President Trump has proudly touted his mission for American Energy Dominance, but one energy source that's been a consistent recipient of his disgust and outbursts has been wind energy. In the shadow of the Green New Deal debate and rallying against the clean energy platforms of many of his potential 2020 Presidential opponents, he's taken to rallying against wind energy and touting the perceived negatives he has about wind energy to his faithful base.

Taking on good faith that these are sources of misinformation, not an attempt to deride renewable energy out of spite (such as the spite he felt about them taking up part of the views from his Scottish golf course, which I've written about here), we should help by correcting him on some of his concerns.

This article from earlier this month highlights some of his oft-repeated claims about wind energy:

Wind turbines are a massive new threat to birds:

"Hey sort of like wind, even though it kills all the birds. You want to see a bird cemetery? Go under a windmill sometime. You’ll see the saddest, you got every type of bird. “You know, in California, you go to jail for five years if you kill a bald eagle. If you go under a windmill, you see them all over the place."

Since wind is intermittent, more wind power means you can't watch TV when the wind doesn't blow the day leading up:

"And when the wind doesn’t blow, you don’t watch television that night. Your wife said, ‘What the hell did you get me into with this Green New Deal, Charlie?’"

Wind turbines cause...noise cancer:

"They say the noise causes cancer."

So let's dive into these concerns of his one at a time:

First, Trump expresses concern for the welfare of bird life in areas with wind farms. According to the Sierra Club, this claim is partially true but is inherently misleading. Yes, 140,000 to 500,000 birds are killed per year by U.S. wind turbines. And yes, where there are technologies and strategies to minimize this type of environmental and ecological impact, we should. But to put this figure in perspective, 6.5 million birds per year die from collisions with communication towards, 25 million birds per year die because of power lines, 300 million birds per year die from impact with windows, and most damaging to the bird community is the 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds per year that cats kill. Given that no one appears to be calling for the banning of cell phone towards, transmission lines, windows, or pet cats due to their threat to birds, the fraction of a percent that wind turbines add to these figures should not be high on the priority list for bird lovers.

Second, Trump's concern that if we continue to build up wind power that days with calm air will lead to power-less nights represents a misunderstanding of the grid, the wind energy sector, and the proposals of these energy advocates. While this would be true in a situation where a home or a collection of homes were connected to and powered by a singular wind farm, that is not at all what is being proposed or a representation of reality anywhere in the country. In response to this concern of the President, the New York Times noted

"Across the United States, regional grid operators typically rely on a diverse array of power sources throughout the day so that the lights stay on. During sunny hours, they can draw electricity from solar panels. When it’s windy, they can make use of power from wind farms. If power from those renewable sources starts to drop, operators can use power from natural gas turbines or hydroelectric dams to fill in the gaps. So far, America’s grid operators have been very good at this balancing act, even as coal has declined and renewables have surged in popularity. Last year, wind power accounted for nearly one-fifth of the electricity generated in the Texas grid, and people were still able to watch TV there. When power failures around the country do occur, it’s almost always because of severe weather knocking out transmissionlines, not because wind turbines stopped spinning."

So yes, as wind power and other intermittent sources ramp up, energy storage, backup power, and peak power concerns will be high on utility lists. But no one needs to be concerned that their television will turn off in the middle of that episode of Jeopardy because the wind didn't blow that day.

Lastly...sigh...the cancer claim. This one came seemingly out of no where, whereas at least the previous two points had been talking points of anti-wind groups for some time. It's hard to debunk this point because it's hard to understand its origin in Trump's repertoire. But the American Cancer Society has noted that they are "unaware of any credible evidence linking the noise from windmills to cancer," and even claims that turbine noise might cause more minor health concerns (nausea, headaches, etc.), experts have not found strong evidence.