Breaking: the wind is bullshit
Trump is really really pissed off at wind. Yes, wind. He thinks wind is a great big loser. He thinks wind orders the filet mignon and then won’t pick up the tab.
Trump spent part of his weekend in Scotland reviving his old grievances against wind power, even claiming at one point that it was “killing” Americans.
During a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Trump abruptly detoured from immigration to wind turbines. “And the other thing I say to Europe: We will not allow a windmill to be built in the United States,” Trump said. “They’re killing us.”
Also, besides, in addition, we refuse to drink Dubonnet.
He complained that wind turbines “rust and rot in eight years” and then can’t be “buried” because they will harm the soil.
“The whole thing is a con job,” he said. “It’s very expensive. And in all fairness, Germany tried it and wind doesn’t work.”
Much of what the president said was wildly inaccurate: Germany gets more than a quarter of its energy from wind, turbines last about 30 years (not eight), according to the U.S Department of Energy, it’s not the most expensive form of energy, and they’re not “almost all” made in China.
Ok but besides that it was all true. Mostly. I guess.
Trump has previously taken his anti-wind stance to absurd extremes, such as in 2019, when he falsely claimed wind turbines cause cancer.
“The wind, the wind, it sounds so wonderful,” he said last year. “The wind, the wind, the wind is, the wind is bullshit, I’ll tell you.”
Except when it’s his wind of course.
Breaking the wind is bullshit?* Even when the wind cries Mary?
A few years back Scotland became the first country** to produce enough energy for an entire day via renewable resources (mostly wind and tides, if I recall correctly). They quoted some official to the effect that the one thing Scotland produces plenty of is bad weather.
*Yeah, I know you’ve got a colon there, but I’ve got a colon too.
**For certain values of “country”.
There is still the issue that even the windiest places get a few calm days per month.
If you have lots of hydro power, wind will be a useful supplement because the hydro can be cut back during windy periods to run more during calm periods. If you don’t have lots of hydro you have to burn methane to generate the needed power when the wind isn’t blowing.
It’s a pain having a blowhard ( ; ^) ) like Trump making BS arguments for a position, when there are some valid arguments available.
Ever since Aberdeen installed 11 wind turbines “spoiling the view” off the coast of Trump’s Turnberry golf club, he’s had a bee in his bonnet about windmills. He launched a quixotic lawsuit against the Scottish government in 2013 and lost. He then lost his appeal to the Court of Session and lost his final appeal to the UK Supreme Court in 2015.
No doubt playing the course and seeing the turbines brought back bitter memories, and since the man has no filter a crazy rant subsequently ensued.
They’re relatively inexpensive and quick to set-up compared to other forms of power generation… And they employ *welders*… Y’know, a manly job that isn’t wasting energy and health doing something as menial as making overpriced steel.
This shit enrages me. We need a lot more energy than we can produce by setting enriched carbon on fire quickly, but no, let’s deindustrialize instead.
Then I take it that Trump would not mind if a coal-fired or nuclear power station was built just down the road from one of his own mansions, or maybe within his view from the White House. Otherwise, we face a ghastly reality: that the man is a hypocrite. (!!!)
Perish the thought.
There is a decommissioned coal plant downriver on the Potomac in Alexandria, not quite within view of the White House but an easy boat or helicopter ride away. It’s an ugly, rusty mess, though there are plans to redevelop the site. I’m sure he’s had the chance to see it, if he’s ever bothered to look.
I know there are differing opinions on the aesthetics of wind turbines, but I don’t know anyone who truly believes anything about coal, from the mines to the plants to the soot*, is anything but ugly.
*Years ago I spent a winter in Ankara, where the heat was supplied by the dirtiest form of coal. Went through a lot of tissues there.
There are a lot who say the smell of fuel burning is ‘the smell of money’. I imagine they’d say the same about the ugliness of the plants – it’s the look of money, or something like that. Some people are very limited in their worldview.
Perhaps an opportunity to get him locked into an unbreakable Elmer Fudd rant
https://farcornercafe.blogspot.com/2025/07/resistance.html
Aberfan.
#3 “Ever since Aberdeen installed 11 wind turbines “spoiling the view” off the coast of Trump’s Turnberry golf club, he’s had a bee in his bonnet about windmills. He launched a quixotic lawsuit against the Scottish government in 2013 and lost. He then lost his appeal to the Court of Session and lost his final appeal to the UK Supreme Court in 2015.”
Small point, but it was not the Turnberry golf club which is on the south west coast of Scotland in Ayrshire, whereas the Trump International Scotland golf course is in Aberdeenshire, on the north east coast.
I was on a break on the Ayrshire coast, which is fairly attractive, and then drove past this vulgar glossy pseudo village which I saw was the Turnberry Golf Club. I hadn’t realised it was there.
I like the look of wind turbines myself – I think they make the drama on the skyline. I have walked among some once and sheep were happily snoozing beneath them.