Wind energy skeptics have long pointed out that turbines are all but useless when there is no wind or when temperatures drop too low. But Americans are now increasingly learning that wind energy projects also present a host of serious environmental and even national security concerns, shattering left-wing environmentalist talking points about wind power as “clean” energy.
As wind turbines have become more widespread, so have fires resulting from lightning strikes to the hulking metal structures, some of which rise more than 330 feet off the ground – taller than the Statue of Liberty.
In February, lightning struck a wind turbine in Breckenridge, Texas, “causing the rotor of the Stephens County turbine to break off and continue to burn on the ground,” according to Fox Weather. Another wind turbine caught fire in Iowa in mid-April, and another caught fire in March in Pennsylvania.
In addition to potentially sparking deadly wildfires, these blazes also spread pollution into the surrounding farmland where the turbines are often located.
To make matters worse, farmers who want to remove damaged wind turbines from their land can run into a whole host of other issues. As Just the News reported, “A farm in eastern Iowa has dust and debris from shattered wind turbine blades spread out over 240 acres, and they say the wind farm owner won’t clean it up.” The farmer could be out millions of dollars as a result.
While the company was working on removing some of the damage, officials wanted to use explosives to deconstruct the turbines. That would mean even more massive pieces of metal and potentially toxic chemicals spreading into fertile farmland.
“Now that the harvest is underway, the debris is hurting the family’s agricultural business,” according to Just the News. “As the blade debris becomes more embedded in the topsoil, the family worries it will contaminate their corn.”
Even when those pieces are eventually removed, they will become just one of the tens of millions of used turbines stacking up in landfills around the world. Turbine blades are made of a thick material so they do not easily break down – but that means it is difficult to recycle them for other purposes, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Climate Portal.
As Chemist Jeremiah Johnson explained, “there’s no way to melt it down and remold it into its original components like most other plastics” so most used blades end up in the landfill.
Sometimes, turbine blades don’t even make it that far. Just the News also reported on a “blade disintegration” off the coast of Massachusetts that has left residents and beachgoers dealing with pieces of the turbine washing up on shorelines in Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island.
To make matters worse, wind turbines could pose major safety and even national security concerns.
Because wind turbines are so large, they can cause serious issues with radar detection. “The steel support towers can reflect electromagnetic waves, making it more difficult for radar to pick up nearby objects,” The New York Times reported on May 4.
The rotating blades can also cause headaches for tracking objects, as they “can create a ‘blade flash’ on a radar screen, appearing to be another object where there is none,” the newspaper reported. This makes it difficult to track airplanes or the weather, according to the Department of Energy.
Supporters of the turbines argue that there are ways around these problems. The Times quotes “experts” who say new turbines and radar systems can be designed to minimize these problems.
Still, a 2024 Biden Department of Energy report concluded that adjustments come with their own problems.
“The clutter created by wind turbines typically increases the false alarm detection rate of a radar,” the bipartisan report stated. “To suppress this, the radar system will raise the threshold for what is considered a detection and, as a result, may miss actual targets.”
The Times suggests that radar technology could be changed or that turbines could be “coated with radar-absorbing carbon.” But either of these solutions would impose enormous costs that taxpayers end up paying one way or another – whether through higher taxes to build new radar units or higher energy costs.
Because of these concerns, President Donald Trump has paused around 150 ongoing wind turbine projects pending a national security review.
Critics argue that all types of energy production have some sort of risk – oil tankers can spill, natural gas pipelines can leak, and nuclear reactors can melt down. But none of these industries gets a free pass from Democrat lawmakers and left-wing activists – not to mention a corporate media that brands wind turbines as “eco-friendly.”
Not only that, but the wind industry is also heavily dependent on massive taxpayer subsidies. “From 2016 to 2022, the federal government spent approximately $18.7 billion on subsidies for wind power alone,” the Competitive Enterprise Institute reported in 2024. Still, there was a decrease in overall wind power production in 2023, despite massive backing from the Biden administration.
One reason for the loss in wind power was “slower wind speeds [in 2023].” Without fast wind, wind turbines are not as effective.
As anyone who has driven through a rural area can tell you, when there is no wind, the turbines are just sitting there, blocking radar, and waiting to catch on fire.
Left-wing environmentalists say wind turbines are clean and reliable forms of energy. But history shows that they are certainly not reliable, and the evidence is piling up that this “clean” energy source is piling up in landfills while potentially poisoning the air we breathe and the food we eat.
Matt Lamb is an AMAC Newsline contributor and associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.
Wind turbines sound almost as bad environmentally as solar panels. Maybe AlGore could return the mega bucks he has made off of the enviro fiasco.
The lefts feel good environmental solutions has never been thought out from conception or cradle to grave. The same with electric vehicles, where do they go to die?
Unfortunately using Nancy Pelosi’s
mindset, “We have to pass it to find out what’s in it”, or we have to force it on society to find out what’s wrong with it. Fair weather projects it appears don’t function well in the real world, but that will be someone else’s problem it seems.
And i bet the chinese install cameras and other spies equipment on the high tower. Why else would a chinese firm purchase land close to US military bases to setup wind farms.
If Trump will get around to repatriating the 20 million that Biden let in, we won’t need more wind turbines.
look the environmental stuff is a scam then china sells us wind machines and solar panels under the very best of circumstances you might get 5% of the energy you need but that never happens 58 thousand golden eagles are killed every year by windmills is it worth it and the ones in the water are killing mamals and don’t forget the windmills are hazardous waste while china gets rich
And they’re toxic to build. What a bargain.
Wind turbines were and are a big stinking scam brought to us by the ecotists and General Electric. It is time to tear these albatrosses down and end sight pollution.
Another money laundering scheme and way to redistribute wealth back to the leftists.
Are smaller designs of solar and wind power feasible? We already use solar for lighting our yards and walkways. I had seen small turbines that spin vertically and can be used in a windy backyard, if your area has enough wind. More and more, I see evidence that wind and solar power will not replace gas, thermoelectric, and hydroelectric power. They could still augment it until scientific advancement catches up to our dreams.
Too many in the state of IOWA and I’ve seen more than one that’s burned or had a broken blade! Pollution Country!
And yet they are constantly adding more. One does not need to drive down a rural road, there are thousands along I-10 and I-40, roads I have traveled.
YEAH, MAN! We need more’a them thangs! Betch’a AOC (or whomever the Dumba$$ocrat$ are pushin’ TODAY) could fix us up, QUICK!
The DEFICIT?! We can sign an Executive Order, and make that sucker just GO AWAY!
‘Murica. Love it or leave it….
Another way that China will destroy us from within. Load them on barges and send them back. They have plenty of land they can fill with this garbage.
I worked in the Wind Industry by enlisting companies to repair the blades and connecting them to the turbine owners. It was tremendously enriching but a most useless endeavor as it was dangerous, dirty, temporary, and expensive. It was SOOO much Virtue Signaling by state and local gummints that it was almost unstoppable.
Wow, these Wind Turbines really BLOW!
So now that the song and dance from the eviro guys has been seen and heard, we find out it was smoke and mirror time after all. Go figure. Scams always look and sound much much better than the reality they bring…especially when you have political incentives to push it along. So, now we are finding out what most people already knew….wind power is sometimes nice, but for the most part not worth the money.
I have acres and acres of solar panels in my county……and not only are they an eyesore, but ruin the soil just being there, no to mention the death of birds, insects and other native creatures who come into their influence. And the same is true of wind turbines. So, all this great climate help from wind turbines and solar panels ends up being mostly hype and mostly bad. But rest assured, if the government has a finger in these pies, it will be screwed up for sure. That’s just he way things are today.
I am quite sure all the dead birds don’t care for wind turbines.
Has any one looked into the need to change the oil in the turbines motor I heard that it takes a large quantity of oil to keep them lubricated and that oil must be changed every so often.
I was involved with the Altamont Pass windmill project in California. It was investor funded and one of the first windmill sites in the country. After less than 5 years most of the windmills were not working and not being repaired because the investors were not receiving much of a return on investment and they refused to pay more money to keep the windmills in working order.
Wind and solar are not good alternatives. The best alternative may be to use less energy. Now the need is data centers to support AI and electric vehicles. Come on, do we really need all of the energy we consume? At some point everything will implode and crush us.
A shipload of Democratic Politicians and Rino”s starts to sink , who is saved ? America .
Why not GEO-THERMAL?? The ground temperature is constant. Heating and cooling is only a matter of a few degrees. Super-insulation along with the geo thermal and passive solar or electric. I believe it is worth investigating. It’s just that the government’s policy on regulating everything would make a change of utility policy too hard to implement. It is just too bad that the people have to live under the tax tax tax policies. Anyway MAGA MAGA MAGA
Nothing in the article brings up the problem of how to store any excess energy these windmills produce. What happens to that?
As a taxpayer I HATE paying for stupid programs the federal government is subsidizing.
I am a “all of the above” person when it comes to energy. Though I have a mixed opinion of wind turbines, I think this article is disingenuous when it cites a couple of examples to make the point. They mention three fires happening. There are 73,000 turbines operating in the US so 3 out of 73,000 is infinitesimal (0.004%). You can most likely cite a lot more fires due to gas heat (which I am a strong supporter of). If anything, with the tiny fractions of problems mentioned, it tends to prove the exact opposite of the point the author is trying to make.