“I never understood wind. You know, I know windmills very much. I’ve studied it better than anybody I know.”
President Donald Trump, remarks at Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, West Palm Beach, FL, December 22, 2019
Not to nitpick, but it seems relevant to the nature of the devices the President has “studied better than anybody.”]
“But they’re manufactured tremendous — if you’re into this — tremendous fumes. Gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe.”
President Donald Trump, continuing remarks
[Frog comments: “You know we have a world, right?” True-ish. The existence of a world is widely acknowledged; it’s debatable whether it will continue to belong to us if we don’t take care of its attributes that make our lives possible.
“…the world is tiny compared to the universe.” TRUE! That definitely checks out.]
“So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything. You talk about the carbon footprint — fumes are spewing into the air. Right? Spewing. Whether it’s in China, Germany, it’s going into the air. It’s our air, their air, everything — right?”
President Donald Trump, continuing remarks
[Frog comments: Writing in the International Journal of Sustainable Manufacturing, scientists in 2014 determined that a 2.0 MW wind turbine with a working life of 20 years, operating in the American Northwest, offsets the carbon emissions of its own manufacture within about the first 6 months. Thus, for the following 19.5 years, such a wind turbine powers about 500 U.S. homes with effectively carbon-free electricity.
By contrast, a coal, oil, or gas based power source with a working life of 20 years would be expected to generate “fumes … spewing into the air” for, well, 20 whole years. Whether in China, in Germany, or, really, anywhere. Yes indeed, our air, their air, everything. Just to talk about the carbon footprint.]
“They kill the birds. You want to see a bird graveyard? You just go. Take a look. A bird graveyard. Go under a windmill someday. You’ll see more birds than you’ve ever seen ever in your life.” (Laughter.)
President Donald Trump’s speech, according to the official White House transcript
Yeah, well, that’s not actually a thing. At least, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (who, it just turns out, has gone to take a look):
