SamSaid!

To many people, Michael Jackson was a larger than life entertainer and public figure and the ceremonies and rallies following his death are understandable  –  at least up to a point. While conceding his talents, there are many others who think that 5-6 days of saturation TV are a bit much.  To many of us who can either take or leave his showmanship, a week of glorification is about 3-4 days too long. At best, his legacy will be a mixed bag, notwithstanding the current attempts to smokescreen his eccentricities.

Let’s all give him his due, and bring down the curtain.

A few days ago I ran across an interesting article on the Business Page of the AM newspaper.  It seems that Valero, the largest refiner of oil in the USA, has made a sizeable investment in a windmill farm to generate electricity. For years the Greenies have sung the song of clean power from air –  windmills. And recently, T Boone Pickens spend a small (maybe not so small) fortune exrolling the virtues of wind power.  So, the Greenies would understandingly support the idea of a member of Big Oil investing in wind turbines to generate electricity.

But it turns out that there is more to this story than meets the eye. The power to be generated by Valero wind turbines is not for general utility purposes; rather, the wind turbine power is to be used to supplement the needs of the refinery and thus make the refining process more efficient. Imagine  –  Big Oil using wind power to supplement the electricity produced from fossil fuel.

Most energy experts consider wind power as a supplememt to our basic sources of energy. Not a replacement  –  just a supplement. The Valero experiment would seem to make the case   –  at least to most sensible people. Oh yes, wind turbines now provide maybe 2% of our current energy needs.  If the Greenies are cheering, what are they cheering about??