Interesting comment just now from Buffett re: Wind Energy

[Algernon Moncrieff]

Paraphrasing, he touted the benefits Iowa is getting from cheap wind energy and how it has attracted business like Google to Council Bluffs, as opposed to Nebraska, who has been slow to adapt wind power.

[Shemp Howard]

1. Buffett has no credibility with me.

IMHO, Buffett will say whatever he needs to say to advance his bottom line. He came out against the Keystone pipeline, a stance that many applauded. But that stance benefited the railroads. And guess who had recently bought a huge amount of railroad stock? That would be good ol' Warren B.

Sorry for being so suspicious. But I've got to wonder. Is Buffett speaking as a citizen here, or as someone who maybe just bought up some wind energy stock?

[CK_John]

2. I believe it is the annual meeting. Who cares if he puts his money

into a beneficial effort.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

11. You are correct. I was at the annual meting when I posted that.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

3. Mid America is building a 3.6B wind project

They have built a lot of wind in Iowa. He's trying to convince Nebraska the wind doesn't stop at the river.

[A HERETIC I AM]

12. Ummmm....he didn't just buy a "huge amount of railroad stock"....

He bought a railroad.

Berkshire Hathaway owns Burlington Northern Santa Fe. (BNSF)

[Wellstone ruled]

4. Interestiing little bit,

Siemens builds the Windmills for this Project some two hundred miles north. Brandon South Dakota and Pipestone,Minnesota. Oh it is fun to pick on the Buffet is it not? BTW,his opposition to Keystone was purely economic,Tar Sand Oil is only Feed Stock to Refineries and is blended with other Crude due to its poor quality. Remember,there is a existing Pipeline in place which does carry Tar Sand Crude and what is commonly known as Keystone would follow along the same corridor. Enbridge(Koch Industries is the largest investor via Flint Hill Resources)is the present day name. Remember the Spill in Barkston,South Dakota two weeks ago,same players.

[2naSalit]

5. +1

[Wellstone ruled]

6. What really sucks is

here in the South West,Berkshire owns Nevada Energy,Rocky Mountain Power,Arizona Energy and Pacific Corp. In saying that,these Companies are on a anti Solar Panel crusade. We have lost some six k Solar jobs since the first of the year via the change in pricing of Net Metered Rates. Under the new rules,championed by our PUC,which is beholding to Nevada Energy Lobbyist and free flowing cash to certain Politicos,any one with a Solar Installation just got the shaft. Under the new rate structure,it is now more expensive to have Solar than be non Solar.

As you have guested,we are a Tea Billy Libertarian State at this time with a Governor who was the chief Lawyer for Nevada Energy. This is what happens when Democrats stay home on Election Day.

[2naSalit]

7. Yes, the apathy is

a major detriment to progress. Up on the plateau, around Jellystone, we have coops for power that are powered by hydro generation. There are smaller alternatives to the huge wildlife habitat destroying wind and solar farms but the owners of the grid are adamantly against that. The vulnerability of the grid is something few consider when planning for the transition. I would argue that point source power generation is abetter option given how the disruption of one point in the grid can disable power access to whole regions.

Remember when that tree fell on a power line in rural Idaho back in 1996 that knocked out power to the whole western region? And the Northridge earthquake that knocked out power all the way to Calgary? And a bird that also knocked out power for an entire region back in the 90s as well?

I would prefer that we convert to some of this kind of technology instead...

http://www.aerotecture.com/

[Wellstone ruled]

9. Here is one you will like.

There is a major Wind Power Project in Southwestern Minnesota and into Eastern South Dakota. Okay,heard all the stories about bird kills in and around the Wind Towers,well,a fellow was caught planting dead birds near a couple of towers,and then this group would do the photo thing and get some News Paper to do a can't have Windmill story.

Here what you saying as to Hydro,you are talking less than a quart cent per KWH,grew up in North Western Wisconsin were we all had small Hydros for Electricity. Along came a major neighboring Power Company,bought out the Hydros and shut them down,and later junked all the equipment. Then lobbied the state legislature to make the permitting process for any new Hydro operations next to impossible or to costly to build.

The Koch Brothers have set up fake environmentally name front groups in all 50 states. All to effect changes in rules and regs to benefit them selves and no one else. I question every thing written unless I know the source.

[2naSalit]

13. Knowing the source of info

is crucial to not being trolled into extinction.

[jwirr]

8. That is one of the really great advances Iowa has made since

I moved out of the state in 1980s. You can drive for miles and follow the lines of the wind mills set out in the fields of grain. To me it was actually a beautiful sight as it was a sign of hope.

Someone did say that much of the power does not benefit local areas as it goes down to Kentucky - I am not sure about that.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

10. Buffett's point was that it's made power cheaper in Iowa, and that cheap power attracted Google

...to put in a huge data center near Council Bluffs. I think he's frustrated that Nebraska's public power districts won't see the light on wind -- especially given that the central and western parts of the state are windy. Meanwhile, Koch has funded efforts in eastern South Dakota to fight wind on aesthetic grounds.

I'm not pretending Buffett is a saint. he wants to make money. He opposes KXL because he wants BNSF trains to haul Bakken oil. But BNSF also hauls a lot of coal, and the $3.6 B wind project Mid America is building is clearly an alternative to coal and NG.

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