the Very Stable Genius has some thoughts on energy

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/23/president-trump-lashes-out-an-old-enemy-windmills/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-turning-point-usa-student-action-summit-west-palm-beach-fl/

But we’re in a battle of survival of this nation.  We really are.  When you look at these people talk, with their Green New Deal.  But I don’t want to knock it now, if you don’t mind.  I don’t want to knock it.  I knocked — I knocked the hell out of Pocahontas.  I got her down.  (Applause.)  I don’t want to — too early.  It’s too early.  They can change.  I don’t want say “the Green New Deal.”  I think it’s a wonderful thing.  I do want to think about it.  I want to study it closely.  (Laughter.)  I want to see whether or not we should ever use airplanes again.  (Laughter.)

How about the senator from Hawaii?  Nasty.  Nasty.  Horrible.  Gee, what she says — what she says is so mean and angry.  She’s not the smartest person on the planet.  (Laughter.)  She wants the Green New Deal, and then they informed her that that does not include airplanes.  And you’re the senator from Hawaii.  So they said, “What are you going to do?”  And then they talked about building a train to Hawaii, can you believe it?  (Laughter.)

No, no, she wants it, even though you can’t — you’ll never get to Hawaii again.  Say goodbye to Hawaii.  No, it’s crazy, isn’t it, though?

But I don’t want to knock it.  All of these things have to be st- — it’s too soon.  It’s too soon.  Let it go.  Let — let it seed.  Like — just like our great agenda has to seed like a tree.  It has to seed.  Let the Green New Deal seed.  (Laughter.)  And then about two months before the campaign ends, I will rip that sucker like you have — (applause).  We’ll let it seed, the Green New Deal.  (Applause.)

We’ll have an economy based on wind.  I never understood wind.  You know, I know windmills very much.  I’ve studied it better than anybody I know.  It’s very expensive.  They’re made in China and Germany mostly — very few made here, almost none.  But they’re manufactured tremendous — if you’re into this — tremendous fumes.  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.  You talk about the carbon footprint — fumes are spewing into the air.  Right?  Spewing.  Whether it’s in China, Germany, it’s going into the air.  It’s our air, their air, everything — right?

So they make these things and then they put them up.  And if you own a house within vision of some of these monsters, your house is worth 50 percent of the price.  They’re noisy.  They kill the birds.  You want to see a bird graveyard?  You just go.  Take a look.  A bird graveyard.  Go under a windmill someday.  You’ll see more birds than you’ve ever seen ever in your life.  (Laughter.)

You know, in California, they were killing the bald eagle.  If you shoot a bald eagle, they want to put you in jail for 10 years.  A windmill will kill many bald eagles.  It’s true.

And you know what?  After a certain number, they make you turn the windmill off.  That’s true, by the way.  This is — they make you turn it off after you — and yet, if you killed one they put you in jail.  That’s okay.  But why is it okay for these windmills to destroy the bird population?  And that’s what they’re doing.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Because they’re idiots!

THE PRESIDENT:  (Laughs.)  This is a conservative group, Dan.  (Applause.)  No, but it’s true.  Am I right?  (Applause.)

I’ll tell you another thing about windmills.  And I’m not — look, I like all forms of energy.  And I think (inaudible) — really, they’re okay in industrial areas.  Like you have an industrial plant, you put up a windmill — you know, et cetera, et cetera.

I’ve seen the most beautiful fields, farms, fields — most gorgeous things you’ve ever seen, and then you have these ugly things going up.  And sometimes they’re made by different companies.  You know, I’m like a perfectionist; I really built good stuff.  And so you’ll see like a few windmills made by one company: General Electric.  And then you’ll see a few made by Siemens, and you’ll see a few made by some other guy that doesn’t have 10 cents, so it looks like a — so you see all these windows, they’re all different shades of color.  They’re like sort of white, but one is like an orange-white.  (Laughter.)  It’s my favorite color: orange.  (Applause.)

No, but — and you see these magnificent fields, and they’re owned — and you know what they don’t tell you about windmills?  After 10 years, they look like hell.  You know, they start to get tired, old.  You got to replace them.  A lot of times, people don’t replace them.  They need massive subsidy from the government in order to make it.  It’s really a terrible thing.

And what they want to do is they want to get rid of all petroleum product.  That means you basically won’t have any factories in the United States.

So tell me though, how are you going to win Texas when you say, “We’re going to get rid of all petroleum,” right?  (Applause.)  If you win — how about this guy, Beto?  Beto.  He was a beauty.

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  Beto came out — he’s from Texas.  He came out against religion, he came out against guns, and he came out against energy — oil, right?  So he’s against oil, guns, and the Bible.  Abraham Lincoln can’t win with that platform in Texas.  I can tell you, right?  (Laughter and applause.)

No, we’re doing it right.  We’re doing it right.  And you know, our numbers, environmentally, right now are better than they’ve ever been before, just so you know, because I’m an environmentalist.  I am.  (Applause.)  I want the cleanest water on the planet.  I want the cleanest air anywhere — crystal-clean water. I want perfectly clean air.  And we have the best numbers right now that we’ve ever had, meaning in the last 40 years.  (Applause.)  I assume the numbers a couple of hundred years ago were better because we didn’t have anything.  So, over the last 40 years — we’re in very good shape.