President Donald Trump is apparently not a big fan of wind power.

In a speech before a conservative group in Florida this weekend, the president addressed windmills and wind power during comments mocking the Green New Deal, the proposed climate change legislation introduced by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

(Video: CSPAN)

“We will have an economy based on wind,” Trump said, speaking at a Turning Point USA conference in West Palm Beach on Saturday.

“I never understood wind,” he said. “I know windmills very much, I have studied it better than anybody. I know it is very expensive. They are made in China and Germany mostly, very few made here, almost none, but they are manufactured, tremendous — if you are 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 is China or Germany, is going into the air,” he continued.

Carbon emissions are created from windmill construction, but the American Wind Energy Association contends that a “typical wind project repays its carbon footprint in six months or less, providing decades of zero-emission energy.”

“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 are noisy, they kill the birds — you want to see a bird graveyard, go under a windmill someday. You will see more birds than you’ve ever seen ever in your life,” he said, going on to note the number of eagles being killed by the wind turbines.

“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,” Trump said.

“And you know what? After a certain number, they make you turn the windmill off, that is true. By the way, they make you turn it off. And yet, if you killed one, they put you in jail. That is okay. But why is it okay for these windmills to destroy the bird population?”

About 150,000 birds are affected annually by wind turbines in the U.S., according to a study earlier this year.

“Look, I like all forms of energy, and really they are okay in industrial areas,” the president said, while taking issue with the appearance of the structures.

“I have seen the most beautiful fields, farms, the most gorgeous things you have ever seen, and then you have these ugly things going up,” he said.

He took issue with their many different appearances as different companies make them, before making a joke on their color which the audience loved.

“They are different shades of color, they are sort of white, but one is like an Orange white — my favorite color, Orange,” the president said as the crowd erupted in cheers and applause.

He went on to argue that the windmills ruin “these magnificent fields” and after a decade, “they look like hell.”

“They start to get tired, you have to replace them. A lot of times people don’t replace them. They need a massive subsidy from the government in order to make it. It’s really a terrible thing. What they want to do is get rid of all petroleum products, that means you basically won’t have any factories in the United States,” Trump said, adding a dig at former 2020 Democratic contender Beto O’Rourke.

“He was a beauty. Beto came out, he is from Texas, he came out against religion, he came out against guns, and he came out against energy, oil, right?” Trump said. “So he is against oil, guns, and the Bible. Abraham Lincoln can’t win with that platform in Texas, I can tell you.”

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Frieda Powers

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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