President Donald Trump attacked wind turbines during the final presidential debate and claimed that they kill ''all the birds,'' USA Today reports.
The topic was brought up during a discussion on climate change. Former Vice President Joe Biden ripped Trump’s opposition to his climate plan. He also called out a previous comment Trump made suggesting ''wind causes cancer.''
Trump hit back saying he is more knowledgeable about wind.
''I know more about wind than you do,'' Trump said. ''It’s extremely expensive, kills all the birds, it’s very intermittent. It's got a lot of problems and they happen to make the windmills in both Germany and China.''
But according to USA Today, Trump’s assertion that wind turbines pose a threat to birds isn’t all that likely. A 2014 study found that windmills killed between 214,000 and 368,000 birds annually. That number is way less than the estimated annual fatalities caused by cell and radio towers, around 6.6 million annually, and cats, around a couple billion.
In a 2016 article, the National Audubon Society said wind energy is a necessary evil because ''birds are going to be threatened by climate change.''
Trump hasn’t been a fan of wind energy for years. In 2012, he was critical of Scotland for proposing wind turbines near his luxury golf resort in Aberdeenshire, according to the newspaper.
During a National Republican Congressional Committee dinner, he alleged that wind farms cause cancer. USA Today reports the National Institutes of Health found no threat to human life if turbines are sited properly, with minimal exposure to surrounding homes.
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