President Donald Trump renewed his attack against wind power during a rambling speech at a National Republican Congressional Committee dinner on Tuesday, saying that wind turbines undermined property values, killed birds and even caused cancer.
The president, who doesn’t acknowledge climate change and has staunchly opposed wind-generated power, often outlandlishly criticizes renewable technology as he lauds coal and other traditional fossil fuels. Scientists call Trump’s opposition to renewable energy “malicious ignorance.”
Trump’s most common line of attack on wind power is that the turbines kill birds—they do, but at a far lower rate than other energy sources—and that reliance on turbines (which he seems to confuse with windmills) would mean no electricity when there is no wind—an argument nullified by the existence of battery storage.
“Hillary wanted to put up wind. Wind,” he told the crowd. “If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value.” He then introduced his newest argument, telling the audience, “And they say the noise causes cancer,” before mimicking the sound of a turbine as the crowd laughed and applauded.
There is no evidence that the noise of a wind turbine causes cancer. Anti-wind power groups have incorrectly claimed that the low-frequency noise—known as infrasound—given off by turbines can cause health problems including nausea, sleep loss and anxiety, among many other symptoms, The Atlantic explained.
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