Donald Trump is at it again with
his endless crusade against wind
energy, specifically wind turbines.
Here's what he had to say.
>> We're not going to be energy
independent in two months from now.
They're making windmills all over
the place to ruin our land and
kill our birds, to kill everything.
We're not going to be at and
they're very intermittent
as you learn from watching
over the last four months,
it's intermittent energy.
It's not good, it's not going to
power our great factories.
>> Now it's important,
incredibly important to fact check
what he said there because he keeps
repeating the same lies over and
over again.
And while it's fun to make fun of
how unintelligent he might sound,
it's also important to get
the right information out there.
So it's time for The De-bunker.
>> You didn't see Republicans when
we had control of the Senate try to
rig the game.
>> Shows how the Green New Deal
would be a deadly deal for
the United States of America.
>> Our systems are not racist.
[MUSIC]
>> And because he's impatient, so
I now go to him.
>> Okay, I know Ana was going to
give you more facts, but I just
want to give you the first one.
Windmills do not kill everything,
all right?
Back to you Ana.
>> Yeah, that was the first
fact check.
[LAUGH] >> That was the first
de-bunk of this segment.
Now, first I think it's
also important to acknowledge why
he tends to have a beef with wind
energy specifically, right?
He never really talks about solar
power, wind energy keeps
coming up over and over again.
And there's a very specific
personal reason for that.
So he was upset when there was
an approved proposal to build wind
turbines right off the coast of
his golf resort in Scotland, okay?
So let me give you the details.
Trump was furious when the Scottish
government approved plans for
the renewable energy development
within sight of his multi-million
pound golf development.
He said the turbines would
spoil the view.
So he's very worried
about the view everyone,
who cares about climate change,
it's going to ruin the view.
We do have a photo of it by the way
and I would argue that even though
I'm not a huge fan of how wind
turbines look and yes people got
upset at me for saying that before.
I think that looks totally fine,
it's still a beautiful view.
So they
constructed 11 wind turbines.
He engaged in this insane court
battle against it and
luckily he lost.
Trump made a series of legal
challenges in the Scottish
courts and then took the fight to
the UK Supreme Court in London.
He argued that planning consent for
the wind farm was so imprecise as
to make it legally invalid.
And so luckily the Supreme Court
was like, no, no, step aside,
they decided to approve the project
luckily.
>> And they even made him pay for
the legal costs for Scotland.
So what's amazing to me is
that the Republican party now
has their policies
centered around what is going
to make Donald Trump more money.
He's obsessed with windmills
because of that one golf course.
So it's going to kill the view.
It's going to kill everything, the
birds, I'm worried about the birds.
It's going to kill my profits
in Scotland, I don't like it.
I mean the birds and
plus, of course, cancer.
>> Yeah, I mean, it's just so
ridiculous.
Now, as Cenk had mentioned, the
turbines do not kill everything.
But Trump does tend to also bring
up the fact that it kills birds as
if Trump actually cares about
birds.
We've seen how he's handled
the American Bald Eagle.
He has a little bit of difficulty
with it, so he doesn't seem to be
an admirer of birds.
But with that said it is important
to see whether or
not that statement is true, so
BBC news did fact check this.
Research from the London School
of Economics estimated
in 2014 that by 2020 there could
be anywhere between 9,600 and
106,000 bird deaths a year from
wind energy in the UK.
In other words, we're not sure.
It compared this with the estimated
55 million birds killed by domestic
cats in the UK each year.
>> My God. >> But it's the circle
of life,
studies looking at the US have put
the figure at anywhere from fewer
than 10,000 to more than 500,000.
And let me also just note,
you know what's
also really terrible for birds?
Climate change, wildfires that
destroy their habitat.
I mean, maybe we should think about
that if he's genuinely
worried about birds, but
I would suspect that
he actually doesn't care at all.
>> Yeah, so that's an interesting
give or take on climate change or
is the windmills on what's
more bird friendly or not.
But with the 55 million
bird massacre
of the cats in just the UK alone,
does seem like a tiny number.
But I know that Donald Trump,
that's going to be next line,
the cats,
we're going to get rid of the cat,
they're killing all the birds.
Okay, right wingers and
fake left wingers,
you really think that Donald Trump
is concerned about the birds?
>> No, and then finally, one other
thing that I want to bring up, it's
very clear that he's learned a new
word, intermittent, and he repeated
it several times in that clip.
And so this is also a talking point
that you hear
from anti-renewable energy people.
But remember,
renewable energy isn't just reliant
on wind turbines,
there's also solar power.
There are ways to reserve
the energy, right?
So this isn't something that they
hadn't thought through.
Now obviously there are still
developments to be made in regard
to renewable energy,
that's why it's so important to
invest in renewable energy.
But don't make the mistake of
thinking that he's trying to cite
legitimate concerns in regard to
wind turbines or renewable energy.
He just doesn't like the way they
look, and to be quite honest with
you, I kind of get it because I
don't like the way they look,
but it doesn't matter, okay?
I think being able to survive on
this planet is far more important
than the aesthetic appeal of
wind turbines.
>> Yeah, who cares how they look?
>> Yeah.
>> So last thing, of course,
you guys remember Donald Trump said
that the windmills cause cancer
because the noise of wind caused
cancer.
So now the official Republican
party platform is, wind causes
cancer, it is causing cancer to
Donald Trump's profits in Scotland.
We're getting sick, okay?
[LAUGH] So go ahead, formulate
all your policy around this obvious
con-men, have added hos.
By the way, just in case
you're among the gullible,
wind does not in fact cause cancer.