Oilman Psychology

LOL....

I think that just might fall under the category of, "the ends justifies the means".
OR
...you can't touch me so I will do what I want...

Like the cowboy photo....

It never stops amazing me as to the swaggered vernacular people in power use to try and create some kind of, "trip to nostalgic memories", to justify their actions past and future....

Must have been a fascinating conversation.....

.....Bill

Yes, it was fascinating, to be sure. I'm SO glad I took the advice of numerous friends and based this book on interviews; they've taken me to some incredible places and put me in front of some amazing people.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/officials_hope_to_learn_why_wi.html


December 27, 2009 by John Mariani in The Post-Standard
Fenner, NY -- Marvin DeKing already was up and awake between 3 and 4 a.m. when he heard a loud bang.

"It sounded like thunder and lightning," said DeKing, of 5206 Buyea Road in this rural town five miles northeast of Cazenovia. But it wasn't until daylight that DeKing learned what had caused the noise: The 187 ton windmill across the road from his house had fallen over and lay sprawled in the cornfield in which it had stood.

The 200-foot-plus structure is one of 20 windmills that generate electricity at the Fenner Wind Farm operated by Enel North America.

Officials from Enel's headquarters in Massachusetts began arriving in Fenner around 3 p.m. to begin investigating the incident.

"I don't think we have any idea what happened at this point," company spokesman Hank Sennott said.

The company will conduct a thorough investigation into the "highly unusual occurrence," he said. He said he does not think there's any possibility sabotage caused the windmill to topple.

Sennott said he believes this is the only one of Enel's 260 turbines in the United States and Canada to fall. He estimated the replacement cost at $2 million to $3 million.

It's unlikely that high winds knocked over the windmill. Winds gust up to 31 mph were recorded at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in nearby Hamilton, about 17 miles away, but then died down, said Dave Nicosia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Binghamton. By 3 a.m., the winds in Hamilton were 10 mph, with gusts up to 17 mph.

"The winds certainly are going to be stronger higher up. I don't know what it takes to knock one of them (windmills) down. Probably not 40 mph winds. That's not a terribly unusual wind," Nicosia said.

Fenner Supervisor Rusell Cary said he was informed about the collapse this morning by Steve Pike, Enel's project manager for the site.

Pike said when the tower fell it activated an alarm at a substation on Peterboro Road. Workers came to Buyea Road and discovered the windmill down.

By midday, officials had set up a wooden barricade at the foot of the gravel road that leads from Buyea Road to the disabled mill. Curiosity seekers drove past and some snapped photos of the downed tower and its now mangled vanes.

The 20 windmills in the Fenner wind farm were erected in 2001 atop a majestic hill. The project cost $34 million. At the time, it was the largest wind-energy facility in the Eastern United States. It no longer is the largest, but when all the blades are spinning, the farm's turbines provide enough electricity for 10,000 homes.

The windmills are the biggest landmarks, and a tourist attraction, in Fenner, a town with about 2,000 residents where farming remains the main occupation.

The toppled windmill stood 212 feet from the ground to the center hub, 329 feet to the tip of a blade at its full height. By comparison, the 23-story State Tower Building, the tallest in downtown Syracuse, is 315 feet high. The windmill's tower is made of steel and the blades of fiberglass.

Pike said Enel's other 19 windmills in Fenner shut down automatically after Turbine 18 fell. Enel's other windmill farms remain in operation today in Minnesota, Kansas, Texas and Newfoundland. Officials at those operations were made aware of the problem in Fenner, Sennott said.

"I wouldn't speculate on anything," Cary said when asked why he thought the windmill went down. "We don't know what the issue is. I'm just hoping we can learn from it."

Bob Stinson, a resident of South Road nearly two miles from Turbine 18, said it sounded like "a sonic boom" when the windmill toppled.

"I felt it. It shook the house. It woke me up," Stinson said.

Hi A:

...and this is relevant because..???....
Lets see..... how many people are killed each year on the highways driving their cars....
Every system, EVERY system will fail given enough time...

.....Bill
PS: My impression here is that you are dissing windmills because one fell over....???..
If that is true, you must be super, super anti Nuclear....

I once worked at a small windfarm, just outside of Stirling in Scotland. The wind turbines (WT) there were about the same size, either 2.2MW or 2.8MW. The WT were anchored to the ground, by a reinforced concrete block which was 10 metres cubed. So when the weight of the block is taken into account, which must be about 1,500 tons. Then there's the connection to the electricity grid, with the cables again buried under an enormous amount of earth.

So we will all have to wait to find the reason.

And for more fictional conspiracy mind wandering theories, consider this. The improperly installed wind machine was intentionally compromised by some pro-oil engineer. Cue the deep bass crescendo.

When will the end ever stop justifying the means? "There is a way that seems right to man but the end thereof are the ways of death"!