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Pickens calls off massive wind farm in Texas

The most reliable winds are off the Pacific coast. Put these on barges and anchor them off Malibu, San Francisco as well as up and down the coast. They want all the power, let them watch the windmills spin offshore. Can't be worse than watching oil rigs. If they don't want them, turn off their power.

Now you know why he was so eager to get the government to subsidize his operation; it wasn't commercially viable without tax dollars from Uncle Sugar.

He can erect the towers, make the power - but has no way to get it to the homes that would use it.

So going green is gonna need some steel...too bad we shut out the idea of coal

Wyoming! Wind always blows there!

. . . when we need it?

A lasting FDR legacy is the infrastructure he commissioned and built during the Great Depression. This is Obama's chance to fund SOMETHING useful with all the money he's shamefully throwing around.

Why not step up, Mr. President?

Ran into technical problems with transmission lines. Gee can you say green environmentals against power lines.

I doubt that the "green" environmentalists had given much thought to those huge ugly transmission lines crossing the land. There are always those unintended consequences, especially when the effort is driven more by "feelings" than careful and logical thought.

The only way to avoid these transmission lines is with the use of nuclear power located near the point of use. But then those suffering from nuclear paranoia crawl out of their holes crying, "the sky is falling!" Actually no American has been killed or injured in a commercial nuclear accident. (note: commercial, two were killed in a research reactor in Idaho) That includes all of the Navy reactors and Three Mile Island. Reprocessing would greatly reduce the need for storage as well as the half-life of the stored waste.

This highlights the biggest challenge with centralized wind projects -- where it is windy is not necessarily where load (consumers of power) is. Too bad they can't follow the model of Spanish Fork's wind project, where the small project just outside of town powers over 6,000 homes with virtually no transmission lines! Perhaps the future is building wind projects at the mouth of canyons along the Wasatch Front where excellent wind is right next to load!

For those advocating nukes on this thread, they need to consider that even in good economic times, Wall Street and banks haven't stepped up to the plate to finance any nuclear power plants. The risks just don't make it economically viable -- from the massive costs to build (we don't know because a new power plant hasn't been built in America for decades) to the security costs to deal with the operations and waste maintenance to the water needs that need to be taken from agriculture (remember the Georgia nuke plant that almost got shut down in last year's drought).

The issue with nuclear is do Americans trust the U.S. Government (which has gutted oversight from everything of imported foods to Wall Street) to honestly regulate the nuke industry? With the tailings clean up that took decades to get going near Moab, do you believe the federal government will ensure your safety should there be a disaster (think of Bush flying overhead of Katrina victims and the fed's incompetence). I don't trust any socialist system overseeing a private industry willing to cut corners and not willing to clean up after itself in Moab!

I applaud someone who can think ahead and see the need for further power generation. Too often we are caught up in the moment and meeting those needs. I am sad to see the wind park postponed. It is a wonderful opportunity to use real natural resources (wind) to create electricity. These programs should be funded just like schools, where the payoff is not immediate but down the road.

The problem is not a place to put the wind farm. The problem is the power lines (power transmission). No one wants them in there back yard. I say put one on every farm and ranch everywhere there is enough wind. If they are spread out the currant power grid can accept the power produced. It will cost more to maintain but you don’t have to build more power lines to transmit the power.