Take a good look at the map, because where all these lines converge, is where they want to put the windmills. I guess they’ll sure get some wind.
Our supreme leader and king cooper both have declared that we should all subjugate ourselves to the almighty renewable power agenda and have been forcing through untested, unproven and reckless promises. While their feelings say “free energy,” Duke Energy, the monopoly in our great state, has already promised that our electricity bills will rise by nearly 100% over the next few years. Add to that that our beloved coast will soon be inundated with workboats and blinking red lights 24/7 and our coast will go to hell.
A few years ago, I had to make the 34 hour drive to Las Vegas for work reasons. After 18 hours of driving and in the middle of the night, I found myself just outside of Amarillo, Tx. and I couldn’t figure out what all the red blinking lights were. All around me. Thousands of them.
As the sun started to come up, I discovered that it was windmills, literally as far as the eye could see, in every direction. At first I thought how cool is this, 300 foot windmills are all around me! A few weeks later, I realized that these are the same windmills I was seeing in the news that all froze during the cold snap and left thousands of people in Texas and Oklahoma without power, also known as HEAT, since people are being forced to switch to electricity for water and home heating.
Fast Forward to 2023
Last week, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) put the kibosh on Area D and Area F off the northeast coast of North Carolina because of complaints specifically from the military. They were complaining about interference with military training flights and radar activities. We have a lot of military training and activities off the coast of North Carolina. Norfolk just to the north, Cherry Point and Camp Lejune, Myrtle Beach to our south. They depend on our training areas and we as citizens depend on the money they spend doing it. If they don’t do it here, they will do it somewhere else.
We have 2 areas left off the coast of North Carolina (for now), Wilmington East and Wilmington West, both off the end of the Cape Fear River and mostly off the coast of Brunswick County beaches. The Wilmington West site will be a mere 17 miles off of Ocean Isle Beach. Here comes the fun part.
Originally, the politicians told us that these windmills would only be about 300 feet tall, like the ones in the video above. Turns out however, politicians don’t always tell the truth and, these will likely be closer to 800 feet tall. At the 800 foot level, they will be visible nearly 40 miles off the coast. Are you feeling NIMBY yet?
As I mentioned, the military was arguing they the magnetic interference would mess up their radar capabilities. This also translates to messing with the radar capabilities of the airports, Coast Guard, civilian aircraft and marine traffic. This is attributed to the magnetism generated by the cables that are needed to transport the electricity and the windmills themselves. This will pose serious problems for flyers and mariners alike.
And What About The Whales?
New England, New York and New Jersey have been hard at work putting out the windmills offshore of Cape Cod, Long Island and the New Jersey coast. Suddenly, there seem to be a lot of whales washing up on their beaches. The Northern Right Whale birthing grounds are just off our coast in North Carolina down to Florida, their numbers listed as gravely endangered with less than 400 remaining in the world. Biden’s NOAA says it’s because of an increase in boat strikes and entanglements in fishing gear. While entirely possible, it doesn’t seem that there has been a great increase in boat traffic or multitudes of new fishing boats in the last 5 years. What’s has happened is there are a whole lot of new windmills.
And what about the other species of marine life that annually traverse the east coast? Tuna, billfish and the other pelagic species? When the companies, Duke and Orstead, say they will be laying nearly 6000 miles of transmission cable for just Wilmington East and West, how will this affect the magnetism of the oceans which we know affects the whale, dolphin and pelagic migration patterns?
Hurricane Anyone ?
Wilmington, NC is ALWAYS in the top ten for hurricanes within 50 miles. Anyone that has lived here for more than a decade knows that these are not gentle breezes. Having worked in the Gulf of Mexico, I know first hand the damage these storms will do. The blades on these windmills are going to be up to 300 feet long, a football field long, and I can only hope that they will build them designed to sink. Or they will be washing up on our beaches and getting run into by your little 30 foot boat the next time you want to go fishing or cruising.
I am all for renewable energy. When it is proven to be safe, effective and reliable, give me a call and I will support it. Until then, NIMBY.