Maine Governor: University Wind Turbine Uses 'Little Electric Motor' Or Maybe Witchcraft

Seems like C_R_Eature missed a Top Science Discovery in his roundup of the week's science news: Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who has had just about enough of this "clean energy" nonsense, accused the University of Maine of using vile subterfuge and "a little electric motor" to fool decent god-fearing folk into thinking that electricity can be generated by wind power. He then reportedly lunged at press photographers, screaming at them to stop stealing pieces of his soul.

In comments earlier this week to the Skowhegan Area Chamber of Commerce, LePage emitted the following string of sounds resembling human speech from somewhere in the vicinity of his upper thorax:

Now, to add insult to injury, The University of Maine, Presque Isle — anybody here been up there to see that damn windmill in the back yard? Guess what, if it’s not blowing wind outside and they have somebody visiting the campus, they have a little electric motor that turns the blades. I’m serious. They have an electric motor so they can show people that wind power works. Unbelievable. And that’s the government that you have here in the state of Maine.

  Bangor Daily News  reporter Mike Tipping says that when he asked University of Maine Presque Isle's media relations director Rachel Price about the assertion, "her first reaction was to laugh out loud."

When I explained that I was following up on an actual statement from Maine’s governor, she was nice enough to provide a more technical refutation. The turbine blades begin spinning at around 4-5 mph of wind speed, begin generating power at 10 mph and can continue generation with winds of up to around 65 mph.

“If there’s no wind, the turbine won’t spin,” explained Rice. “There has to be naturally-occurring wind in order for the turbine to spin.”

But that's pretty much what you'd expect someone on the inside of a conspiracy to promote socialist wind power to say, now isn't it?

 Think Progress has a bunch of blah-blah-blah about how the UMPI's wind turbine has supposedly "produced 680,000 kwh worth of clean electricity in its first year" and allegedly cut "$100,000 off the University of Maine at Preque Isle’s utility bill," but do they provide any information on how much power the little electric motor inside the wind turbine consumes ? They do not.

You will also be astonished to learn that Gov. LePage believes that "scientists are divided" on whether global warming is a thing.

In a related development, the Washington DC and Baltimore areas are under a tornado watch tonight, because that is exactly the kind of week this fucker has been. Residents are advised to not worry too much, since wind power is a myth. To be on the safe side, however, readers in the area should probably stay away from windows and make sure they have lots and lots of guns. 

[ Bangor Daily News via ThinkProgress ]