricity and reduce the “carbon footprint” of the ski area operation. Aspen Skiing Company figures that by placing three turbines into their system they can reduce their electrical draw by two-thirds. But in so doing, the blades of the three turbines may become deadly for the bats if navigation lights are required on the turbines.
The Forest Service first became aware of the potential problem during a preliminary study of the potential environmental and visual effects that the towers may create. Such impacts will need to be more fully investigated and studied before the project can move forward. Results of the environmental impact reports will also need to be reviewed by the federal government.
Another hurdle that must be overcome is wind speeds will need to be studied to determine the viability of using wind turbines. In an effort to conduct that study, the Forest Service and Ski Company have decided to place a temporary wind turbine tower to test the wind speed, since a temporary tower does not need approvals and studies because of its ‘temporary’ nature. However, during their effort to hoist the tower into place, the tower fell to the ground as it was being winched up, damaging the tower. They hope to have the tower in place in the next week or so.
Officials are also concerned about possible opposition from people who object to the visual impact of the 200 foot tall towers atop their mountain. But the same officials discounted the potential for opposition stating that, “I think that five years ago you wouldn’t have been able to suggest this project. But I think today people understand the scale of climate change”, according to Jim Stark, winter recreation supervisor for the White River National Forest.
This is one of the consequences that I predicted when I warned how liberals will continue to promote propaganda and false science to further their agenda. The more people hear the flawed arguments, the more they begin to accept them, and allow costly attempts at mitigation of the purported problem. It is a slippery slope we are on as liberals begin to get their agendas accepted with incremental advances. It doesn’t matter how outlandish the claim, if they repeat it enough times, they begin to garner favor.
Don’t get me wrong. I am in favor of doing what we can do that is within reason to limit our use of fossil fuels and reduce our impact on the earth. But each and every attempt at that mitigation comes with a cost. In this case, we may have to loose a few hundred bats and we’ll have to put up with the visual of the towers on top of a picturesque mountain in Colorado. Environmentalists used to complain about electrical transmission towers, poles and lines calling them visual polution. How is a spinning wind turbine not visual pollution?
What is more, if three turbines will eliminate two-thirds of their electrical energy use, why stop there? Why not put in five, or ten towers? Once you have a few unsightly towers up there, people will get used to them and won’t mind a bunch more. I mean you should see our desert around the Palm Springs area in Southern California. There are so many wind mills that you can hardly see the desert any more. It’s just incredible.
Get more information on Global Warming at GlobalWarmingFactFinder.com
I’ve seen all of those wind machines in the desert and they look terrible. Now they want to put them in the Mountains where I like to ski? I go there to enjoy the scenery and see nature as it was intended, not see a bunch of wind fans spinning instead of trees. What’s next?