■ 22 June 2009 | 5:00 AM
Ground zero in wind energy
Virginia is blessed with offshore wind, which could power as much as 20 percent of the commonwealth. The technology for offshore wind exists today and has proven commercially viable elsewhere in the world. Each wind turbine consists of more than 8,000 parts, which translates to thousands of good-paying, secure jobs.The U.S. holds a majority of the patents involved with solar energy systems. Yet those solar energy parts are primarily produced in Europe, which drives up the costs for systems sold in the U.S. Thus, we don't see solar panels on as many homes and businesses as we should. The 'shot in the arm' investment provided by the American Clean Energy and Security Act would get these systems produced right here, right now.
Meanwhile, of all the places in the U.S., the effects of climate change are felt hardest here in Hampton Roads with billions of dollars of our assets vulnerable to sea level rise and greater storm surges. But from problems come solutions, and Virginia could be a national leader in renewable energy production. Congress must pass the ACES Act, and Rep. Glenn Nye must lead the charge.
Eileen Levandoski
Virginia Beach
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The letter's author is...
a local Dem Party activist. There's nothing wrong with that, nothing at all, but using this issue as a shill to get in a campaign promo for Glen Nye does come off as a tad shallow, to say the least. That said, I think any future for wind and/or solar power lies in direct applications to a home or business, not as part of a power providing grid system, because the systems as they are presently constituted are far more inefficient than other means for generating energy. Perhaps that will change as the technologies mature, but until it does, I have serious reservations that wind can be harnassed on the scale advertised to provide significant power needs.
Wind is right
Wow, has Algore made headway in Tidewater. Making energy with wind power are business and political non-solutions. If you are not selling the stuff, getting subsidies or running for re-election, all you do is pay about eight times the normal rate for power. This is all part of a new religion.
Jim King
How much wind will be
How much wind will be harnessed? Will it be enough to change the weather or other natural patterns? Will it affect nature to the point of contributing to extinctions? We already have few periods of real, refreshing winds coming ashore. That didn't used to be. Climate change? So I shudder to think wind will reach us even less. The hot, steamy, humid dog days aren't fit for humans now. A little breeze this way cometh is the only relief, albeit a paltry one.
Let’s All Sing America’s New, Green, National Anthem...
Solidarity Forever!
Surely the Sierra Club, the Laborers International Union of North America, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Good Jobs First, Change to Win, the Apollo Alliance, the Center for American Progress, the Political Economy Research Institute, the Blue Green Alliance, the Green Jobs for America Campaign, Green for All, the Service Employees International Union, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the DNC & the Obama Administration must have America’s Green Future all mapped out ?
See where we’re going:
PDF document @ http://www.changetowin.org/fileadmin/pdf/greenjobsreport.pdf
or HTML @
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:M7QDKy4LaCsJ:www.changetowin.org/fileadmin/pdf/greenjobsreport.pdf+wind+enegy+translates+to+thousands+of+good-paying,+secure+jobs&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk
Myth of green jobs
How about investing billions of our tax dollars in factories making analog TV's and (sorry) newsprint to boost our economy? No one would advocate those, as rational people would not invest in industry with a very limited lifespan.
Wind energy jobs are dependent on government mandates, subsidies and tax schemes not yet enacted, and likely to be repealed in short order if they are put in place and people see how much they will cost. Betting on those jobs would be short sighted and risky at best.
But even if those subsidies and mandates could be maintained, the highly visible jobs making wind turbine parts would be greatly outnumbered by the less visible jobs lost due to the higher energy costs and resource mis-allocation that would drag down US industry compared to industries in China and India and other nations which will go right on using lower cost energy to out compete us in the global market.
Eileen
Better yet Virginia has Natural gas and Oil right off the coast and should be drilling for it and returning some of the profits to it's citizens in the form of lower prices, but are we doing this? No we are not because some Id--ts like Glenn Nye are buying into Al Gore Boondoggle called Global Warming this is the biggest ponzit money making scam purputrated on the American public, this make what Bernie Madoff did look like an amature. The fraud being sold to the Amierican Public by the so called enviromentilist and Al Gore borders on criminal. No wind power will sufficently power this state much any more of the country. Energy Independancy will only happen if we invest in Nuclear Power plants, Clean coal burning plant and we Drill of our own shores for the reserves we know for a fact that are their and build the refinery plants needed to process the crude oil. Liberals don't even want to consider this because of the Money being funneled into their party by the Enviromentalist movement. Here are the answers like them or not.
more jobs for china?
Each wind turbine consists of more than 8,000 parts, which translates to thousands of good-paying, secure jobs.
Do you have a basis to support your implication that these parts will be manufactured in the US? Imported parts are used throughout industry to keep costs down - what makes you think that windmills would be any different?