Windmills are less offensive in Kansas

M otorcycles are for beautiful places -- most of Pennsylvania, Monument Valley, parts of Connecticut, the Overseas Highway to Key West, the Colorado Rockies , the western stretches of old Route 66, the Zion-Bryce Canyon-Capitol Reef-Arches raptures, the Taos-Santa Fe region, the Grand Canyon, Skyline Drive in Virginia, and various parts of ...

[Wear AHelmet]

Why does this dribble still appear in the Morning Call? With all that goes on in the Lehigh Valley this "jounalist" takes up space crapping on Kansas? Why not stick to route 80 and go through Iowa and Nebraska? No wonder I don't subscribe.

[morticia0420]

yhis man really is a dribbler- all over the place I couldn't figure out whether he was complaining about trailering a crotch rocket to a western destination ( too scared to ride it right), or if he was complaining about helmet laws, or complaining about those big beautiful white wind turbines. The blades catch the wind so gracefully, keep time with each other like their movements were choreograghed, all the while they produce much needed energy, reducing our independance on the mid east's whims. Kansas may be flat and boring to many, but it's got quite a neat history for those who read instead of gripe. Also remember where most of your groceries come from; That's Kansas and the rest of the midwest.

[Vinny A]

The fact that you take your pulpit here to denounce renewable energy is offensive. They are not scams. Sure, they are expensive, but hopefully within 20 years there will be windmill or solar panel creating energy for every kW we need. I'd rather deal with some 'hideous nightmares' than all the health and political nightmares that oil, coal and nuclear power have given us.
Usually you make good points. Today, you are sadly mistaken.

[dying america]

This article seems to be sponsored by PPL. Don't step on our rate increase by building your own renewable energy. Your windmill won't work, it's so much easier for us to price gouge you out of your home. Nice try Paul. I'd rather see a windmill on the ridge, or in someones back yard, than see an ugly PPL bill anyday

[Professor Chaos]

Paul:

You're a big man. You're constantly ranting on how you hate this and how you hate that and how you were in charge of nuclear weapons which makes us think you're really special. You're also a "professional journalist".

If you are so disgusted by the Westboro Baptist Church and you had an opportunity, no, more like an OBLIGATION as a PROFESSIONAL JOURNALIST to ask for an interview in order to perhaps ascertain what they REALLY were trying to accomplish through their insanity and just cruised on by.

It's time to hang it up.

[Yeah So]

yawn....

[I miss Zima]

Mr. Carpenter,

Could you please provide proof that wind turbines are a scam? I have been thinking of getting one.

[Smilin Bob]

Oh my word Paul. What an awful article! I too get writer's block occasionally, but then I'm not a "professional journalist". This was truly bad. Did your editor actually approve this for the paper? What point are your trying to make?

[Brian B]

It took me so much effort to read this garbage !
Images of the writers fat a** on a motorcycle made me laugh though !
He gives a plug to the store he bought the motorcycle then rags on Kansas and wind power.
Maybe if HE walked more, he wouldnt be so fat !
A waste of time. This guy should be fired from writing !

[Watchdog]

Good job Paul---Global climate change has nothing to do with Coal,oil or natural gas. America needs to stop marching down the wrong path and step up drilling offshore and quit putting handcuffs on our most prolific energy source---coal and natural gas.

What a hoax Al Gore has brought and Americans follow blindly like sheep. Nothing wrong with alternative energy but not at the expense of less expensive and readily available traditional energy sources.

Wait until you see PPL bills after cap and trade energy proposals currently before congress---not to mention power shortages and outages when the wind dies down!!

[WTF]

"As I drove past the monstrosities, I was doubly glad I was not on the new Yamaha. If I had to ride a motorcycle all the way through Kansas, I'd be tempted to commit suicide by running into a windmill."
Paul,
Please consider riding your new Yamaha all the way through Kansas.

[Get Educated]

Carpenter, you have no clue about renewable energy technology. Wind turbines aren't built to sustain the level of out put of a nuclear facility. You would make my parents sick! Conservation, especially in todays environment is key for our childrens future. If we don't lead the way, who will? By the way, I work for a heavy industrial company who saves almost $6M per year on energy costs per year with wind turbine technology. Less electricity, less coal, less mining, better for environment, etc. Maybe you get a slight picture!

[Mary Jane]

Mr. Carpenter your rambling article reminds me of conversations with my senile grandfather...have you seen a Dr lately?

[vet]

paul, first let me say that you are an idiot.-------the susquehanna steam electric facility has a capacity of 2275 mega watts. one wind turbine has a capacity of 3 mega watts. so you would need almost 800 of them to equal the nuke. but--- there is no radioactive fuel that needs to be guarded from terrorists and no used fuel to store for EVER and 20 of them fit on a plot of land 1/2 mile square. since they only use 1% of that land the rest could still be used for farming and from looking at you , you really like to eat...next time why don't you take some of that used fuel with you in your saddle bags. maybe that church in kansas could store it for us.

[West End Lefty]

Windmills less offensive in Kansas?
So are republicans.

[bkr780]

Windmills are less offensive in any state, than the dribble this guy publishes. How many shares of Exxon does he own anyway? Mcall could save some money and get rid of this dope.

[Al from Allentown]

Mr. Carpenter, I agree with many of your opinions. I agree with your opinion of Kansas. However I do not in any way agree with your opinion on Wind Power. While solar power is not currently viable since ROI in most areas is a longer time than the lifetime of the panels installed, this is not the case for wind.

Wind power is a proven technology. Those claiming it can't provide enough to power the US obviously haven't read the latest tech. Most recently, a study was done which projected how much would be the maximum output of wind energy in the US using current technology. If we took all viable land for wind turbines and installed them, including wind turbines about 50 miles off coast, the result would not only be enough energy for the US, not only enough for the world, but more than 40 TIMES what the entire world currently uses.

Wind is a viable tech.

As for complaints about wind dieing down, first off most wind turbines only needs wind to be a couple mph to generate electricity. Contrary to what you might think, most tend to be most efficient in the LOW double digits, not during 30+mph winds.

Currently it doesn't work as a replacement, but works extremely well as a supplement. That is soon to change though.

Winds use as a primary source of power has been hindered by its uncontrollable variable output. Being able to control the output of a wind turbine however isn't necessary; all that needs be done is controlling the output of the system the wind turbine is plugged into. An adequate storage mechanism would allow for this.

A company named EEStor has developed a new type of battery known as an ultra-capacitor. They've been keeping it tight under wraps, but they've landed contracts with a number of major companies. The specs are extremely promising, with full charge times in minutes, total capacity that is phenomenally huge, size being about half the space of a similar capacity Li Ion battery, weight being a third of an Li Ion, only 0.02% loss of charge over 30 days, no loss of capacity with deep use, and no toxic materials used in production.

We'll have to wait until Fall of this year to see the first production use of their ultra capacitor, but it has the potential to completely change everything.

[Rip VanWinkle]

As usual Paul just recycles his articles. He has 3 or 4 subjects that he writes about and that's about it. Yawwwnnn ... wake me up when he says something remotely interesting or new.

[StaberDearth]

Wind power works were there is wind... duh! Even offshore from the "protected" Kennedy estate built on Prohibition dollars.

http://www.windpowermaps.org/windmaps/states....

Maui has windmills on the SW slope of Haleakala. It provides roughly 12 % of this island's electrical needs. Why are they there? Because there's frikkin' wind and essentially 24/7! Why is it there NOW? Who lives in the area to even see these huge blades a turnin'? A slam dunk if there ever was one!

I'll bet that you did not know...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbmac/3626552238...

[StaberDearth]

West End Lefty wrote:

Windmills less offensive in Kansas?
So are republicans.

Adds ZERO quality to the discussion, idiot!