OzarkChris - That's one of the nice things about this forum, most of us are NOT looking to pick fights. I guess we must be grownups or something ;-)
I happen to agree with you 10,000% on nuclear. Unfortunately, even hinting at it makes people go totally nuts. France shut down their nuclear power plants (public pressure) and now they are buying electricity from Germany, which generates it by burning coal. Sigh. There are some problems with nuclear, though. First is new power plants suffer huge cost overruns stemming from interminable delays. This is a legal/permitting/procedural problem, not a nuclear specific problem. The other issue is disposal of nuclear waste, which is still unsolved.
Nevertheless, nuclear is still a contender, but social pressures make it extremely difficult.
While it is completely true that mining for solar panels is an environmental mess, once the panels are made, that's the end of that panel's adverse environmental impact (until it gets recycled in a decade or two, and solar panel recycling is starting). With coal fired power plants, the pollution is ongoing - continuous mining, transporting by rail, burning, ash disposal.
Remember that we are dealing with a LOT of emotion here. "My mind is made up, don't distract me with the facts!" There are lots of very different viewpoints, some make sense, some don't, some people have agendas, but the discussions get pretty acrimonious very quickly. Somebody once said "A burning building is not conducive to reasoned debate."
I don't have any answers about bird kills. I just don't know enough about it to take a coherent position. I will say that here in Florida, your crabgrass has more rights than you do, so illogical application of environmental (and other) rules and regulations is not surprising.
It is beginning to appear that fusion power is actually on the horizon (as opposed to being perpetually 20 years in the future). Net gain has been achieved in the laboratory, so we know the concept is valid. Now "all" we have to do is make it commercially practical. A lot of very talented, very motivated people are working on it and lots of money is being spent to make it work. Eventually, it may, and I hope it does.
Its late and I'm tired, but I do want to mention something about solar break-even times before I knock off for the evening.
Craigslist (for example) is full of ads for last year's solar panels at very reasonable prices. If you buy new, you're looking at big bucks for say, a 275 watt panel, times however many panels you need. I see older panels, 200 watts, for $50 to $75 each. Lets say you need 5KW, that's 18 of the 275 watt panels at $300 each ($5,400) OR 25 of the old, obsolete 200 watt panels at $75 each, total $1,875. So they've lost a little efficiency? Who cares, the fuel is absolutely free and is delivered daily. Of course you still need inverters and if you are off grid a big battery, but you've saved $3,500 on the solar cells and that brings break-even a lot closer. A solar power system increases the value of your home, and enlightened states (no pun intended) don't increase your tax assessment by the value of the solar power system.
This has become a very interesting thread, even if it is a bit off topic about pickup trucks!
Best Regards,
Mike/Florida