Defense Dept. Continues to Stall Wind Power Projects

[jpak]

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3622

Sept. 1 – Environmentalists and alternative-energy advocates say the US Department of Defense is stymieing the development of wind-energy projects after failing to meet a second deadline regarding the impact of wind farms on military radar.

The environmental group Sierra Club, which filed a lawsuit in June to compel the agency to finish a study on wind farms and radar, accused the Department of "foot-dragging" and "paralyzing" clean-energy development.

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The Defense Department first missed a May 8 deadline to deliver an assessment to Congress on whether winds farms obstruct nearby military radar installations, and to determine technologies to mitigate any adverse effects on military operations. Groups say wind farms at military bases at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba and Ascension Island in the South Atlantic are examples that the government is already finding solutions to reduce or eliminate the impact of wind turbines on military radar.
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The study was required in a last minute amendment that US Senator John Warner (R-Virginia) attached to a 2006 defense appropriations bill. Critics say the missed deadlines and the delays in approving wind-farm projects threaten to disqualify some developers from a clean energy federal tax credit that expires at the end of 2007.

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(the bold text is my edit)

[spindrifter]

1. Tilting at windmills?

I'd love to see this illustrated as Rummy with a little tiny sword trying to take a stab at a windmill.

[muesa]

2. Interesting DOD Environmental Project

A diesel-electric (could be bio-diesel) hybrid version of the Hummer where the exhaust gas runs a fuel cell to power the on-board computers and radios.

Remember - in a Prius, a gasoline engine (and regenerative braking) drive the generator. In this Hummer DHEV prototype a diesel (or bio-diesel) and regenerative braking drive the generator.

And the heat and unburned hydrocarbons in the exhaust drive a supplemental fuel cell.

The Marines (they are funding) are not joining the Sierra Club - they are just trying to reduce their dependence on tank truck caravans.

[silverweb]

3. So?

What's that got to do with the subject at hand -- the DOD deliberately stalling to block civilian wind energy projects?

:shrug:

[muesa]

4. So!

Bobbie Kennedy Jr. is deliberately blocking a major wind power project. The coal and electric power industries are "contributing" to environmental groups to "protect" bird migration flyways --- coal and electric power industries. :shrug:

Besides - this USMC funded work at Ford is "seed money" for biodiesel hybrids. Now if we could just get seed money for plug in biodiesel hybrids.

[skids]

5. Biodiesel hybrids don't need seed money.

Several companies already make them.

[silverweb]

6. So, you're jumping all over the place.

The subject is the DOD interfering with wind power development. Everything else you've mentioned may be related to alternative energy, but does not in any way address the issue being discussed.

Just sayin'... it makes a lot more sense to discuss one issue at a time, ya know?