What those lawmakers didn’t plan for was that 50 years later, an Oregon citizen activist would use that same bureaucracy to hinder some of the very energy projects that today’s liberals want: wind farms and the new high-voltage lines needed to support them.

They didn’t plan for Irene Gilbert.

The 76-year-old retired state employee, former gun store owner and avid elk hunter from La Grande, Oregon, is on a mission to keep turbines and transmission towers from blighting the rural landscape. She has filed more challenges to energy projects — 15 in all, including lawsuits — than anyone in the state, according to Oregon’s Department of Energy.

“I kind of have a reputation,” Gilbert said.

  • KnitWit@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    If she were really worried about objects blighting the landscape of la grande, that one super obvious confederate flag that can be seen from the highway (that I assume is still tacked up in a trailer window) is probably a good place to start.

  • Nightlight@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    We need to find a better green energy. It takes so much petroleum to make and maintain solar panels and wind farms. If the energy industry actually thought these were viable solutions they would be everywhere. I’m not just going to complain about it I’m going into electrical manufacturing and I’m going to do my best to fix it

    Edit: thank you all for telling me off. It was needed. I’m still going to work to fix the energy industry someday though 😋

    • marsza@lemmy.cafe
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      4 days ago

      Maybe when you get out of school you’ll come back here and apologize for your ignorance.

        • marsza@lemmy.cafe
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          3 days ago

          You’re not gonna fix anything. Climate change in global fascism is going to kill any chance of your future. You should focus on weapons for the Civil Wars

          • Nightlight@lemmy.ca
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            3 days ago

            Good point. I’m already looking at making a lidar guided laser anti drone weapon. I will be useful even if I can’t change the world how I want to. There will always be space for more weapons

            Edit: but also I disagree the one thing I can fix is my own ignorance. And you’re helping me do that

            • marsza@lemmy.cafe
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              3 days ago

              Ground-based drone defense can be achieved either by electronic attack, which uses radio-frequency jammers to overwhelm the drone’s control and GPS signals, or by directed energy weapons, such as high-power microwave systems that emit concentrated electromagnetic bursts to overload and destroy the drone’s onboard electronics, rendering it inoperable mid-flight.

              Creating such weapons in a compact form that be mounted on a vehicle or building or handheld 🤞 would give civilians an edge over police drones. Theoretically these devices could be made with common parts without drawing attention, or being prohibitively expensive.

              • Nightlight@lemmy.ca
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                3 days ago

                I just have a thing for lidar and lasers. somebody recently made something similar for anti mosquito purposes. When I start thinking about microwave my brain goes to search and rescue applications. I bet there’s a way that we can find the vital signs of buried patients for triage reasons. i cannot wait to get to school

                Edit* ideally I’ll do it without cooking the patient. But if it comes down to you being rescued or being cooked a little bit what do you think you’ll prefer? Lidar might be a better idea for this

      • Nightlight@lemmy.ca
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        4 days ago

        Thank you. I don’t think I’ve ever been called that before. I understand my ignorance but I have to work on that first before I can fix anything

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Where do you live that neither solar or wind projects are common? I’m in NW Florida and massive solar farms are popping up everywhere, non-stop construction.

    • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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      4 days ago

      That’s why I think home wind and solar are the answer, combos if necessary. Solar is getting way better and everyone maintaining their own system would be great. They already make lots of products that could do this. People just have to have battery set ups, and batteries are getting much better too.

      • SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz
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        4 days ago

        Unfortunately wind doesn’t have nearly the same room for growth or cost benefits at small scale. Noise, maintenance requirements, and size/intrusiveness mean it’s not really an option at residential scale.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      It takes so much petroleum to make and maintain solar panels

      I have solar panels on my house and have spent exactly zero petroleum (or carbon at all!) to maintain them. They have also allowed me to disconnect my natural gas connection and heat my house in the winter with electricity.

      • Nightlight@lemmy.ca
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        4 days ago

        I hope to do something similar someday but it still cost petroleum to make them. I’m envisioning an alternative. Wind turbines do cost petroleum to maintain. You have to lubricate them. But I don’t see why we can’t lubricate them with something more environmentally friendly

        • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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          I hope to do something similar someday but it still cost petroleum to make them. I’m envisioning an alternative.

          This feels like you’re focusing on a tiny tiny issue of carbon use generated during manufacturing of solar panels while ignoring the massive massive issue of carbon use during operation of nearly every other utility traditional power generation system.

          Wind turbines do cost petroleum to maintain. You have to lubricate them.

          All of the petroleum used to lubricate a windmill over its entire lifetime is likely less than the petroleum used in a single day of a traditional petroleum based power generation system of the same capacity.

          Can you explain why you’re hyperfocused on the small consumption while ignoring the massively larger consumption of alternatives?

          • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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            All of the petroleum used to lubricate a windmill over its entire lifetime is likely less than the petroleum used in a single day of a traditional petroleum based power generation system of the same capacity.

            The ONLY problem about oil is burning it. If we just used it for lubricants and plastics, we’d have enough till pretty much the end of the world.

            • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              The ONLY problem about oil is burning it.

              The exploration for oil, extraction, transportation, pollution from spills, and refining are also problems, but I generally agree that burning it creating CO2 is the biggest problem we have today.

                • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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                  3 days ago

                  I disagree. The petrochemical industry is giant and only a part of that results in end product combustion. Lots of other things come out like lubricants as we talked about, solvents, industrial additives, plastics, etc.

          • Nightlight@lemmy.ca
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            Yes I would love to explain that for you. I often become hyper fixated on certain issues but the fun part is that while I’m fixated on it I learn way more about it. Through yourself and others telling me off I’m beginning to focus in on what can actually be a benefit. I wasn’t just trying to be a dumbass. I was looking for ideas

            • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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              Yes I would love to explain that for you. I often become hyper fixated on certain issues but the fun part is that while I’m fixated on it I learn way more about it. Through yourself and others telling me off I’m beginning to focus in on what can actually be a benefit. I wasn’t just trying to be a dumbass. I was looking for ideas

              I highly recommend you modify you language in the future then. Your original posts were making statement as though you were authoritative to answer, and that your statements were factual. This immediately makes you lose credibility and a whole segment of people will simply ignore/dismiss/block you because you are clearly wrong and don’t appear to have any awareness of it or flexibility to modify your thinking.

              Instead of making likely incorrect statements, why not ask questions? Instead of you saying:

              It takes so much petroleum to make and maintain solar panels and wind farms.

              Why not ask the question “How much petroleum does it take to make solar panels vs petroleum consumed from traditional power generation sources?”

              Ignorance in search of truth is noble. Intentionally stating misinformation to do so is dangerous. What if someone with fewer critical thinking skills reads your post and starts believing that solar panels are worse than burning oil for power? They may act on that and vote down solar power and opt for oil power instead.

              • Nightlight@lemmy.ca
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                2 days ago

                Oh yeah I see that now. I’m not any kinda of authority. Just a crazy person who wants to invent even crazier things. I really appreciate your feedback.

        • SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz
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          4 days ago

          I was expecting you to talk about embodied energy in the steel, concrete, copper, composites, silicon, glass, and the diesel trucks, cranes, and helicopters used for installation and maintenance. Most of those could be greenified once there’s enough renewables around.

          Nope. You care about lubricant. They use stuff all, don’t even burn it, and it’s not a particularly impossible thing to replace - I’m sure you could synthesize replacements from corn alcohol though you’d still probably need lithium, molybdenum, or whatever other fancy additives are in use.

          They used to use whale fat as lubricant.

          Congratulations; dumbest take I’ve seen all year.

          • Nightlight@lemmy.ca
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            3 days ago

            Thank you so much for telling me off about this. There are so many ways we can change this for the better and I’ve been very short sighted.