If Not Windmills, Then What?
I just finished reading your article on LEEDCo and the Lake Erie wind project ["Tilting at Windmills," June 15, 2011]. Naturally, I was a little dismayed by the "pin-cushion" image you portrayed, because that will never happen and it leaves a bad image in anyone's mind. There will be a spatial planning process that will look at how more turbines than a few affect the entire lake. However, I was impressed with your accuracy and the balance of ideas.
My question to you and everyone else is: If we don't have nuclear energy, abandon coal, and go slow on fracking, where does everyone think they are going to get their electricity? We need to coalesce around something, and it is doubtful that the U.S. Government will figure out a plan like it used to. So why not ask your readers what we are going to do when the mercury poisons our fish, the fracking poisons our ground water, we invade another oil country, and the lights go out because China has all our cash.
Lorry Wagner
President, Lake Erie
Energy Development Corporation
The Smell of Boondoggle
If the IPO for an internet radio service (Pandora) can raise hundreds of millions of dollars when the company has never made a dime of profit, how come windmills do not attract billions in private investment dollars and management talent? Is anyone worried that windmills are another giant boondoggle, like ethanol and other great government ideas? Smells fishy to me. You know, the transcontinental railroad had private investors.
Skeptic
Raising Jerks
Schools should impose long suspensions or expulsion for bullies ["Judge Throws Out Mentor Schools Suicide Suit," at the Scene & Heard blog]. Maybe that would prompt parents to actually teach their children that this kind of behavior is not acceptable. Shame on those parents already for not teaching them these fundamentals at a young age. It is not the teachers' job to parent your asshole children, but it should be the teachers' right to remove any student they see fit.
Outraged Parent
