Utopia, you are standing in it!

Nothing invokes rage and fury in rural communities like a wind farm comprising dozens and sometimes hundreds of 300 tonne, 200m high monsters.

In Germany, locals have expressed their opposition in no uncertain terms by voting 25 to 1 against a giant wind project proposed for their patch of paradise:

And elsewhere, grassroots opposition to the subsidy-sucking wind industry has never been healthier and more active., New York State, is no exception.

20 years into the 21^st century, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we’d left fascist dictators in the 20^th century. Then along comes Andrew Cuomo, New York’s wind power obsessed Governor. Instead of listening to his constituents, he’s determined to gag them and ride roughshod over them.

Sherri Lange reports in with the latest from the battle front in New York State.

New York’s Cuomo vs. the Grassroots on Wind & Solar
Master Resource
Sherri Lange

Hobson’s Choice spokesman Don Brash (a former leader of the National and ACT Parties) is not alone in challenging the justification for tribes claiming to have closed roads to protect their people against Covid.

Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters – his remarks apparently ignored by other media – told Waatea News unofficial tribal militia throwing up checkpoints were more likely to hinder than help the Covid-19 response.

He was interviewed at a time when hapu and iwi on the East Coast were organising such road-blocks and Hone Harawira was arranging checkpoints on roads into the far north.

Peters said the government didn’t need Harawira to ring-fence Kaitaia.

“That’s what the Government is seeking to do now. That’s why there’s a lockdown. That’s why they’re saying don’t travel. That’s why the Government is saying stay at home, look after each other.

“If you ring-fence Kaitaia, it…

In Flanders, we have the expression “calculating yourself rich”. It means presenting one’s case in a too optimistic way that doesn’t accord with reality. This can for example be done by only counting the positives or by making overly optimistic assumptions. Both can result in an end result that is far too optimistic. Therefor “calculate” yourself rich instead of “being” rich. It is not real wealth, it is fully dependent on the tricks used in the calculation.

This expression popped up in my mind when I read an article about the blessings of grid sized battery storage (see previous post). To recap: two advocates for solar and wind claimed that batteries could replace natural gas power plants for peaking and gap-filling. Reading the linked article, it became clear that it had nothing to do with the claims made by the two advocates. The subject of the linked article described how…