The Volokh Conspiracy – Windmills v. Birds:

The Volokh Conspiracy – Windmills v. Birds::

The irony: Environmentalists are suing wind power generators because their windmills kill birds.

It’s not irony at all — it’s that wind power was given a free ride for years as seen by many as a panacea for our energy problems. In reality, like everything, there’s no free lunch, only a question of tradeoffs and risks, combined with an industry that for years arrogantly ignored the problem of bird kill when it could have and should have been working to mitigate the problem. It didn’t, and now, that little skeleton is coming home to roost. (or more correctly, thousands of little skeletons)

So don’t be surprised at the suits. Wind power has gotten a lot of press as a clean energy source — but reality is it has its dirty aspects, just like everything else. And where there are dirty secrets, there are envronmentalists fighting them. Even when they fight other environmentalists (because, for better or worse, many environmentalists are only interested in their cause, not the tradeoff between various causes….)

It’s like the question “paper? or plastic?” — most people think the answer is obvious, and they know it. Reality isn’t that simple, as I wrote about 25 years ago here…. At a simple level, it’s petro-chemicals vs. renewable resources, but the preparation of the “renewable resource” is very energy intensive, and generates significant water pollution, and also, the paper uses up more landfill space, while studies have shown that nothing renews itself in those tombs….

So, why the feeling of irony? it’s not a surprise to those paying attention…

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