Not a T-bone Pickens fan, I am sure he thinks he can profit from it. Wind, Solar, Tidal can all be used to stop increasing of use of fossil fuel. I would keep turbines well away from migratory bird corridors. I do have fond memories of seeing huge flocks of geese and ducks along the Mississippi Fly Way in the fall. I think T-Bone's corridor is well west of the Missouri Fly Way, let him build it with his own money. We do need to devise ways to keep birds away.
His plan would benefit Gas Companies by creating high demand for natural gas at greater cost to the consumer (heating their homes).. T-Bone does not accept Global Warming though, although he does point out the other reasons why we should use renewable sources. Erik T. Boone Pickens, as mentioned, is heavily promoting large scale wind
farms in the Midwest. The biggest two problems that wind energy has is unreliability and the amount of area required.
Four nuclear reactors like those of Comanche Peak in Texas would use 4,000 acres to produce the same amount of energy as wind turbines occupying 456 square miles, six time the size of the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. To produce as much energy as one modern coal fired power plant would require a wind farm the size of Los Angeles according to Scott Tinker, head of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas. Wind turbines would have to be supplemented with natural gas turbines to cover downtime and low wind conditions.
T. Boone Pickens understands these realities but thinks that much of the Midwest cropland could be utilized for dual purpose crops and wind turbines. Many farmers who have agreed to wind turbines on their property complain about the noise and the unsightliness of the wind turbines. I personally think they look cool but I am not sure I would feel that way if they littered the landscape.
Are we willing to fill a large portion of the country with wind turbines or should aggressively star building nuclear power plants as France has?
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