By Denny Manchee, Watershed
It starts with an unfamiliar car in the driveway. Two people get out and approach your farmhouse. They knock, you open. “We’re interested in doing a study on the feasibility of wind turbines here,” says the taller one. “There’s no commitment,” adds the other, following a well-rehearsed script. Just like the travelling salesmen of yore, the Fuller Brush man or the FilterQueen vacuum guy, these folks have something to sell, a proposal – you can do your bit for the planet and make a little green while you’re at it. What’s not to like?
You invite them in to hear more, offer them coffee while you sit around your kitchen table, listen with interest as they lay out the numbers: $12,000 per year minimum per turbine and maybe as much as $18,000. You picture five slender poles with blades glinting in the sunlight and do the mental arithmetic: 60 to 90 grand a year for letting them use your land? Sure beats sitting on a tractor for 12 hours a day.
Problem is, they’re not slender poles, they’re industrial behemoths, five metres wide at the base, 100 metres tall to the hub with blades half again as high – 150 metres from toe to tip, as tall as a 40-storey building. In skimming the fine print, you also missed the part about the potential health and environmental impacts of turbines, and breezed past the language about not talking to anyone about the deal. Read article
I have read and seen allot of what these so called wind turbines can do and NOT do!! – I along with allot of other people do NOT agree with it! -and what they did with the Eagles Nest out in Haldimand county was shamful – as far as I am concerned this Liberal so called government is morally corrupte!!
That’s right Lyn, that’s why there are so many people all over this province, fighting to stop this mess. The NDP also think it is OK to do this to rural Ontario. But we have to stop them in order to save our families, and our communities.
If you click on ‘Read article’ link above, it takes you to the Watershed site. from there you can click on a link which will take you to this page… http://watershedmagazine.com/?p=2247 (David versus Goliath) about an expropriation by the federal government – of land granted by King George III to the current 84 year old’s ancestor – “The deed says ‘granted to you and your heirs in perpetuity’”. Others have noted that the feds aren’t really big on honouring old obligations.
The government – any government, regardless of party or the lies they tell at election time – is not our friend.
Im so sick of it always coming to money against the neighbor, its simply not! I find it a farce that one can secretly go about putting up a monster sized turbine that can be seen for 15mins away, and not have to say a thing to the house sitting next to it.
you’d have to speak to the neighbors if you wanted to put up a fence for crying out loud, but not a 50 story turbine. its crazy!
invasive is an understatement!
Wolfe Island, Apr.20,2010
“Open Fires Banned On Wolfe Island Following Wind Tower Scare”
Grass fires threatened turbines #2 and 5 but no wind turbine workers were working on the turbines at the time of the fire.
http://www.wolfeisland.com/mtnews/archives/2010_04.php
Barbara…… Collective Awhhh! Too bad, so sad!
Maybe the winds of luck will blow the flames in the right direction next time, and melt the useless piece of scrap. I like to think of them as giant lightning rods, waiting to be hooked up to Queen’s Park.
Yeah I would like to see several wind turbines outside of Quuens Park!!!! what a view!!!!
Wolfe Island IWT project already provides an IWT “Case Study” for Ontarians.
You have:
The financial arrrangements
The partnerships injvolved
The lease options
The amenities agreement issues
The property tax issues for the IWTs
Fire safety
Number of permanent jobs
The sale of the project thru different parties
The property devaluation
Bird kills
Health issues & “Noise issues”
Anything else?
These are not listed in any particular order of importance.