It’s not your place, Mr. Stevens

Posted on 02/22/2012 by

Kris showing off his karate moves

by Barbara Ashbee, Orangeville Banner

I am following the letters from Kristopher Stevens, executive director of Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, a wind lobby group, to the mayors of Amaranth and Melancthon.  I recall there were a number of requests to have senior ministry officials from the province meet with council about some very serious issues in a local wind project and instead they sent district office staff that acknowledged the problems but could not offer any answers when it came to policy questions or mitigation of problems. Continue reading →

Posted in ENGOs | 4 Comments

Asphodel-Norwood Council supports turbine moratorium

Posted on 02/22/2012 by

by Mark Hoult, Community Press
Asphodel-Norwood — Council here wants Queen’s Park to put in place a one-year moratorium on the construction of industrial wind turbines in the province. Council last week joined a growing list of municipalities supporting the Municipality of Arran-Elderslie’s resolution calling on the province to “invoke an immediate moratorium” until concerns about the impact of wind farms on human health, property values, the rural landscape and wildlife habitats have been addressed.  Read article
Note: Strathroy-Caradoc also voted in favour of a moratorium on turbines yesterday.

Posted in Municipalities of Ontario | 1 Comment

Ontario won’t alter local content in green-energy, offshore moratorium remains

Posted on 02/22/2012 by

By Nicole Mordant, Reuters Canada
(Reuters) – The Canadian province of Ontario’s review of its pioneering green energy program will not alter controversial rules that require local content for all projects, the province’s energy minister said on Wednesday. In an interview with Reuters, Energy Minister Chris Bentley said the review will be complete by the end of March, and, as has been widely expected, will recommend cuts in generous government subsidies for the production of green energy. Bentley would not say how big the cuts will be, however.  Read article

Posted in OWR | 3 Comments

The Mean Green Energy Act

Posted on 02/22/2012 by

by David Norman, Rogue Primate of Bloomfield, Countylive.ca
The “science” associated with the Industrial Wind Turbine (IWT) debate has been bandied about like the numbered ping pong balls in a bingo or lottery machine… it’s like a “box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get”, except for chocolate (sugar coating) that is. My concern is that this “science” irrespective of whether it is claimed to support or negate IWTs has been applied to emerging dogmas associated with ideologies, when it is in fact extremely limited and inconclusive in respect to Scientific Method. Read article

Posted in Green Energy Act | Leave a comment

Blowin’ in the wind in South Huron

Posted on 02/22/2012 by

Times Advocate Editorial
Based on letters in this week’s and last week’s Times-Advocate, and very strong attendance at an information meeting in Grand Bend last week, we can safely say the hot topic of the day for our area is wind turbines. And you can expect the debate will get even hotter in the upcoming months and years as the several large-scale industrial wind turbine farms planned for the region come closer to fruition.  Read editorial

Posted in Wind Industry | Leave a comment

Wind turbines threaten swans, says bird expert

Posted on 02/22/2012 by

Industrial wind farms encroach on Tundra swan habitat, specialist claims
CBC Windsor
A waterfowl specialist says wind turbines could spell danger for Tundra swans and the economy in Lambton County. Dr. Scott Petrie said building industrial wind farms in Grand Bend, Ont., will scare the birds from their annual migration stop. He said the province isn’t considering how the 250 turbines proposed for the area will affect wildlife. “By putting the turbines in inappropriate places, it actually is tantamount to habitat loss. You wouldn’t put an office tower next to a coastal wetland, why would you put a wind turbine there?” he said. Read article

Posted in Bats and Birds | Tagged | 6 Comments

Wind farms hit sour note with Canada’s Songbird

Posted on 02/21/2012 by

Chronicle Herald
Anne Murray wishes a proposed wind farm in the Pugwash area would fly away because the wings it would spread are anything but tiny.  Canada’s Songbird has written Premier Darrell Dexter asking him to halt the proposed $85-million project, which would be about three kilometres from her summer home.  “Pugwash is simply the wrong place for this,” Murray said in an interview Tuesday from her home in Jupiter, Fla. Continue reading →

Posted in OWR | Tagged | 25 Comments