Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Greenbats

San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm

turbines.jpgYesterday, as we headed home from the California house, we passed the wind turbines of San Gorgonio Pass. (a.k.a Banning Pass). The turbines extend from Beaumont all the way to Palm Springs, a distance of about 20 miles along I-10. The sight of all of these is overwhelming, considering that there are over 4000 turbines in this area.

On our trip to California last week, we passed two semis going eastbound, each with a generator hub on a flatbed trailer. Seeing the hubs up close like that makes you realize that they are actually quite huge. They don’t look that large when they are on the tower.

Yep – they are an eyesore, a danger to flying wildlife and dollar for dollar they produce far less energy than a good nuclear plant. Go figure. Image courtesy of the Damsel. Click to enlarge.

11 Feb 2012 by California Greenbats Whacko Politics

The Recycle Center

recycle.jpgWhen we come to California to the old house, we bring our recyclable aluminum cans so we can turn them in to the County recycle center and get $$ back. We had quite a load this trip and actually got over a hundred bucks for the aluminum cans. We had been collecting them over several months.

The funny thing about the recycle trip is that we get most of our aluminum beverage cans in Arizona. In our state, we do not have the nutty greenbat notion of California Recycle Value (CRV), so we can take advantage of recycling our scrap aluminum and get the CRV back that we didn’t pay in the first place. 😀

Damsel took this picture of an unusual succulent just outside of the gate to the center. The large drooping flowers attracted a bunch of bees we could see buzzing around. Click on the image to enlarge.

08 Feb 2012 by Arizona California Greenbats

Navy Forced to “Go Green” – Another O-Scam

mod-navy.jpg

Editorial excerpt from IBD.

Jet Fuel-Gate Is Obama’s New Solyndra

Ecofanaticism: SolyndraGate was no isolated case of corrupt government misspending. The U.S. Navy was just forced to buy 450,000 gallons of biofuels from an Obama-connected firm at an outrageous $16 per gallon.

The massive Obama stimulus was supposed to generate millions of jobs, but the $535 million loan guarantee it gave to solar panel maker Solyndra on the eve of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy illustrated the fundamental incompetence of Obama’s neo-Keynesian economic ideology.

Now we find the Navy partnering with the Agriculture Department to purchase hundreds of thousands of gallons of alternative biofuel in place of standard JP-5 fuel for Navy aircraft — the biggest federal purchase of biofuel ever.

It’s part of the White House’s “we can’t wait for Congress” strategy as the 2012 election year looms. But JP-5 typically costs less than $4 a gallon. If a family on a budget started filling up with $16-a-gallon gas, it might want to adopt the motto, “we can’t wait to go broke.”

. . .

The biofuel will be used next summer by — we’re not making this up — “the Great Green Fleet Carrier Strike Force” in exercises near Hawaii. Mabus painted the picture of America’s great naval force advancing from sails to coal to diesel to nuclear, and now finally to biofuels. But if we keep starving the Navy, it may soon not have enough loose change to repair the sails on Old Ironsides.

Read the entire editorial.

14 Dec 2011 by Beltway Kabuki Degenerates Greenbats Whacko Politics

New Wind Turbine Construction

turbines.jpgWe’re back in California this evening and plan to stay for a couple of days. On our way in to the coast, we passed the Banning Pass wind turbine farm.

Despite having literally thousands of these expensive (to build AND to run) bat-killers, there seems to be a number of new ones under construction. Damsel took this photo of some of the construction we passed. Click on the image to enlarge.

I wonder if the companies building this enormous (and unsightly) wind farm are somehow capitalized by the same money-wasters responsible for the Solyndra debacle. I wonder how far this is going to go. The turbines already stretch for over twenty miles along both sides of Interstate 10 from Palm Springs to past Whitewater (going west).

14 Nov 2011 by California Greenbats

California’s Sad Energy Trade Off

wind-farm.jpgCalifornia’s Greenbat politicians think that burning fossil fuel will destroy the planet, so what do they do? Trade off having wind power in favor of destroying many of nature’s flying creatures.

Consider this double standard. California Politicians are balking at the installation of a solar power site in the desert because it endangers tortoises and other wildlife. Their hypocrisy is so thick, it probably pollutes the atmosphere.

From William La Jeunesse of Fox News:

As California attempts to divorce itself from fossil-fueled electricity, it may be trading one environmental sin for another — although you don’t hear state officials admitting it.

Wind power is the fastest growing component in the state’s green energy portfolio, but wildlife advocates say the marriage has an unintended consequence: dead birds, including protected species of eagles, hawks and owls.

[more]

16 Aug 2011 by California Critters Greenbats

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