Quote:
Originally Posted by Cellarman  Since wind generators take more resources to manufacture than they will ever save in their useless lives, this is a spurious attitude by the RSPB, who seem to be more interested in selling their "green" power. |
Not so.
If this claim was true, you would expect the RSPB to avoid objecting to Scottish Power's proposals and oppose every other company. RSPB Energy is a deal with Scottish Power (unless it has changed recently) to produce cheaper energy for anyone signing up (see the RSPB website for more details). Charity Commission rules state that the RSPB cannot act against its mission statement when brokering this deal. Despite this, anti-wind energy groups are deliberately trying to muddy the waters by using carefully worded statements to suggest the RSPB has a vested interest.
As mentioned elsewhere on this thread, there are better options than wind turbines such as (some) tidal energy options and solar-voltaic cells. However, the former is controversial because some designs could be potentially damaging to the local environment and the latter is impossibly expensive at the moment. Here lies the problem because there are few (if not, no) alternative green power (
note: this is different from Green Energy with capitals) options with adequately funded research underway so the near future prsopects are far from ideal. So we are back to wind power...
...is it really such a surpise that there is no definitive rule that says all wind farms are bad or alternatively, that all wind farms are good? The latest announcement simply reiterates this point and posits the fact that the pendulum has swung to far in favour of long consultation when in some cases, it is not necessary.
Cellarman - I think it is important to state what you mean with a comment such as
"selling their "green" power." The similarity between "green" power in your sentence and RSPB Green Energy is being deliberately exploited by some people to suggest a vested interest. The word "selling" is also inappropriate because the RSPB (and others) are not selling anything when they are trying to educate on the need for us all to move away from our reliance on fossil fuels.