Renewable Energy Is A Clean Green Criminal Machine
GREEN ENERGY CHRONICLES
John's latest update on graft, corruption and waste in the energy sector.
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Renewable Energy Is An Economic, Political And Environmental Crime
BOTH OF SUNEDISON YIELDCO'S IN TROUBLE
SunEdison yieldco TerraForm Global (GLBL) has 90 days to file its delayed 10-K or be required to immediately repay $810 million in defaulted loans, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Goldman Sachs and other lenders backing the 9.75% senior notes, due in 2022, agreed to reduce TerraForm Global’s commitment to $350 million. TerraForm Global has until June 30 to comply with Nasdaq listing requirements by turning over the late 10-K, the annual financial report that the SEC requires of all publicly traded companies. A number of energy companies have formed publicly traded yieldcos designed to hold assets and provide steady cash flows and certain tax benefits.
Fellow yieldco TerraForm Power (TERP) is also facing Nasdaq threats of delisting. Neither SunEd nor either of its TerraForm yieldcos have turned over their 10-K reports. Parent SunEdison technically defaulted on $725 million in second-lien loans — unless extensions were granted — before declaring bankruptcy earlier this year.
YIELDCO STOCK CHART DELINES
Credit: Mercatus Energy Investment Management
YIELDCO PROBLEMS, SYSTEMIC OR SPEED BUMP?
In some ways, yieldcos were imported from Canada, where a financial vehicle known as the income trust had attracted the attention of U.S. financiers looking for ways to raise cheap capital for renewable energy projects.
Yieldcos took off in the United States in July 2013 when NRG Energy launched NRG Yield to great fanfare, with some analysts suggesting that it would “transform” the market.
Then, about a year ago, a series of events hit the market, tanking yieldco shares across the board. It began with investors concerns about the effect falling oil prices would have on master limited partnerships (MLP) and with the overall decline in stock prices. Those conditions were exacerbated when SunEdison’ announced plans to acquire Vivint Solar using $789 million from TerraForm Power to partially fund the acquisition. The deal collapsed in March, but it scared potential investors.
That raises the question: Is the yieldco model broken?
“The growth model broke because it was unsustainable,” says Tom Konrad, a financial analyst and money manager at AltEnergy Stocks.
LIST OF YIELDCOS
Firstly, we see 4 yieldcos that are only traded in Canada which represent 20% of the overall portfolio by market cap (market cap in USD billions) :
| Company Name | Type | Ticker | Yield | Mkt Cap |
| Northland Power Inc. | Nat. Gas | NPI | 6.75 | 2.04 |
| TransAlta Renewables, Inc. | Wind/Hydro | RNW | 6.72 | 1.81 |
| Innergex Renewable Energy, Inc. | Multiple | INE | 5.78 | 0.83 |
| Capstone Infrastructure Corp. | Multiple | CSE | 9.74 | 0.22 |
Then we have 6 yieldcos that are only traded in the U.K. which can be seen below (market cap in USD billions):
| Type | Ticker | Yield | Mkt Cap | |
| The Renewables Infrastructure Group Ltd. | Wind/Solar | TRIG | 5.95 | 1.04 |
| Greencoat UK Wind Plc | Wind | UKW | 5.48 | 0.82 |
| Bluefield Solar Income Fund Ltd. | Solar | BSIF | 6.73 | 0.45 |
| NextEnergy Solar Fund | Solar | NESF | 5.3 | 0.29 |
| Foresight Solar Fund | Solar | FSFL | 5.94 | 0.45 |
| John Laing Environmental Assets Group Ltd | Multiple | JLEN | 2.74 | 0.37 |
This leaves us with one last company that is traded outside the U.S which is a Spanish company called Saeta Yield and which makes up 3% of the portfolio by market cap:
| Company Name | Type | Ticker | Yield | Mkt Cap |
| Saeta Yield (SPAIN) | Wind/Solar | SAY | 2.77 | 0.83 |
This gives us 10 remaining companies that are all U.S. traded, but that are not all yieldcos. Sunedison (NYSE:SUNE) and FirstSolar (NASDAQ:FSLR) are included in the index. We’ll drop Sunedison because while they were responsible for the creation of Terraform (TERP), they are not a a yieldco. First Solar helped create the most recent solar yieldco IPO, 8point3, so we’ll replace them with 8point3. (Wondering where the name 8point3 came from? It’s the amount of time it takes sunlight to reach the earth; 8.3 seconds). We are then left with the following 8 U.S. traded yieldco stocks:
| Company Name | Type | Ticker | Yield | Mkt Cap |
| TerraForm Power | Solar | TERP | 4.31 | 4.23 |
| Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners LP | Hydro | BEP | 5.73 | 4.15 |
| Abengoa Yield Plc | Multiple | ABY | 6.3 | 2.54 |
| Pattern Energy Group, Inc. | Wind | PEGI | 5.94 | 1.82 |
| NRG Yield, Inc. | Multiple | NYLD | 4.15 | 1.14 |
| NextEra Energy Partners | Wind/Solar | NEP | 2.3 | 0.76 |
| Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure | Multiple | HASI | 5.18 | 0.65 |
| 8point3 | Solar | CAFD | 5.27 | 0.318 |
Source: Nanalyze
Larry Summers 'Really Shitty Deal'
NEW YORK – When solar energy giant SunEdison, together with its spinoff TerraForm Power, acquired wind-turbine powerhouse First Wind Holdings LLC for $2.4 billion in May 2015, the deal was touted as “transformative,” as SunEdison’s stock rose 29 percent and TerraForm gained 27 percent.
But when SunEdison finally declared bankruptcy on April 21, investors were forced to face the sad reality that the company’s cash flows from its various solar and wind-turbine energy projects had proved to be insufficient to cover debt-payment requirements.
Now, the First Wind acquisition that arguably made SunEdison “one of the world’s largest, if not the largest renewable energy developers,” has returned to haunt the renewable energy conglomerate. New York-based investment firm D. E. Shaw & Co. and Chicago-based Madison Dearborn Partners have filed suit against TerraForm Power, seeking $231 million in deferred payments the two investment firms claim they were owed but never paid in the SunEdison acquisition of First Wind.
According to OpenSecrets.org, D. E. Shaw & Company contributed in excess of $5.6 million in 1992-2014, primarily to Democratic Party political candidates.
As noted by Peter Schweizer in his 2011 bestselling book “Throw Them All Out,” David E. Shaw, the firms founder and the largest shareholder in First Wind, was a two-time bundler for President Obama and one of the top three donors to the Democratic Party prior to First Wind receiving $232 million in Obama stimulus funds, including $115 million for a wind-turbine project in Hawaii called Kakuku Wind for which First Wind created a total of 125 jobs.
Shaw served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology under President Clinton in 1994 and President Obama in 2009.
Lawrence Summers, a part owner of First Wind, was a part-time employee of D. E. Shaw from 2006 until 2008, earning approximately $5 million with the New York-based hedge fund, working one day a week for the firm in an advisory capacity, at what Business Insider calculated was a rate of $52,000 per day or $4,333 per hour.
Also see Wind Jammers at the White House
Evidence Of A Renewable Resource Curse (PDF)
This MUST READ paper analyzes the economic and political crimes.
NEWS FROM CANADA
Ontario, Canada Approves Wind Farms In Municipalities That VOTED AGAINST THEM
The Ontario government has betrayed rural municipalities by approving new wind farms in places that have explicitly voted against them, mayors say — including just east of Ottawa.
No Say For Communities regarding Wind Development
Ontario's Wind Energy Plan Ignored Impact On Rural Communities
The Trouble With Statistice Canada's Solar and Wind Energy Data
How Renewable Energy Is Raising Hackles In Ontario
ONTARIO HAS THE MOST EXPENSIVE ELECTRICITY RATES IN NORTH AMERICA
We are subsidizing the wind industry.
4% of our power is from wind energy, yet it costs us 20% of our electrical bill.
Ontario pays 11-13.5 cents per kWh for wind power.
The average price in the U.S. is 7 cents.
The average price for Ontario nuclear, water and gas is 7 cents.
Ontario is the only province/state that charges HST, delivery, and regulatory fees on electricity.
Your rates increase every May and October
(Also increased in November, 2014 to pay for the $1billion loss in October)
ONTARIO CLIMATE PLAN LEAKED: ALL HOME MUST HAVE ELECTRIC HEAT BY 2030
The Globe and Mail claims to have seen a leaked confidential seven billion dollar Ontario master plan, for all new homes to use geothermal or electric heating by 2030, and to provide grants to retrofit older buildings.
Renewable Companies Pay Off Liberal Party
US NEWS
Donald Trump On Energy Policy (MUST READ)
President candidate Donald Trump responded to ten questions submitted by the free-market energy advocacy group, American Energy Alliance (the advocacy arm of the Institute for Energy Research, of which I am founder and CEO). Overall, there is great promise of market-oriented reform, reinforcing Trump’s earlier statements about reigning in the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The questions and answers follow. For proponents of a fuel-neutral, pro-consumer, pro-taxpayer energy and climate policy, there is more to like than dislike below...
“8). Do you support a carbon tax? Do you support the Obama administration’s use of the social cost of carbon in rulemakings?
A. No and No.
9). Do you think federal agencies have abused the cost-benefit process to suit their political agenda? Would your administration end the process of underestimating costs and inflating benefits of agency regulations?
A. Yes and Yes.”
RENEWABLE ENERGY: LIGHTNING, FIRE, LAND USE AND LIABILITY
When Lightning Strikes A Wind Turbine
A team of storm chasers from Tea, South Dakota, spotted a wind turbine damaged by a lightning strike ear Ruthton, Minnesota. The Tea Storm Chasersgave me permission to post the image here.
The only wind farm I can find in the area is relatively old. The Ruthton Wind Farm went online in 2001. It's operated by Xcel, a large utility.
One thing we do know: Lightning strikes on wind turbines happen frequently. A 2007 journal paper on lightning protection for wind turbines reported that lightning damage is the "the single largest cause of unplanned downtime in wind turbines."
Lightning Loves Wind A Little Too Much
Wind turbines seem to attract more than their fair share of lightning damage as compared to buildings and towers of a similar height. This has prompted research into why that might be and how turbines could be better protected. The distinguishing characteristic of a wind turbine as compared to, say, a cellular tower is obviously the giant, whirling blades. So what are the blades doing?
Most of us are familiar with cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning, but the sensors picked up a fairly extraordinary ground-to-cloud-to-ground strike during one storm. For most cloud-to-ground strikes of tall objects, fingers of positive charge called “leaders” often travel upward from the object before reaching a region of negative charge in a cloud. Current then courses downward through the path of that leader, through the object being struck, and into the ground.
In this case, a negative leader reached upward from the turbine and into an area of positive charge about 5 kilometers up. This is the kind of strike that can damage turbines so badly. In this case, however, there were both positive and negative charges interacting in the clouds, and the downward strike lashed out laterally, striking the ground fully 20 to 25 kilometers from the turbine.
Lightning Discharges Produced By Wind Turbines (MUST READ)
Abstract
New observations with a 3-D Lightning Mapping Array and high-speed video are presented and discussed. The first set of observations shows that under certain thunderstorm conditions, wind turbine blades can produce electric discharges at regular intervals of ~3 s in relation to its rotation, over periods of time that range from a few minutes up to hours. This periodic effect has not been observed in static towers indicating that the effect of rotation is playing a critical role. The repeated discharges can occur tens of kilometers away from electrically active thunderstorm areas and may or may not precede a fully developed upward lightning discharge from the turbine.
The frequent upward directed discharges from wind turbines are poorly detected by conventional lightning detection networks and therefore have often been underestimated in risk studies. The capability of mapping upward leaders by the LMA offers a unique opportunity to investigate the frequency of events and the favorable conditions of occurrence. Moreover, the high-speed video record showed a poor screening effect between the developments of upward leaders from wind turbines at close distances. This needs to be considered when studying the initiation of leaders from multiple tall objects on the ground and in the risk assessment of lightning to wind turbines.
Finally, as wind turbines enhance conditions for the triggering of lightning artificially, given a background electric field provided by a thundercloud, it raises the question to what extent this anthropogenic cause influences regional lightning rates.
Fire A Main Cause Of Wind Farm Failure
Wind farming is one of the leading industries in the renewable energy sector. However, the industry faces a number of challenges, such as opposition by wind farm lobbyists. Today’s research suggests that incidents of wind turbines catching fire are a big problem that is not currently being fully reported.
Fire destroys $4 Million Turbine Raises Serious Questions Over Lack Of Reporting Requirements
Why is there no federal requirement for wind farm operators to report fires?
A sensor in the turbine detected the fire. But an employee did not arrive on scene until the next morning, after the fire had burned itself out. The fire department was never notified, nor was any state agency. Had the blaze not occurred in winter with snow on the ground, the fire could have spread to the adjacent forest, a Maine forestry official has stated.
The wind industry claims wind turbine fires are rare. But the facts suggest otherwise. Vestas is not the only manufacturer plagued with fires linked to equipment failures. Hundreds of fires have occurred, and likely more, since there is no reporting requirement in many locations.
Paris, 17th November 2015 – Specialist renewable energy underwriter, GCube Underwriting Ltd. (GCube) has today launched a unique report into wind turbine fires, drawing from its extensive claims data and experience.Towering Inferno is the latest in a series of reports for GCube’s insured and broker community, analysing the root causes, impact and mitigation of wind turbine downtime events.
A track record of incidents – affecting almost every manufacturer and operator – has highlighted the inherent fire risk involved in the operation of modern wind turbines.
Despite the increasing use of fire suppression throughout the industry, turbine fire incidents typically result in the total or near-total loss of a multi-million dollar asset. GCube estimates that a wind turbine fire and its associated downtime will cost a project owner a total of $4.5 million on average.
Concerns about the safety of wind turbines have been fuelled further by recorded incidents of bush fires sparked by burning debris from turbine fires in high-risk locations such as South Australia and California. Similarly, as the number of projects increases in remote, forested regions of North America and Europe, so too does the risk of consequential forest fires.
Iberdrola Wind Farm has 2 Fires In 2 Years
LIVINGSTON CO, IL. (ECWd) –
Last Friday, another turbine caught fire in Livingston County, Illinois. It was close in location to the turbine fire from last summer (here) and part of Iberdrola Renewable’s Streator Cayuga Ridge project
There were high winds at the time, and local fire departments at the scene could do nothing but watch it burn.
Pontiac and Saunemin Fire Departments were on scene.
Study Points To Fire Related Turbine Failures
Reports of fires in wind farms are increasing, the researchers said. However, the true extent of these fires has been hard to assess because official reports about fires are either incomplete, biased or contain non-publically available data.
In an effort to get a clearer picture about the true extent of fires in wind farms, the team carried out an extensive analysis of data from sources including government reports, data from anti-wind farm lobbyists and information gathered by major newspaper investigations. In the future, the team aims to study the impact of fire in other renewable energy technologies such as solar panels.
RECENT SOLAR PLANT FIRES
SunEdison Solar Plant Fire Injures 4
Second Fire at Abengoa Plant in 3 Months
Fire Breaks Out At Topaz Solar Plant
Solar Plant Sets Birds On Fire
(photo of Alberta wildfire)
The BLM manages 20.6 million acres of public lands with wind potential. The BLM has authorized 39 wind energy development projects, including connected-action projects that include electric transmission support authorizations, with a total approved capacity of 5,557 megawatts, enough to supply the power needs of over 1.5 million homes. The BLM has approved wind energy projects in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. The BLM currently has some 29 pending wind energy development applications on the public lands.
Wildfire Liability Non-Economic Damages
Introduction
Many state laws providing for the recovery of damages caused by escaped wildfire were enacted at the time when such fires were quickly extinguished and mostly occurred away from populated areas. In recent years, however, declining public budgets have resulted in decreased funding for firefighting costs, and more Americans have chosen to live in and around forested areas, many of which have become dryer and more flammable.Symptomatic of some of these changes is the United States Department of Justice’s increasingly aggressive use of state law to recover damages when fire escapes from private lands to damage federal property. As members of the Forest Landowners Association will likely recall, July of last summer witnessed the culmination of a high-profile case brought by the Department of Justice against California’s largest private landholder, Sierra Pacific Industries, Inc. (SPI). In that case, the federal government sought to recover damages reportedly approaching $1 billion resulting from the Moonlight Fire that burned 46,000 acres of timber lands in two National Forests. The fire allegedly started on and then escaped from private land (albeit not land owned by SPI) while being harvested by a logger under contract to SPI. SPI and the other defendants settled the case in July of 2012 for $122.5 million, comprised of $55 million in cash (of which SPI is to pay $49 million), plus SPI agreed to transfer to the federal government 22,500 acres of forest land worth an estimated $67.5 million.
Federal Double Standards on Fire Liability
In April of 2013, a U.S. Forest Service prescribed burn fire got out of control and ended up scorching nearly 11,000 acres of public and private lands southwest of Lemmon, South Dakota. One outbuilding was burned, along with fences, hay, and pastures.
UPDATE 1/5/2016: Private landowners and ranchers affected by the blaze filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service last week after their claims for damage compensation were denied. The U.S. Forest Service ruled that the agency was not responsible for damages even though they intentionally set the fire, against recommendations from local ranchers and weather forecasters. Stockgrowers Question Federal Fire Double Standards
Two Oregon Ranchers Sentenced to Jail for Range Fires
The Western Livestock Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1V3Znlr) that an eastern Oregon family with a long history in ranching is fighting to keep its cow/calf operation afloat against an onslaught of blows from the federal government. Two members of the Hammond family have been charged under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 for starting two range fires that ended up on federal land.
One of the fires, set in 2001, was a prescribed burn on Hammond’s private property; a routine range improvement practice. The other fire, set on Hammond’s private property in 2006, was a back-burn intended to protect the ranch’s winter pasture from a lightening fire on adjacent federal land. Combined, the two fires burned about 140 acres of federal land. Now, although two Hammond family members have already done time in federal prison for setting these fires, they are facing a resentencing—now scheduled for late October—that could land them back in prison.
Proposed new wind farms threaten Maine's forests
Citizen groups that oppose large-scale wind power development in Maine reacted strongly Tuesday to news that developers were proposing numerous wind farms in the state that would supply clean energy to southern New England. The groups have been fighting several of the projects individually, but were alarmed at the overall scale of the combined proposals.
“This will turn Maine into a wind plantation,” said Chris O’Neil, a spokesman for Friends of Maine’s Mountains.
The Environmental Cost Of Wind Turbine Manufacturing
The lake of toxic waste at Baotou, China, which as been dumped by the rare earth processing plants in the background
On the outskirts of one of China’s most polluted cities, an old farmer stares despairingly out across an immense lake of bubbling toxic waste covered in black dust. He remembers it as fields of wheat and corn.
Yan Man Jia Hong is a dedicated Communist. At 74, he still believes in his revolutionary heroes, but he despises the young local officials and entrepreneurs who have let this happen.
‘Chairman Mao was a hero and saved us,’ he says. ‘But these people only care about money. They have destroyed our lives.’
Vast fortunes are being amassed here in Inner Mongolia; the region has more than 90 per cent of the world’s legal reserves of rare earth metals, and specifically neodymium, the element needed to make the magnets in the most striking of green energy producers, wind turbines.
Solar Companies Creating Toxic Sludge and Contaminated Water
Nowhere is the waste issue more evident than in California, where landmark regulations approved in the 1970s require industrial plants like solar panel makers to report the amount of hazardous materials they produce, and where they send it. California leads the consumer solar market in the U.S. — which doubled overall both in 2010 and 2011.
The Associated Press compiled a list of 41 solar makers in the state, which included the top companies based on market data, and startups. In response to an AP records request, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control provided data that showed 17 of them reported waste, while the remaining did not.
The same level of federal data does not exist.
The state records show the 17 companies, which had 44 manufacturing facilities in California, produced 46.5 million pounds of sludge and contaminated water from 2007 through the first half of 2011. Roughly 97 percent of it was taken to hazardous waste facilities throughout the state, but more than 1.4 million pounds were transported to nine other states: Arkansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Nevada, Washington, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.
Several solar energy experts said they have not calculated the industry's total waste and were surprised at what the records showed.
Solyndra, the now-defunct solar company that received $535 million in guaranteed federal loans, reported producing about 12.5 million pounds of hazardous waste, much of it carcinogenic cadmium-contaminated water, which was sent to waste facilities from 2007 through mid-2011.
Toxic Waste Casts Cloud On Massachusetts Solar Co.
Evergreen Solar Inc., one of Massachusetts’ rising green energy stars, is on its way to becoming one of the state’s top producers of hazardous waste.
The company generated more than a million pounds of hazardous waste last year, according to a report filed this week with the state Department of Environmental Protection, even though its new $450 million factory in Devens wasn’t operating at full capacity.
NOTE: Both above companies received over a billion dollars in stimulus money. Evergreen Solar received $527 Million in Taxpayer money from Obama plus about $50 Million from the state of Massachusetts ...only to go bankrupt shortly thereafter.
LATEST BANKRUPTCIES IN THE OIL AND GAS SECTOR
Here are some past articles at the Daily Bail that provide more:
May 19, 2016 at 4:59 AM
Reader Comments (20)
http://www.pressherald.com/2016/05/15/big-solar-worked-to-kill-maine-solar-energy-bill/
Note: I was responsible for getting NET Metering established in Maine back during the electricity restructuring (deregulation) proceedings back in 1997-2000. Enron Wind et.al. did their damnedest to try to stop it. Then Gov. Angus King had his sights on making millions himself, used his office to go after the smaller established entities that were RESPONSIBLY involved in the renewables sector, especially wind, and forced them under. It worked and he got into the wind business himself while his son became a VP at First Wind/Sun Edison. This also included a Maine Public Utilities Commissioner who also went to work for First Wind WHEN HE WAS STILL at the MPUC. There is much more to this story but I will leave it at that.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/9/30/the-fantasy-of-100-percent-renewables/
This is a great read (and links) although I disagree with the global warming issue.
As for the fires, what's causing them? Is it lightning? Or is the design of the windmills so poor that the central bearings heat up above the flameout threshold temperature of the exterior paint? God, I wish I had a video of flaming windmill. I'd make "The Propelling Inferno" and thereby create the first film in a new genre, Granola Catastrophe.
Is EVERY green energy business above a certain size plagued or even defined by fraud? Wouldn't surprise me given the track record of our criminally fraudulent central planners...
Nice work, john.
Lightning Discharges Produced By Wind Turbines (MUST READ)
Burning Turbine Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW1bQziKVUQ
I wish I had seen that earlier and put that in the main article…It's one of the best I have seen from a closeup standpoint.
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Cheyenne, as walstreetpro2 used to say, "Google that shit on Youtube."
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wind+turbine+on+fire
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/glbl
The Abengoa Yieldco has changed its name to Atlantica Yield. The ticker symbol, (ABY), remains the same.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/atlantica-yield-reports-first-quarter-2016-financial-results-2016-05-13
Thank you for your in-depth reporting about complex wind companies' financial models now imploding, John! SunEdison's Yieldcos may end up filing for bankruptcy, too, as the link to a story I provide above suggests.
I'm distracted at the moment, but will return later to vent about First Wind 'n fires 'n public subsidies burned by them.
Keep up the great work, John and DB!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECqpbqbT3UA
Two die in this one.
http://www.archipelagofiles.com/2014/03/this-photo-of-two-engineers-hugging.html
http://www.firerescue1.com/fire-attack/articles/1306390-3-wind-turbine-failures-firefighters-must-know/
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As a former fire chief /forest fire warden and having worked in the wind and T&D industry, I agree with the chief. While fire suppression systems are installed in some turbines, they would be ineffective in most cases where high winds are present elevating the fire temperature. Due to the frequency of fires, I would be opposed to locating them in heavily forested regions.
From an economic, legal, production and safety standpoint, problems far outweigh the benefit, (if any), to the public. Therefore, I must stand opposed to wind development.
john
I just learned how to do true 3D in my motion graphics program and might have to make a Hollywood version of a windmill farm fire, complete with huge flaming blades and exploding turbines hurling white-hot metal gears to the parched earth, where they cause farmland to ignite as hapless firemen run for their lives.
"Gusts of Wrath" doesn't really capture the man-made disaster that criminal financial fraud is causing. I need something else....
In any case, the fact that financial fraudsters are using green energy as cover for their schemes, which dupe the tree-hugging masses only to end in disaster and death, is just begging for cinematic treatment.
If you are serious I would be more than happy to be of any assistance. My fee will be somewhat less than Hillary, $0.00 and thank you for making the payment in advance. You should have seen the look on the tellers face when I deposited that one!
Children Win Another Climate Change Legal Case In Mass Supreme Court
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2016/05/19/children-win-another-climate-change-legal-case-in-mass-supreme-court/#37519adc556b
In another surprising victory for children suing the government over climate change, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court last Friday found in favor of four youth plaintiffs against the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
The Court found that the DEP was not complying with its legal obligation to reduce the State’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and ordered the agency to “promulgate regulations that address…greenhouse gas emissions, impose a limit on emissions that may be released…and set limits that decline on an annual basis.”
This case is one of several similar cases in federal district courts in Oregon and Washington, and in the state courts of North Carolina, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Colorado. All of these legal cases are supported by Our Children’s Trust, that seeks the legal right of our youth to a healthy atmosphere and stable climate in the future.
At the heart of this particular case, is the Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA). Signed into law in 2008, this Act created a framework for reducing state GHG emissions by 25% over those of 1990 by 2020, and an 80% reduction by 2050.
DEP has seemed reluctant to comply with the GWSA, and the youths filed this case arguing that the DEP has failed to promulgate the regulations required by Section 3(d) of the GWSA establishing declining annual levels of GHGs. Massachusetts is not on track to meet its 2020 greenhouse gas reduction goal of 25% below 1990 levels – a problem that is directly related to DEP’s failure to issue the required regulations. The plaintiffs are working to ensure that Massachusetts complies with the law and does everything necessary to protect their constitutional and public trust rights to clean air, a healthy atmosphere, and a stable climate system.
Said Julia Olson, Executive Director and Chief Legal Counsel at Our Children’s Trust, “Today, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court called Massachusetts to task and underscored the need to take significant action now, so youth are not unfairly consigned to a disproportionately bleak future.”
NC bill takes aim at wind power and solar energy
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article78468957.html
Green energy advocates are aghast at the latest energy proposal in the state legislature to regulate wind farms and solar farms, a bill they say would turn North Carolina into the nation’s most hostile state for renewables.
The legislation, introduced last week by two Republican state senators, would impose a host of financial hurdles and safety precautions, in some instances stricter than North Carolina’s standards for coal-burning power plants and nuclear power plants.
One of the lawmakers who sponsored Senate Bill 843, Sen. Bill Cook of Beaufort County, said the more renewables projects proliferate, the more they prompt complaints about safety, appearance and adverse effects on property values that must be addressed in a comprehensive fashion.
Cook’s district includes Perquimans and Pasquotank counties, where a Spanish developer is building the Amazon Wind Farm, the state’s first large-scale wind project.
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The wind farm mentioned in the article is an Iberdrola (Abengoa) facility.
http://iberdrolarenewables.us/rel_15.07.14.html
I hope that the leadership in NC have read what I say about this, especially the above re: Iberdrola and what fire officials have experienced with them.
http://dailybail.com/home/crooked-harry-reid-calls-trump-the-worst-candidate-of-all-ti.html
http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2016/05/27/judges-reject-steens-mountain-wind-project/
The Ninth District Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the Oregon Natural Desert Association, and rejected a wind turbine project on Steens Mountain in southeast Oregon.
The 104-megawatt project would have included energy transmission lines that cut across potential sage grouse habitat within the protected Steens Cooperative Project.
Judges rejected the Bureau of Land Management’s earlier approval of the project because the agency didn’t survey habitat to gauge its importance for threatened sage grouse, despite the concern about winter habitat being noted in the government’s environmental impact statement for the project.
The ruling reads:
“Despite this concern, no surveys were conducted to determine if sage grouse are present at the Echanis site during the winter months.”
Each year there are approximately 117 wind turbine fires, a major cause of wind farm failure, according to several reports from 2014. One of the major causes, outside of lightning, is overheated bearings and gearboxes. According to an article in Engineering Design Insider ( EDI), “wind turbines often catch fire and burn much more frequently than is reported.”
The publication cites a study from the UK and Sweden, and researchers at Imperial College London, Edinburgh University and SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, who report that “while an average of 11.7 turbine fires are reported annually, more than 117 fires actually occur worldwide. At present, there are an estimated 200,000 turbines in operation around the world.”
The report notes that a wind turbine fire can be more significant than other types of energy fires such as gas or oil, and gives the example of an Australian wind farm containing 112 turbines. “When one of them caught fire during a heat wave, the entire farm was shut down, cutting power to 63,000 homes,” said the report. “In addition, burning debris from the turbine ignited ground fires that destroyed 80,000 hectares of a national park. The cause of the fire was found to be electrical failure in the nacelle. Lightning strikes are the most common cause of wind turbine fires.”
http://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=b0083b33-b890-4382-abe1-dc89bc9af7c0&subId=349843
http://www.iafss.org/publications/fss/11/983/view/fss_11-983.pdf