Why does Trump seem to tilt verbally against the windmills? The experts intervene

President Donald Trump criticized earlier this week an improbable goal, which has nothing to do with health care or the border, but which, in reality, is not a new target. repeated insults.

The president attacked the wind turbines.

"If you have a mill near you, congratulations, your house has lost 75% of its value – and they say that noise causes cancer," Trump said, twisting his arm in a circle and emitting a sound of starting to mimic the noise of wind turbine blades. "And of course, it's like a cemetery for birds, and if you love birds, you'll never want to walk under a windmill, it's a sad and sad sight."

In fact, there is no evidence that wind turbines have widespread negative effects on property values, according to the Ministry of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information in the largest study to date in the United States. United. There is no peer-reviewed data backing up the claim that noise causes cancer.

I am considered a world expert in tourism. When you say, "Where is the expert and where are the evidence?" I say: I am the proof.

It is true that wildlife is affected by wind turbines, especially birds and bats. One study estimates that between 140,000 and 328,000 birds are killed each year by collisions with turbines in the United States. The United States Energy Information Administration, however, believes that other impacts related to human activity also contribute to the decline of the population.

The wind industry works with biologists to find solutions to the impact of turbines on wildlife. The Ministry of Energy awards grants each year to researchers who are studying the issue. But, on the whole, scientists warn scientists that climate change is a bigger threat to bird populations than wind turbines, according to the National Audobon Society.

However, the president is not a fan of wind turbines and it is not long ago: since 2012, Trump publicly referenced wind turbines at least 75 times in speeches, remarks, tweets and interviews, according to the grouping site Factbase data. .

But where does the president's public opposition to wind energy come from?

This seems to go back to his years in the tourism sector, and more specifically to the recent development of his golf course opened in 2012 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. When the city sought to install nearby windmills, Trump fought against the Scottish government and eventually filed a lawsuit. His attempts ultimately failed and by 2018 the newly installed wind turbines were generating enough electricity for at least 75% of the homes in the city of Aberdeen, according to Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

In 2012, however, Trump had pleaded his fight against the windmills in front of the Scottish Parliament, marking one of the first times that Trump was publicly challenged as a result of the evidence underlying his views on wind turbines .

At the time, Trump had claimed to have spent "a lot of money" for "what many already consider to be the largest golf course in the world", and he did not want to see the property destroyed by " monstrosities ". He also said that their installation would put the whole country in "serious problems".

"Almost the most important – apart from the fact that the subsidies are huge -, the fact that windmills are so unattractive, ugly, noisy and so dangerous that if Scotland did, I think that Scotland will have serious problems, "said Trump, reiterating the claims that he continues to use political rallies as president.

Immediately after the testimony of Mr Trump, a member of the Scottish Parliament reminded the audience that the hearing was not about specific wind developments and that it had nothing to do with his golf course. Chic Brodie, a member of the Scottish Parliament, has also plunged into Trump's multiple demands, urging him to provide data.

Brodie cited a research that rebutted every one of Trump's claims about Scotland, saying the polls showed that tourists would not be deterred from going on holiday in Scotland, that 70% of Scots themselves were backing up Scotland. wind energy, which some wind farms in Europe actually attract tourists. that, despite Trump's concerns for the environment, the World Wildlife Fund of Scotland has supported turbines.

Brodie then asked Trump for proof. Two times.

"First of all, I'm proof," said Trump laughing in the parliament room. Although four years have gone by before he announced his presidential race and made the same statement about wind energy at political rallies in the United States, it would be a glimpse of his flawless political style as a President.

"You know what? I think I'm much more an expert than the people you'd like me to hire, who do it to earn a salary. I'm considered a global tourism expert," Trump said. at the time. "When you say," Where is the expert and where are the evidence? "I say, I am proof."

The science behind wind energy

This year, Trump's repeated criticisms of wind turbines in unrelated speeches – such as Tuesday at the Congressional National Republican Committee's Spring Dinner – remain points that many experts have defeated.

Jeremy Firestone, director of the wind energy research center at the University of Delaware, discovered that one of the president's claims on wind turbines was particularly striking: these wind turbines are not only related to cancer, but they are also the cause.

"Apart from hearing the president say it, apart from that, I have not seen anything in the peer-reviewed literature (…) suggesting that it causes cancer," said Firestone, a professor at the University of Deleware. science and marine policy for almost 20 years.

Beyond the repeated claims about property values ​​and bird mortality – two claims that Firestone refuted on the basis of the evidence and literature that he has studied – Trump recently said that energy windmill only worked when the wind was blowing.

"If that does not blow, you can forget about television for that night," Trump said at a rally in Michigan at the end of March. "Honey, I want to watch TV, I'm sorry, the wind is not blowing," he says to laugh at the crowd.

This is not exactly how energy storage works, Firestone said. Instead, wind energy can be stored in a battery or sent back to the larger grid, generating the energy needed for an interconnected grid.

"It's like storing energy in your cell phone, or the same is true of an electric vehicle," explained Firestone during a phone interview with ABC News. "You charge it, you take electricity and you store it."

"So," added Firestone, "if I take the energy from a wind turbine when it blows, and I store it in my battery in my electric vehicle, for example, I can use that stored energy to to go somewhere when I want ".

Although wind energy is not perfect, it is important to note that all energy sources have their flaws, according to Firestone, and that all human choices have environmental consequences.

"All that men do has an imprint, which includes the production of electricity," he said. "In the end, you have to think of these things in a comparative way, including climate impacts and other effects on the planet."