Are Wind Turbines Causing Birth Defects in Portuguese Horses? Er, No, But Does That Matter?

Here’s an article from NPR that provides a partial explanation for the slow adoption of wind energy in the U.S.: misinformation.

Americans seem to have a voracious appetite for BS, regardless of the subject matter, and that hunger is amplified even further when it comes to clean energy and other climate change mitigation strategies.

Donald Trump famously claimed that wind turbines cause cancer, and he appears to be ready to launch into an attack even when it’s a total non sequitur, as we saw when he was asked about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, specifically, how he thought it would end.

To the utter shock of the world, he replied:

“Well, and I said this a long time ago, we are playing right into their hands with the green energy. The windmills. They don’t work. They’re too expensive. They kill all the birds. They ruin your landscapes. Yet, the environmentalists love the windmills. I’ve been preaching this for years. The windmills. I had them way down. The windmills are the most expensive energy you can have, and they don’t work. They last a period of 10 years and by the time they start rusting and rotting all over the place nobody ever takes them down. They just go onto the next piece of prairie or land and destroy that. It’s incredible.”

Having said all this, only a small amount of the baloney that is floating around comes out of the mouth of the former U.S. president.  I highly recommend the NPR piece linked above; it’s very nicely researched.