Murray Energy backs opposition to offshore Ohio wind farm

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Coal company Murray Energy, whose chief executive is a major supporter of President Donald Trump, has reportedly been funding opposition to an offshore wind farm project in Lake Erie, according to lawyers representing the project.

Murray Energy kept its relationship to the wind farm’s opposition hidden to the point that even opponents of the Icebreaker Windpower project — proposed to be built about eight miles north of Cleveland — were unaware that the coal company was allegedly paying for part of their legal fees.

But that all changed when the developers of the wind farm, Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. (LEEDCo), provided evidence to state regulators last week that Murray Energy funded a lawyer representing two residents from the town of Bratenahl, Ohio, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Sunday.

In their depositions with LEEDCo attorneys, the residents testified they were not sure who was paying their legal fees in their fight against the offshore wind project. As it was also revealed, one of the expert witnesses used by the residents to help their case against the project had his legal fees paid by Murray Energy.

https://thinkprogress.org/murray-energy-plays-behind-the-scenes-role-in-battle-over-offshore-ohio-wind-farm-f88ad995f3c7/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5b691cdf4b7385000752cbcb&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

Robert Murrray aren't you overdue for your dirt nap?

[NNadir]

1. I have no idea why a coal company would oppose a wind farm.

Last edited Tue Aug 7, 2018, 08:03 AM - Edit history (1)

Besides entrenching the fossil fuel industry forever, wind farms require 40% more steel than the dangerous fossil fuel plants that wind farms require in order to produce equivalent energy, and offshore wind farms make the demand for fossil fuels even higher because of their higher requirement for concrete.

Metals for a low-carbon society (Vidal et al Nature Geoscience volume 6, pages 894–896 (2013))

Since the coal industry is being pushed out of the electrical generation industry by the strange and toxic popularity of the gas industry - on which the wind industry is 100% dependent - and since the wind industry requires the building of two systems - a gas plant and a wind plant - to do what one plant can do, few things would improve and cement the demand for coal to make steel than a wind farm.

This is particularly the case since wind turbines have a short life time; they're mostly landfill in twenty years. This means a demand for more metals, more steel, more concrete and more coal.

The problem these guys have is that they don't think too clearly.

Of course, no one thinks too clearly about wind farms. There are still, as late as 2018, 50 years into the cheering for wind and 50 years into its failure to address climate change, those who think that wind farms are "green and clean."

They're no such things. They are merely industrial systems that are inefficient, wasteful, and very good at destroying critical avian ecosystems.