There was a time when it had to be explained to me that Tony Perkins of the AlwaysOn Network had nothing absolutely to do with Tony Perkins, the right-wing crank. (Thank goodness Tony Perkins the actor used his full name, which was Anthony.)
Well, someone is going to have to explain it to me again, because Perkins’ AlwaysOn site is beginning to look awfully right-wing cranky, especially as it relates to The War Against Oil.
Take this piece of nonsense from Ed Ring. He is dissing wind power here, taking a swipe at biofuels along the way. And making absolutely no sense.
The real danger is what I call "big energy," the idea that green energy must come from central sources, out of town, just as oil does. This idea is nonsense. As is the idea that we must restrict our thinking on future green energy projects to 2008 technology.
Ring, who runs an occasionally-sane site called EcoWorld, also seems to have a second agenda, which is to support sprawl. He complains about environmentalists supporting higher-density residential development to preserve green space, so he can then swipe them for endorsing "wind farms" far from town.
When environmentalists won’t say what they’re for, they just become shills for the oil companies, who want all the confusion they can get so they can dominate the future as they did the past.
Ed, wind farms don’t have to be far from town. They can be intown as
well. And an effective wind turbine does not have to cost $15,000, or
stand 45 feet from the ground.
It can, I believe, look more like a
windsock if you like, a small device with light, wide paddles that will
spin in any weather. (This device actually just measures weather conditions, but if it had a propeller on it it could be self-sustaining.)
A single wind turbine doesn’t have to collect all the energy your
home needs, it may just collect a portion, but these devices will
improve with time, as will solar panels. The key is to build some
market demand today.
What we all need to do, I think, is think small. Stop assuming that
energy projects must be big. Remember that winds blow everywhere, that
the Sun shines everywhere, that water flows everywhere. By merely
increasing the efficiency with which we tap these sources, and by
spreading the load across cities and towns, rather than relying on the
countryside (where half of all electricity is lost due to resistance on
the wires) we can start to deal.
