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R.I.P., Cape Wind (bostonglobe.com)
schwit1 quotes the Boston Globe: What a long, slow death it has been for Massachusetts's first proposed offshore wind farm. But now, its proponents are finally pulling the plug. While others in the energy industry considered the Cape Wind project dead, developer Jim Gordon didn't quit after losing power contracts he needed for financing in early 2015, or after state regulators yanked permission for a power line connection last year.
Another big blow came later in 2016 when Cape Wind foes worked their magic on Beacon Hill. They successfully lobbied lawmakers to prevent Cape Wind from benefitting from a major energy bill, one that requires utilities to buy large amounts of offshore wind. This was exactly the kind of legislation Gordon needed. But he wasn't being allowed at the party...
We're embarking on a new era. Wind turbines are on their way for deeper waters, south of Martha's Vineyard. They won't be Gordon's. But at least he can take some credit, in his defeat, for being a pioneer.
Another big blow came later in 2016 when Cape Wind foes worked their magic on Beacon Hill. They successfully lobbied lawmakers to prevent Cape Wind from benefitting from a major energy bill, one that requires utilities to buy large amounts of offshore wind. This was exactly the kind of legislation Gordon needed. But he wasn't being allowed at the party...
We're embarking on a new era. Wind turbines are on their way for deeper waters, south of Martha's Vineyard. They won't be Gordon's. But at least he can take some credit, in his defeat, for being a pioneer.
You do realize that glass windows, power lines and cats kill 2 orders of magnitude more birds than wind turbines
When business becomes over intrusive into our lives, who else can you turn to but the government? When business says it's more profitable to lock it's workers into a warehouse with poor ventilation and no fire safety equipment (that costs $$!), who else can you turn to but the government? When business feels they can sell you a product that they know will either kill you or it does nothing at all, and feels it's your problem for buying it, who else can you turn to but government?
Government is what it is because it's been cleaning up Capitalism's messes since we started this country.
For democracy to flourish the people need to make good choices. This is not easy these days. Many good men and women won't touch politics because of how corrosive it is. Many good people can't be bothered to find out the actual truth, but instead fall into these well, false religions, is the best term I can think of.
Can you think of a better term to explain people who say tax cuts will fix everything, you just have to use magic dynamic scoring and it will prove it, then they get the dubious score and it says bullshit, but they ignore it and do it anyway? There are many examples like this where you have a group of people believing crap that just isn't true and is in fact easily disprovable.
As long as people are willing to be fed an IV of mostly bullshit from organizations and web sites like fox news, info wars, hannity, and all the rest, we are pretty much screwed as a country. Our only real defense is reality. We almost end up having to wait until their crap causes enough actual damage and hope it is not too late to fix.
Investing in wind and such makes sense, since we have to get off the fossil fuels if we don't want to kill our planet, but instead of confronting that reality we instead are told it is all lies and a cooked up story by the Chinese.
Hell, right now that child molester in Alabama is probably going to win, because the majority of voters in that state believe for a child molester to lead than a Democrat. This is insane. Even people who try to keep up find it difficult because their is so much noise, much of it created by our own very president to deflect from his incompetence and failure.
If you were at risk from dying by being locked in a warehouse you should, through the magic of capitalism, instantaneously acquire another job at another warehouse which, of course, will be totally safe.
You're just plain wrong. The closest turbines would have been only four miles off the shore of the Cape. Colby did a visibility study https://digitalcommons.colby.e... and found that “41.25% of residential areas will be able to see 90% of at least one tower.”
Michael J.
Root, God, what is difference?
You do realize that you're linking to someone's blog, not an established news source? And that the author literally cites scientists that "poisoning from scavenging carcasses tainted by lead ammunition is likely responsible for many of the [bird] deaths", before wondering why "nobody" is concerned about windmills.
Well, here's the reason: As has been established repeatedly, the number of birds killed by windmills (on the order of half a million a year in the entire US) is completely dwarfed by, say, the number of birds killed by windows (on the order of one billion ), not to mention cars and cats.
That's not to say that people are not concerned with birds killed by wind mills, too. (And bats, porpoises and other animals.) The problem is fortunately entirely manageable by choosing appropriate locations for wind farms and other precautions. In particular, the construction (like all big construction) is a much bigger environmental issue than the actual operation of the windmills. E.g. here's Siemens Wind Power describing a solution to minimize noise pollution for endangered porpoise populations and other marine life during construction of off-shore wind farms.
(Then there's that other growing threat to birds: Climate change. Which is why the Massachusetts Audubon Society supported the Cape Wind project.)
And when all the businesses collude to fuck your ass with a rusty nail, to whom will you turn?
You turn to YOURSELF.. What part of build something better don't you get. If businesses insist on mistreating their customers, even if they collude with all the others providing the goods or services in question, then YOU build a business that DOESN'T and you will win the game and others will be better off for it. Look, building a business may be hard work, but if everybody out there is abusing their customers what's YOUR excuse? You don't want to try?
There isn't a business out there "too big to fail" or "too big to be beaten" if things are as bad as you want to think.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
That would be a Democrat that is in favor of the right to an abortion among a population that sees abortion as murder. This in a state where at the time and place these accused acts of child molestation occurred the age of consent was 14 years of age. It's not "child molestation" if the person is considered old enough to consent.
It's not child molestation if it was technically legal at the time? Seriously, that is your defense? That is our standard for politicians? A senator is not going to change the supreme court decision regardless.
As to the abortion thing. Abortions tend to decrease under democratic administrations. In fact, under Obama I think it was an all time low. No one wants to see abortions, but the same people who vote only on the abortion card are fine with destroying the Obamacare provision that required contraceptive coverage. My own opinion on abortion is any decision as to their legality should probably be decided by women, or if not that then at least 50% women, which yes means getting more women supreme court judges and judges at all levels. They are 50+ percent of the population.
The same people who find destroying the Obamacare mandate a good thing, despite all the negative consequences, say nothing about forcing hospitals to treat emergency cases on their nickel and passing along all those costs.
Either remove the requirement for hospitals to treat if the uninsured if they are particularly sick or require everyone to have insurance. I favor the later, and find it the only reasonable solution.
If you want to ban abortion with a constitutional amendment, save in cases of rape, then that same amendment better include free contraceptives/surgery/etc for all.
In short no decision can be made in isolation without consideration of the consequences. As far the Al Franken thing. Yea I'm dissapointed. I find he is a good senator, but clearly has made some less than stellar choices. Part of that might be him stupidly acting one of his characters at the wrong time, but it doesn't excuse it. Either way, voters should consider all facts the next time his term comes along. Personally I think he should announce he will not run again, at minimum. The two cases, are however, not the same. Al's cases didn't involve 14 year olds, and they weren't of the same scope or magnitude. He also seems to genuinely regret his actions, unlike Mr. Moore who continues to deny everything similar to how Mr. Trump handled a similar situation, and look how voting for him turned out.
You sound like the scam artists that pushed the same crap back a decade ago here in Ontario. It *did* push the cost of electricity though the roof here. The situation here is now so dire that they've mandated by law that they can't cut off power in the winter, for fear of people freezing to death. This, along with what happened in Ontario is gigantic clusterfuck. Nothing more, nothing less and in both cases one would have led to higher energy prices much higher, and in the other case did lead to much higher energy prices. So much so that the government is backtracking because by june of next year it will likely cease to be an actual political party.
Om, nomnomnom...