Donald Trump.Photo: Steven Ferdman/WireImage
Former PresidentDonald Trumpis reviving an old feud: one with wind power, which he frequently criticized during his tenure in the White House.
Speaking to Fox News hostSean Hannityin a rambling interview given via phone on Thursday, the 75-year-old Trump said that windmills were “ruining the atmosphere” and “killing the birds.” (Birds die in other ways atfar greater rates.)
“Stop with all of the windmills all over the place that are ruining the atmosphere. They’re killing the birds,” Trumpsaid, adding: “You look at what’s happening to these beautiful prairies and plains and these gorgeous areas of our country where they have these rusting hulks put up all over the place where— that are noisy, they’re killing the birds.”
At another point in the interview with Hannity, the former president seeminglyconfused a metaphorabut the Biden administration “banging its head against the wall,” referring instead to the actual wall that he long promised to build on the southern border while in office.
Donald Trump.James Devaney/GC Images
A longtime skeptic of alternative energy, Trump has previously also alleged that wind power causes cancer.
“If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer,” he said at a 2019 fundraiser for the Republican National Congressional Committee.
“And of course, it’s like a graveyard for birds,” Trump added. “If you love birds, you’d never want to walk under a windmill.”
A 2014 report from theNational Institutes of Healthfound “that when sited properly, wind turbines are not related to adverse health.”
USA Todayhas reportedthat some critics have linked wind farms to “annoyances that could disrupt sleep, induce headaches or even cause mild nausea.”
Trump’s distaste for windmills has been personal at times as well.
In 2015, he waged an ultimatelyunsuccessful legal battleto try and halt Scottish officials from building a wind-farm near his Aberdeen golf resort.
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In aspeech to young conservatives in 2019, Trump again criticized windmills, which he claimed to have studied “better than anybody I know.”
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“Gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything,” he said at the time, later adding: “You see all those [windmills]. They’re all different shades of color. They’re like sort of white, but one is like an orange-white. It’s my favorite color, orange.”
source: people.com
