Wind turbines 'don't work'? The grid disagrees.
WHEN & WHERE WAS IT SAID?
When: Aug 23, 2023
Where: Interview with Tucker Carlson, posted on X
Original context / reporting ↗Windmills don't work
WHAT HE SAID (WORD FOR WORD, SADLY)
In an interview he said of wind turbines: "windmills all over the place, which by the way, don't work, and they're all — most of them — made in China."
WHEN AND WHERE (THE RECEIPTS HAVE A CALENDAR)
Interview with Tucker Carlson, posted to X minutes before the first Republican primary debate on Aug. 23, 2023.
WHAT THE RECORD SHOWS (BRING SNACKS)
- Wind provided 10.2% of U.S. utility-scale electricity generation in 2022, the most of any renewable source (Energy Information Administration).
- Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas and Illinois produced nearly 60% of U.S. wind energy that year.
- PolitiFact found in 2021 that about 16% of imported wind turbine parts came from China. A 2021 BloombergNEF report cited by the Department of Energy found a typical onshore project sources 57% of its parts by value domestically.
- The grid is built to handle variable wind; homes do not lose power when it stops.
WHY THIS MATTERS
'Don't work' is hard to square with a tenth of the nation's electricity.
FactCheck.org found the assertion about wind energy false and also examined Trump's claims about manufacturing origins.
Finding: FalseBold. Wrong, but bold.
Sources & further reading
Keep digging
- Wind turbine noise causes cancer? Evidence says no.
- A record number of workers — but what about the rate?
- Zero illegal entries? That is not what the data show.
Editorial note: each article reports only details found in the linked sources. Where a source does not give a venue, date or exact wording, we say so instead of guessing. Quotations may need further editorial verification against primary recordings or transcripts.