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Wind power runs into resistance

Please Promote clean renuable E | 1:24 a.m. Sept. 14, 2008

Utah should pass a law that electricity produced via fossel fuel should be taxed at 1% to help fund renueable electricity. This will help our air, help us become more energy independent by freeing natural gas and coal to be used for transportation.

Anonymous | 5:40 a.m. Sept. 14, 2008

If you are going to tax fossil fuel, it should be taxed at the consumer level so people can see the impact instead of burying in the rates which makes the charge invisible.

Phred | 7:32 a.m. Sept. 14, 2008

A tax for services not provided is nothing more than theft on the part of those who want my money for their pet project.

The right way to do it is through voluntary programs like RMPs Blue Sky program. If I want to participate in the additional cost of expensive power generation I am free to do so. But it is my choice, not yours!!

By the way, if you do sign up, expect your power bill to be higher by 21% every month.

Comments continue below

geedub | 8:32 a.m. Sept. 14, 2008

Wind and solar will NOT work for the vast majority of cities and are weak and unreliable at best. The only way to get rid of fossil fuels is through nuclear power. Windmills on top of peoples' houses are not the answer.

geewhiz | 9:57 a.m. Sept. 14, 2008

geedub; if it pays the bills for the customer, isn't it the answer for THAT person? Why would you reject allowing people that option?

geedub to geewhiz | 11:21 a.m. Sept. 14, 2008

I agree with you. I should be able to put up anything, within reason, that will make my meter run backward. The Reagan Administration had that policy in the 80's. They required the public utilities to buy electricity from any and all generators. I'm in favor of that. I'm in favor of tax BREAKS for people and companies who install generators. I'm not in favor of putting an additional tax burden on people who can't afford to put up a generator or have no place to install one. In the long run Nuks are the answer.

Dale | 2:12 p.m. Sept. 14, 2008

I recently travelled through Wyoming and observed that there were windmills on every ridge. Every couple of miles I passed a semi pulling another windmill - they are putting them up as fast as possible. It really bothers me that Utah seems to be doing nothing about the energy crises! We should be at for front of it paving the way!

re Phred | 7:32 a.m. | 2:47 p.m. Sept. 14, 2008

"A tax for services not provided is nothing more than theft on the part of those who want my money for their pet project".

Since when is energy independence and a clean healthy environment a "pet project" and since when are taxes theft?

Unless you like having to play world policeman, which will be necessary so long as we are reliant on oil in other countries, we need to become more self reliant. I don't like seeing our young recruited by the military to die and get maimed in wars we could avoid and should have never gotten into in the first place.

I also would like to live to 110 and feel healthy and vigorous. A clean environment would go a long way to making this possible. Its hard for the body to stay healthy when it breaths in polluted air.

re geedub | 8:32 a.m. | 2:58 p.m. Sept. 14, 2008

I too am pro nuclear, however you are wrong about wind. Wind doesn't have to blow at all times for it to be useful. Every bit of wind power is a bit of power we don't have to use from non renueable and dirty sources. This saves our natural resources and cleans up the environment.

I'd really like to see the US make much more use of solar too, now that its getting much less expensive also geothermal. We could do it in Yellowstone if we would in an ecological way if we tried, and get the power of 30 very large power plants I read, 60 billion watts.

wYo8 | 6:28 p.m. Sept. 14, 2008

Re Dale

They are the ugliest things in the world. until California is willing to put them or oil rigs along their presious coast i would put a stop to them in a heart beat. Ever want to see a soar eye drive through the Tahatapee pass between Barstow and Bakersfield, Ca (highway 58). Having grown up in Utah County I drove up Spanish Fork Canyon recently and was apaulled by the site.

Richard Drake | 6:45 p.m. Sept. 14, 2008

The "energy crisis" is completely bogus. In Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" claiming that man is creating global warming by using fossil fuels is an absolute lie. There are 9 faulty assumptions in his so-called man-made global warming.

We need to be using coal, oil, and gasoline, as well as other alternatives. As is well known by those who want to know we can build coal fired power plants that are cleaner than ever before. We are committing national suicide to do otherwise. The sierra club and all their cronies don't belong on any energy committees. Their arrogance, faulty assumptions, and faulty religion is beyond the pale. Our governor needs to recognize this, as well as good people everywhere.

Thinkin' Man | 7:53 p.m. Sept. 14, 2008

I think wind turbines are ugly, distracting, and disruptive. They should only be located where the view isn't good to begin with, and never near homes.

RedShirt | 8:51 p.m. Sept. 14, 2008

To "Please Promote clean renuable E | 1:24 a.m." isn't taxing fuel buring plants and giving that money to the wind/solar power generator companies like Corporate Welfare? Isn't that what so many people complain and claim is being done to benefit the oil companies? Why is it that if it benefits the company that the environmentalists like it is ok, but if it is for a company they don't like it isn't ok.

Also, since wind is not constant and we don't have the technology to store the energy, what do we do when the power output levels drop due to lower wind speeds? Another problem with wind/solar power is that you have to have a nuclear/gas/coal plant fired up to make up for any generating loss by the wind/solar plant. In otherwords, to save fuel, you have to burn nearly the same amount.

Spoc | 10:01 p.m. Sept. 14, 2008

I think the tax Phred is talking about is the practice of confiscating funds from one group as a disincentive and using the funds for some competing purpose. A tax reduction for the project you want to promote at least does not single out the competition for a penalty.

Your best solution is for government to get out of the way and let market forces drive change. Then the guy with the better mouse trap will have a chance. We would be awash in capital resources if we were ï¿½home cookingï¿½ instead of ï¿½dining outï¿½ all the time. By the way, the Saudis are not our biggest suppliers. Canada is. And where are they getting most of it from? Mining tar sands, not pumping. Just like we should be getting it from oil shale or from liquefying our huge reserves of coal. We also have vast reserves of methane hydrate under both coasts and in the arctic tundra but we have to be allowed to go after it. But Congress won't allow it.

Electron Wizard | 11:22 p.m. Sept. 14, 2008

According to the Energy Information Administration, the Utah industrial electricity rate average is 4.53 cents per kWHr. The West Mountain Wind Power wind turbine is capable of 1.8 kW. and costs $10,000. Because of variable and intermittent wind conditions, you might attain 25% of generation capacity and average 0.45 kW. Using these figures, I calculate it would take 56 years to pay back the purchase price, if you could use the "free" power 24 hours a day. This is disregarding all other expenses, such a maintenance and repairs. Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it.

Mr. Christensen says that he is "turned on" by alternative energy. I maintain that here in Utah we think more soberly than this. If he wants to try out a pet project on his own dime, I say good luck and I hope he succeeds or at least learns something. But if he wants us to pay for it in the form of subsidies and higher rates due to inefficiencies, I say go back to California where feel-good do-nothing policies are a way of life.

Waves | 7:54 a.m. Sept. 16, 2008

@wYo8: Windmills aren't pretty, but if u were so appalled by their presence, then u should have been riding a bike up through the canyon and not your energy using auto.
@others: Remember, the government does not promote saving energy. For instance, look at the 290 page so called energy bill the Dems just put out. Sham on the US people. Example 1: I bought a Prius for selfish reasons, to save $ on gas, not to save the world. When I bought it, I was to recieve a $3,100 tax credit, which was a nice incentive. As I was doing my taxes, I discovered that the entire tax credit went away because my income was too high. However, had I purchased a gas guzzling vehicle over 6000lbs, I could have reduced my taxes by about $7,500. Guess which vehicle I purchased next? Example 2: Small tax credits can be given for solar systems that heat one's house and hot water, but not for heating a pool, jacuzi, or driveway. Tax laws are written only to appear energy saving, but not written to actually be an incentive to save energy. Yes, pools are extravagant, but huge energy users nonetheless.

Smart Planner | 3:02 p.m. Sept. 16, 2008

A number of years ago when Spanish Fork was researching about the large windmill they now have at the mouth of the canyon there was an article about how they buy a certain amount of power and they must meet that demand or they must pay for it (or the citizen must pay for it).

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