Oil sands of Canada like Gates and Buffett.

T. BOONIE PICKUMS us trying to 'sell/market' all of us on 'BEANIE-PROPELLERS' and 'PROPANE-TANKS' for automobiles instead of gasoline!!! Like another fraudster named P. T. BARNUM said:"There's a suckah born every minute." WIND POWER, ATOMIC ENERGY, SOLAR POWER, WOOD-CHIP COMBINES - all of these added together, now in the present day, produce no more than 1% of the energy produced by power plants in the UNITED STATES today!!! Add to this the amount of cars/trucks running on gas on our highways - and you will realize that the demise of the gas combustion engine is a long way away!!!

We have heard many suggestions on how to end our energy crisis. Luckily, they haven't recommended using chickencrap. Reading Prof. Yergin's "The Prize" reminds us this country was floating on oil so much so in the past that at one time water cost more than oil in Texas. So far I have not heard any comments on us supplying our oilless allies during World War 2 or the years of The Cold War with even more unlimited consumption of this finite resource. It will get worse because of our trade policies countries such as China and India which once had the greatest numbers of bicycle riders on earth are now car owners competing for petrol further driving up the price.

Not a problem, dcmeserve. It's new to me too. But what got me started checking out the big turbines (300+feet tall with a blade circle diameter as far across as a Boeing 757 is long from nose to tail) is that I came within two days of laying down $500,000 for a home right next door to where 40 of these giants are going to be built. Suddenly I wasn't quite so green any more. Several articles on the net confirmed that close proximity to wind farms can destroy a good property's values, but setbacks for big farms can be as little as 700 feet. I didn't buy the property and came away a bit more cautious about wind farm electricity than I'd been before. Still, darned near anything beats dirty coal and (agore was right about this) corn-based ethanol, which is a disaster. If the wind farms are carefully sited away from people, and if the transmission lines can be built without excessive "taking" by the government and utility companies, then, by all means, let's move forward with wind and keep trying to make it as good as it can be. Thanks for the courteous reply.

Mr. Romm critiquing Mr Pickens is like the pot calling the kettle black. Mr Romm runs his website like a tinpot dictator, no dissenting views, and is a rabid advocate of government directing, intervening and financing his favorite energy policies. Government intervention into and interference in business and economic matters are often based on 'listening to the loudest, 'finger in the wind' or polling results and there have been more failures than success. In the energy field in addition to the exploration, drilling and production restrictions there were, MTBE, mandated gasoline formulations and now ethanol all of which illustrate the 'law of unintended consequences".

It is said that President Reagan once said the most frightening words are "I am from the government and I am here to help you." The industrial might of the United States did not result from government leadership but from the government getting out of the way inventors and entrepreneurs. The industrial might of the United States is slowly but surely being tied down by ill-conceived and unnecessary rules, regulations and mandates as surely as Gulliver was tied-up by the Lilliputins.

and the technology is constantly being improved. I suggest a little more research on the various types of turbines coming on the market, such as those used in Jay Leno's car garage. They are vertical in design, capable of capturing wind in any direction, and silent. Mr. Leno is able to create more electricity by using two turbines than he is able to use.

Any noise created by turbines can be mitigated by improved design specifications.

From your link:

“It makes a terrible ‘air raid’ noise,” said Debbie Behrens, talking about the high-pitched whine made by the turbine. “It’s driving me crazy.”

What’s worse—Debbie and her son Lance both say that the high-pitched hum is now causing physical problems.

“You occasionally have the dizziness,” Lance explained, “The ringing in the ears; I’ve never experienced the ringing in the ears.”

It turns out there is a documented health condition associated with the noise generated by some windmills called “Wind Turbine Syndrome.”

Ah, ok, I can believe this. I apologize -- the way you described it, it seemed a little into the kooky territory, because it looked like it was a "mysterious force" kind of thing, probably blaming electromagnetic waves. But this "Wind Turbine Syndrome" actually seems to be talking about symptoms deriving directly from the noise pollution from the turbines, and probably secondary effects from the stress and anguish.

I know I'm annoyed even by my neighbors air-conditioner fans. A constant "air raid" noise would drive me nuts too.

So you're right -- until they can reliably get rid of the noise, these shouldn't be place anywhere near residential property. And you're also right that that still leaves plenty of space.

I don't know why you would worry about the Republicans not giving another billionaire ten years worth of tax cuts, they are the tax cutters for the rich already.

And, with Nancy Pelosi already being invested in T. Boone's traveling circus show it should fly through Congress like a the car in the pole position at Nascar.

The 95% of the population earning under $250,000 a year have nothing else to do but give more of our tax money to the government for another rich guy to get richer. If he had to pay taxes on the income from (air is) free energy imagine how many old people living in poverty could have one good meal a day. But we can't compare apples and oranges here that would be unamerican.