MISINFORMATION ATTACK ON WIND

The Facts About Wind Energy and Emissions
July 20, 2011 (American Wind Energy Association)

"Recent data and analyses have made it clear that the emissions and fuel use savings from adding wind energy to the grid are even larger than had been commonly thought. In addition to each kilowatt-hour (kWh) of wind energy directly offsetting a kWh that would have been produced by a fossil-fired power plant, new analyses show that wind farms further reduce emissions by forcing the most polluting and inflexible power plants offline and causing them to be replaced by more efficient and flexible types of generation.

"At the same time, and in spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, opponents of wind energy have launched an increasingly desperate misinformation campaign to convince the American public that wind energy does not significantly reduce emissions…"

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"At the forefront of this misinformation campaign are two reports written by the natural gas consulting firm Bentek, the first of which was paid for by the fossil fuel lobby group Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States (IPAMS). The President and CEO of Bentek, the company that wrote the reports, is also the Chairman and Director of IPAMS' Natural Gas Committee and a member of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.

"Both Bentek reports are directly refuted by large bodies of U.S. Department of Energy and grid operator data showing that fossil fuel use and pollution decrease drastically as wind energy is added to the grid. In particular, the first report’s claim that wind energy has not reduced emissions in Colorado and Texas is directly contradicted by government data…"