Wins Power Puffery Summary

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W131: Elementary Composition Summary 1 Wind Farms: Good or Bad In the article Wind Power Puffery written by H. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis, Burnett discusses that wind power is not convenient or as helpful as the environmentalists say. It is expensive and it does not give good enough reasons to be used. Burnett believes that the benefits are usually overstated, and the environmental harms are ignored (355). Burnett advocates that wind power is not very reasonable. Burnett tells us that “wind farms generate power only when the wind blows with a certain range of speed” (355). He also tells us that when the wind is blowing too hard, the wind turbines are shut off “in fear of being blown down” (355). Burnett uses this reasoning to back up why he does not believe that wind farms are good and why he believes that they should not be used. Burnett tears down the idea of wind farms being considered a “park” by telling us how industrial they are. He provides us with comparisons of industrial things to the wind farms. Burnett compares the wind farms to “highways, railways, industrial buildings, and industrial farms” (355). Wind farms take up a lot of land, more than a conventional power plant. This is another reason that Burnett gives us to hint that wind farms are not very good. Burnett tells us how wind farms also hurt animals, mostly the ones that fly, like birds and bats. “Scientists estimate as many as 44,000 birds have been killed over the past twenty years by wind turbines” (356). Burnett tells us that the United States is not the only place where birds are killed by wind turbines. Thirteen species that are protected under the European law have also been killed by wind turbines (356). Burnett demonstrates to us how wind power plants are not as safe as environmentalists think they are.

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