The hypocrisy of the Left in pushing "green" energy has been extensively documented, both on this site and on countless others. Many discussions have been fielded regarding the Cuisinarts of the Air and their deadly effects on everything from endangered species of birds to pollinating bats, while others have centered upon the impacts of vast solar arrays upon habitat and ecological balance. None of which is of any importance in the Barky administration; they're even fighting green groups here in Oregon in an effort to build a Cuisinart farm on Steens Mountain so that all the power thus generated can be shipped off to California.
But now, they've encountered an obstacle that they can't dance around: they've done gone and ticked off the Indians.
The Feb. 27 letter from the chairman of the Colorado River Indian Tribes was pleading and tough. It asked President Obama to slow the federal government's "frantic pursuit" of massive solar energy projects in the Mojave Desert because of possible damage to Native American cultural resources.
The Obama administration didn't respond.
Well, you know what? These aren't any Elizabeth Warren Indians; these are the real deal. And for starters, they've put a halt to the $1 billion Genesis solar array under construction in the Mojave desert because it's tearing up sacred land. And how ticked off are they? Enough to bring all of Barky's fast-tracked subsidized "renewable" stuff to a screeching halt.
Now the tribes, joined by others in the desert, are not merely asking the Obama administration to go slow because of potential harm. They are demanding it. Backed by the legally powerful Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the Indians say Genesis and the transmission line corridor are proof of damage to sacred lands. They are readying court challenges that could alter solar and wind energy projects across the desert.
This is one of the big problems that Barky and his boys have: they don't understand "renewable energy" and they don't care; all they're interested in doing is handing millions to cronies - the environment be damned, endangered species be damned...but now the damned Indians are stepping in, and there's not a damned thing he can do about it. If they actually understood the concepts, they wouldn't be tearing up our public lands to build gigantic farms far removed from the actual points of distribution.
If they did anything more than pay lip service to "green and sustainable", like perhaps some research, they'd realize a couple of things: (1) solar and wind will never, ever, under any circumstances, account for more than 3 to 5% of electrical energy sources. (2) Generating sites should be as close to distribution points as possible. This means that you mount your Cuisinarts and solar arrays on top of buildings in downtown Portland, The Dalles, Burns, or wherever. You don't stick them on Steens Mountain or in the Mojave. Barky, do you even have a clue as to how many people live in Harney County? No? Then STFU.
Anybody with half a brain would stop subsidizing the Cuisinart and solar developers, and look into in-line hydro generation. That, friends, is actually "green" - and proven technology. Unfortunately, you can't point to it like you can a wind or solar farm and get your picture taken of yourself wearing a hard-hat and pointing at something.
No, in-line just ain't sexy. So they don't care. Look: pretty much every town has a water system. In a place like Portland, it's mostly gravity-fed. So since water's going to be flowing through the pipes anyway, doesn't it make sense to install small turbines in those pipes to generate electricity? There's the problem: it makes too much sense.
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