While 3 centuries of coal production has caused an enormous burden on the US environment, it fueled the industrial revolution which provided us with the leisure time to pursue cave exploration and the technological capability to have the discussion across the breath of a continent. With that said. as far as "coal-fired plants no longer needed", according to the EIA 35% of total US energy consumption in 2015 was from coal, while all Renewables (excluding biomass) produced less than 7.5%. "A 2013 study in the Wildlife Society Bulletin estimated that wind turbines killed about 888,000 bats and 573,000 birds (including 83,000 raptors) in 2012.Since then US wind energy has increased by 24% and is expected to triple by 2030. The US wind industry is permitted to kill 4200 Bald Eagles annually, or roughly 6% of the entire population of 72,000. I am unaware of any analysis that portends nearly this level of carnage from ANY other energy source.Not to defend coal, but just to observe the facts.
Conversion of more coal fired power plants to natural gas and modern, low waste, low temperature nuclear power plants are the only solution in the near to moderate term. Bill Stephens From: Terry Plemons via Texascavers <texascavers@texascavers.com> To: Cavers Texas <texascavers@texascavers.com> Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2016 5:15 PM Subject: Re: [Texascavers] wind turbines and caves When discussing the bird life caused by the wind turbines itshould be noted that the coal-fired plants no longer needed caused problems forbirds by clearing of forests, pollution of streams, and air pollution. I do notknow if a tradeoff of one power generation vs. another has been accuratelyassessed, if that is possible, but the comparison is relevant. T. Plemons On Thu, Jun 30, 2016 at 1:12 PM, David via Texascavers <texascavers@texascavers.com> wrote: In reference to Bill's post, My hunch is that the coal plants in China would be running either way and that they create much needed jobs there.The delivery of the blades is a one time event, as they can be repaired in the field.Diesel trains and boats have efficient motors, as do trucks, while simultaneously delivering a wide range of products which creates jobs.They most likely just need to mount a scarecrow on top of the wind-turbine.I see no reason a cave tour company could not use a wind-turbine to charge batteries for headlamps or to power lights in the cave.I would like to see a giant turbine mounted horizontally at ground-level and let hundreds of unemployed homeless people push it.It is too bad all these people exercising in fitness centers can not convert that energy wasted into electricity. If I win the MegaMillions jackpot, I am going to fix that.I have been eating pork-n-beans all week to try to save money. It is too bad that I can not convert all this new methane gas to power something.David Locklear _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
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