Trump says wind energy won't work because wind 'only blows sometimes'
President Donald Trump on Thursday said that wind power was not a viable energy option because wind "only blows sometimes." The president made the statement while talking to Fox News' Sean Hannity.
Trump, during a rally on Thursday evening, in Michigan had also insisted that he "knows a lot about wind. If it doesn’t blow, you can forget about television for that night."
Wind energy can be stored in varied ways, including in batteries. As the Trump administration's own Energy Department explains on its website, most power grids combine energy provided by different sources. "The wind does not always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine,” the site notes. Yet the power grid “can accommodate large penetrations of variable renewable power without sacrificing reliability.”
Trump, in a Wednesday phone interview with Hannity, talked about his energy insights while he was talking about being the toughest president ever on Russia, which he claimed had resulted in an increase in US fossil fuel use and sales.
“It’s what we have done with energy and oil and gas. That’s all competition from, for Russia,” Trump said. “You look at the Ukraine. You look at so many different levels. You look at our military,” he added. “You look at the fact that we would have been powered by wind, which wouldn’t have worked, by the way, because it only blows sometimes and lots of problems come about.”
Trump, while addressing workers at a tank factory in Lima, had complained that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton "wanted to put up windmills everywhere." The Republican then pretended to be some anonymous husband telling his wife: "Turn off the television darling, please. There’s no wind. Please turn off the television quickly.”
Reports state that President Trump had made a similar observation about wind energy in Ohio last week, which led to an energy expert calling him a "clown."
A professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University, Michael Mann, while talking to Newsweek said: "Trump is a clown, but a dangerous, evil clown. He would happily mortgage the future of our children and grandchildren for the short-term profit of the fossil fuel interests whose bidding he’s doing.”
Trump, in Ohio, also complained about how wind farms affect views, claiming they decrease home values by 65 percent. Evidence, however, does not support Trump's claims.