Category Archives: Green Energy Act

Wind Turbines: Malfeasance and Breach of Contract

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Nov 29th; 10:24am

Dear Honourable members of the 42nd Parliament of Ontario;

I am writing to urge you to cancel all wind turbine contracts in Ontario immediately and I hereby provide you with reasons for doing so.

First; introducing myself. I am a Professional Engineer having been schooled in Ontario and worked and payed taxes in Ontario all of my life. I have a B.A.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 1976, and a Master of Engineering degree in Chemical and Nuclear Engineering from the University of Toronto in 1992. I have worked for Ontario Hydro, now OPG, for 31 years in positions of engineering and management, and have spent the past ten years teaching nuclear and other engineering courses at Georgian College, UOIT, including eight years of teaching engineering at the University of Toronto. For example my teaching duties at the U of T include teaching in classroom as well as oversight of senior year student capstone engineering design projects. From my perspective of over 40 years of work in industry and academia, I find that the most important aspect for success of students, corporations, and members of government, and collectively the government is making science based decisions, creating trust, and being ethical. Engineers need to write an exam on ethics. What other groups of people are required to write an exam on ethics? It is from this point of view that I feel well justified to write this email to be submitted to you the Honourable Members and to the public for consideration.

The Green Energy and Economy Act of 2009 was at that time touted to be the panacea and growth opportunity for Ontario in terms of jobs and quality of life and a future for the children of all citizens. In fact, and as you all, and we all know, after ten years of ‘implementation’ the GEA has been a dismal failure and created the opposite of what was intended; eg. high hydro rates, loss of jobs, businesses closing and businesses moving south, astronomical provincial debt, bleak future for students graduating year after year, life has become much harsher for the average person, and for some in rural areas where turbines are being built and operating, life is impossible due to high energy low frequency noise/acceleration of structures including skeletal and inner ear structures, not just adults, but infants, dogs, cats, cattle, and the other issue is the adverse impact on water quality caused by recent turbine construction involving pile driving and disturbing the ground from which residents need to draw water for themselves and for farming, the water in some of the wells have become brackish and undrinkable and requires expensive filtration systems to be installed, paid for the affected residents. Please see jpeg file of a sample of water. The residents have brought this to the attention of their MOH, and the MOH’s involved are discounting this as a non-issue.

Another issue: This link describes cardiac instability. Of course cardiac instability is high concern for cardia arrest, ie. death. This should come as no surprise that infrasound is dangerous as the military has done experiments on how infrasound may be use as a weapon. The attached JPG file lists some of the links that provide evidence of harm from infrasound.

How did we get into this mess? I have been following the implementation of the GEA since its becoming law in 2009 and have written many submission to ERT’s. Some of you MPP’s also know about this since the beginning. Some of you are just now coming up to speed as the 42nd government. As to how this mess got created, Hansard is the official record of Parliament, and key snippets are presented here in this link.

From the Hansard recording, we observe this was un-parliamentary and involved an incestuous and salacious relationship between the proponent and the government, so much so, that the government actually became one with the proponent by eg. waiving the “Precautionary Principle” that is generically in all legislation where there is introduction of new processes into the public domain. The precautionary principal requires the proponent to bear the burden of proof of ‘no damage’. Waiving of the precautionary principle de-facto requires anyone who is damaged to bear the burden of proof of the damage. This has caused each and every Environmental Review Tribunal to be a failure, a farce, and a ‘kangaroo court’ in favour of the wind turbine developers to be allowed to supersede the rights of citizens, so much so, that Municipal Planning was legislated to not be allowed to be involved in turbine location planning. Another example of adverse impact is turbines placed at the ends of airport runways and pilots being told to fly around as they take off and land.

From the Hansard, we observe the self-dealing by liberal party members accessing the blank cheques of the liberal government, while the government turns more than just a blind eye but actively intervenes to disallow the voice of concerned citizens.

Two additional points; in the attached pdf files, one documents what we knew about adverse health effects of wind turbines in 2009. Please read that and compare to the pdf file HGC report copied from the MOEE website originally published in December 2010 by the principal engineering firm HGC commissioned by the government. HGC is a member of CanWea. For your convenience I have commented on just the Executive Summary showing that this report is not a very good work of engineering, but a report slanted to the needs of the client and the industry represent by the author. Such a report, if produced by a student, would be given a Fail if that occurred in my classroom.

ADVERSE-HEALTH-EFFECTS-OF-WIND-TURBINES

HGC-REPORT-copied-from-MOEE-website-EJ-Comments

And speaking of classrooms. A student design team did a health study in 2014 that was ignored by the government and the wind industry…actually this piece of student work was well received by Faculty, and then it was squashed and never made it past the walls of the university. Please see attached pdf discussing the results of that study. The message given to students by government and industry is disrespectful and inappropriate. The message that was sent by government and industry was that this project result was not politically correct and therefore invalid and not to be used. As a professional engineer I am outraged. As an educator, I am outraged that government is squashing the freedom of thought, idea exchange and speech because it does not fit the government agenda. Ah yes, examples of this has also been in the news at other universities across Canada.

University-of-Waterloo-Study-Confirms-Sleep-Problems-Vertigo-and-Tinnitus-_

Wind turbines are insignificant to the overall power needs of Ontario only exist because of a subsidy. I do not subscribe to the theory of global warming requiring reduction of carbon dioxide requiring taxes to supposedly control the thermostat of the earth. That is another topic I am prepared to speak to again in the future. The people who believe wind turbines are a necessary solution to reduce CO2 are wrong based on real data, eg. gas turbines back up wind turbines in Ontario, and coal plants back up the wind turbines in Germany, and not including the CO2 produced by manufacturing the steel and concrete for the wind turbines, wind turbines will never be zero carbon nor environmentally friendly due to the very hazardous chemical processes for mining, refining and manufacturing the rare earth for electronics and magnets for the generators. The wind industry has not created any sustaining jobs, in fact the opposite, closing at least one wind turbine manufacturing facility; but in the bigger picture, the high cost of hydro due to subsidy to wind developers is certainly a factor in closing the General Motors plant in Oshawa as announced this week.

In summary, the wind turbines and their contracts are a house of cards propped up by non-science, miss-information, political correctness, malfeasance and a subsidy via the FIT program to achieve a certain ideological and bigoted feel good feeling about the environment.

After almost ten years now we observe failure and a certain breach of contract to deliver electrical power economically competitively by wind turbines, especially breach of social contract by the previous government in collusion with the wind industry.

In light of the recent announcement by General Motors, high costs has certainly been a factor in the irreversible decision to leave Ontario, Ontario needs to swiftly curtail any further losses.

Of course cancellation will stir up emotions and ire of many. The response to all in this light, this is my recommended response. that they need to:

  • review Hansard ie. history
  • review the interaction between government and industry
  • review the gap between actual vs expected performance of the GEA
  • review the health impacts, ie. actually listen to citizens

Actions that I recommend for the Minister of the Solicitor General is to communicate with the Professional Engineers of Ontario organization to initiate an engineering investigation into, for example the errors and omissions of the HGC report that I observe is the underlying instrument for the forced installation of wind turbines and the systematic program to ignore citizen complaints.

Another action I recommend is on the Cabinet Ministers for Health and also MOEE, and perhaps in conjunction with the Ontario Medical Association to review culpability of some of the Medical Officers of Health particularly those MOH’s who received complaints for not responding appropriately, ie. what was their response, and was their response appropriate.

And finally, to answer some of the media reporters ‘whinning’; they may be sent away by simply asking them how much money have they accessed from the Trudeau announced $600 million subsidy for ‘trusted journalists’ that would pay them to ask their questions and then write their articles. One of the worst things that the federal liberal government has done is to undermine the independence and credibility of those media who participate in the subsidy and I think we have a good idea of who those are or might be. If those media drown, it is because it is self inflicted. To bad, it becomes so necessary to deal with corruption, and this email about the GEA points to corruption that must be undone, and be undone quickly.

I provide my views for th public good and for the public record. Be advised that for privacy reasons I have also sent blind copies to various folks whom I know are like minded and would support this government in cancelling the contracts for the wind turbines.

Fair notice to all who stand in the way of shutting down the turbines, you are aiding and abetting the continuation of harm.

Eric Jelinski M. Eng. P. Eng.
11450 Simcoe County Road 10
RR1 Stayner Ontario
L0M1S0
416-697-9965 cell
eric_jelinski@sympatico.ca
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/eric/jelinski
https://canteach.candu.org/Pages/Welcome.aspx

“The Future is Nuclear”

“Knowing is easy; it is the doing that is difficult. The critical issue is not what we know but what we do with what we know. The great end of life is not knowledge, but action.” Admiral Hyman Rickover

Ontario Gothic

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Wellington Times, Rick Conroy
Mary Shelley is said to have conceived the story of Frankenstein, a manmade monster let loose upon the countryside, while under the influence of opium in the cold summer of 1816. The gothic horror story, it turns out, was the work of a dark imagination fuelled by opioids.

It begs the question: what was Kathleen Wynne and her government smoking when they let loose their own man-made monsters across rural Ontario—in the form of industrial wind developers and speculators?

Even if you buy the sentiment that their motivations were well-intentioned, the undeniable outcome of the Green Energy Act is that Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty have spawned armies of amoral monstrous corporate creatures and have let them loose to roam unfettered across the province. To wreak havoc in rural communities. To despoil the environment. To slaughter endangered species. To make folks sick.

Worse, our government has paved the way, clearing hurdles and slashing regulations to enable these creatures to prey upon vulnerable communities, natural habitats and endangered species. Now they have lost control of their grotesque creations. Even Kathleen Wynne must know how this story ends.

Near Chatham, folks believe the wind developer working nearby has poisoned their wells—allowing toxins into their drinking supply. They have done the testing. They have spoken out. They have protested. Marched on Queen’s Park. Kathleen Wynne has ignored them.

Wynne, her government and her supporters comfort themselves believing the scourge they have unleashed—though ugly and abusive— is a necessary evil. That the greater good is being served. They ignore the folks holding up jars of black liquid, pleading with the province to test their water, drawn from wells that have become undrinkable since the wind developer began driving piles into the bedrock to secure its massive wind turbines. Even Chatham- Kent’s mayor has demanded Kathleen Wynne intervene to protect these residents. It has made no difference.

Left without the protection of the province—without the safeguards that would protect them from any other development— these folks took matters into their own hands. In August, they began blockading the construction site— neighbours joining together to form a line against the threat to their drinking water.

On Monday, in a cruel blow, the developers— a Korean conglomerate and its American partner—won a court injunction barring any further blockades of the project. The judge said he wasn’t trying to muzzle opponents, but to “prohibit unlawful acts”.

In Ontario’s perverse hunger for industrial wind turbines, it turns out Chatham-Kent residents must first prove they have been poisoned by the developer, before they may seek justice. By then, of course, the damage will have been done. Recourse will expensive and, for most, unattainable.

Four years ago, the giant American wind developer Next Era sued Esther Wrightman for defamation. On her website she had altered the company’s logo to NextError and Next Terror. They wanted the logos removed or they would litigate the mother of two young children into oblivion. All these years later, the legal action is still pending. Wrightman wakes up every morning with the weight of this action still weighing on her head. Read article

Thirteenth complaint filed against wind turbine project for water well interference in C-K

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Council of Canadians
September 27, 2017
Chatham, ON – Thirteen Chatham area well owners have now filed water well interference complaints following the start of construction on a 34 turbine wind power project near their farms. The Council of Canadians is demanding work stop on the project immediately.

The project developer, North Kent Wind One (owned by Samsung Energy and Pattern Energy), started pile driving for the first turbine foundation in late June. The vibrations caused by the pile driving can be felt hundreds of meters away. Before construction began, experts predicted that local wells could suffer siltation problems from the vibrations. Some of the 13 wells affected to date have become so silted up that water no longer flows through the household plumbing.

Chatham-Kent residents have been working to protect their well water after learning of pollution problems faced by dozens of families in neighbouring Dover Township where wells began showing high levels of black silt as soon as pile driving started for various wind turbine projects built there over the last eight years. Both counties sit atop the Kettle Point black shale bedrock formation. Read more

 

 

Meanwhile C-K Medical Officer of Health Dr. Colby just encouraged  everyone to trust his doctor status and continue filtering out the “crud”. Or… drill a new well, like he’s had to.

The Chatham Voice
“Nobody wants to drink dirty water that looks like chocolate milk; I get that. But if you filter that crud out of there, is there any evidence there is an increased solution of toxins in that water that could pose a health problem, and the answer is no,” Colby said, noting no evidence has come across his desk. “If you’re more interested in your convictions than the facts that I’m trying to give you, we’re not going to get an agreement on this issue.”

Colby said he has a well and had sediment problems, and ended up drilling a new well. When asked how many turbines are nearby, he said he could count 47. Read article

From the archives, in case you think this has gone on way too long with no action from our government:

Lawyer Alan Whiteley: Ontario’s electricity Ponzi scheme

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Watch to the very end.

‘Ontarians have never been this angry’: Poll respondents feel unprotected from power price increases

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We will NOT be sientNational Post, Ashley Csanady
Half of Ontario voters feel unprotected from price increases in the electricity system, a new poll shows.

“Ontarians have never been this angry,” declares a presentation of the Innovative Research Group poll, to be revealed Wednesday afternoon at the Ontario Energy Association conference in Toronto. A draft of the presentation was shared with the National Post and the results of the 600-person poll show a growing distrust in the Ontario government’s handling of the energy file, in particular electricity prices.

The poll about provincial politics and energy rates was commissioned by the Ontario Energy Association — an industry group representing everything from gas to electricity companies — for its annual conference.

screen-shot-2016-09-28-at-9-34-30-amWhen asked if they feel “consumers are well-protected with respect to prices and the reliability and quality of electricity service in Ontario,” 50 per cent of respondents “strongly disagreed” — the highest rate of disatisfaction since the firm started asking the question in 2002. Another 20 per cent “somewhat disagreed” while just 19 per cent said they “somewhat” agreed and six per cent “strongly agreed.” Three per cent had no opinion and another two per cent didn’t know. Read article

Ontario’s new electricity policy: History repeats as farce

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wynneThe Globe and Mail

Karl Marx said that history repeats: first as tragedy, then as farce. In Ontario, the history of failed energy policy repeats – first as farce, and then as more farce.

Premier Kathleen Wynne faces an election in a little over a year and a half, and one of the main issues dogging the Liberal government is the price of electricity. Thanks to policy choices that the government itself seems incapable of unwinding, electricity bills have been on an upward tear for a decade. Many voters are furious. And so the Wynne government devoted the heart of its Throne Speech this week to a plan to lower the price of electricity. Not the cost of electricity, however. Just the sticker price.

Taxpayers of Ontario, you will now be paying for more of your electricity through your taxes, or through future taxes funded by deficit financing, and less through your electricity bill. Yes, that’s the new plan. It looks a lot like the old plan.

Nearly six years ago, Ms. Wynne’s predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, was facing an election. He was, like the current premier, spooked by rapidly rising electricity prices. These spiking prices, note well, had been engineered by the Liberal government’s mishandled Green Energy policy. To win back voters, Mr. McGuinty decided to give consumers a break. The tool: the so-called Ontario Clean Energy Benefit, which ran from the start of 2011 to the end of 2015.

The Clean Energy Benefit did not have anything to do with clean energy, and its benefits were illusory. All consumer hydro bills were awarded a government rebate worth 10 per cent – so the more electricity a customer used, the more they saved. This “benefit” for Ontario consumers was paid for by Ontario taxpayers. Yes, they’re the same people. Read article

Dutton-Dunwich referendum says “NO” to wind turbines. Provincial government says, “tough luck”, awards contract to wind developer

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Proponents are required to show community engagement that includes local meetings. Municipalities may have interpreted the mandatory community “engagement” to require community “support” but that’s not the case; the applicant does have to show it notified people and met with some of them.

WYNNE NEGLECTBy Debora Van Brenk, John Miner, The London Free Press
Dutton-Dunwich was the one Ontario municipality that held a referendum on wind farms. Even though 84 per cent of residents opposed wind turbines, the Elgin County municipality that hugs Lake Erie learned Thursday it will end up with them anyway under a process the government promised would give local sentiments a priority. “We were totally ignored,” Dutton-Dunwich Mayor Cameron McWilliam said. “We live in the province of Toronto, not the province of Ontario.”

A new round of wind farm development announced Thursday awards a contract to Chicago-based Invenergy to build dozens of industrial turbines in Dutton-Dunwich. The municipality was the first in Ontario to hold a vote for residents on the issue and subsequently passed a resolution declaring itself an unwilling host for wind farm development. Another 89 Ontario municipalities also have passed the “not a willing host” resolution.

McWilliam said he was stunned Thursday when Dutton-Dunwich was on the list of new green energy projects. The Ontario government had repeatedly assured McWilliam and other rural leaders that the wishes of local residents would be respected in a new era of public consultation.

In testimony before a legislature committee in November 2013, Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli said municipalities wouldn’t be given a veto over projects but it would be “very rare indeed” for any to be approved without municipal backing. “It will be almost impossible for somebody to win one of those bidding processes without an engagement with the municipality,” Chiarelli said. Read article

Dear Mike Crawley (Liberal Wind Pusher for AIM PowerGen, IPC, GDF Suez, and now Northland Power)…

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crawley

https://i1.wp.com/www.northlandpower.ca/Assets/Images/EmailLogo/NPi2010_Logo_1inch.jpg?resize=96%2C55From: Mike Crawley
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2016 10:18 AM
Subject: Mike Crawley – Contact information

As some of you may know, I joined Northland Power this past July.   Belatedly, attached and below please find my new contact information.  For those in the power sector, Northland Power (www.northlandpower.ca) is pursuing  wind, solar, pumped storage and thermal generation opportunities in Canada, Europe and Mexico.  We are also open to considering good opportunities in other jurisdictions that meet our investment criteria.

mike1Best regards,
Mike

Mike Crawley | Executive Vice President
Northland Power Inc.
d: 647 288 1066 | m: 416 554 8513

From: Ginny Stewart
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2016 3:05 PM
To: Mike Crawley
Subject: Re: Mike Crawley – Contact information

Hello Mike,

You cannot imagine how surprised I was to hear from you especially in light of the fact that you have not responded to any of my emails or complaints since the Plateau Wind Project went online in early 2012.

I would like to take this fortunate opportunity to bring you up to date on my current situation. I am very much aware that you will say there is little you can do from your new position at Northland Power, but I would like to bring to your attention how your investment opportunities are destroying the lives of people in all the jurisdictions which you target.

You might be interested to know that from April 17, 2012 through April 7, 2015 I filed nearly 70 complaints with the MOECC, copying Plateau Wind Inc. on many of them. I have incident numbers for each and every complaint. It is also my understanding that the obligation of the MOECC and the Owner/Operator of a Wind Generating facility are to report the complaints to each other. In order to keep a record of my complaints and their acknowledgement and because a record of my complaints was not available to me without a freedom of information request but ironically available to Plateau Wind Inc.,  I began to send my complaints electronically; the only acknowledgement of such to me by your company was one email in 2013 that my emails would be responded to through the Ministry of the Environment.

It is very time consuming, frustrating and degrading to continue to call the MOECC on a routine schedule and not receive any acknowledgement or mitigation for the insufferable agony that I, my family and my neighbours are subjected to regularly. I have however kept an ongoing journal with entries beginning February 24, 2012 through to today. At an ERT hearing in June of 2015 my witness statement boasted a 128 page summary of typed health related entries. That journal continues to date with barley a day going by without the affects of my nightly experiences, especially in the winter.

In September 2012 a presentation was made to The Grey/Bruce Medical Officer of Health and the Board of Directors. Fourteen Casualties submitted their experience by supplying a statement of their experiences. We were all looking for relief for symptoms that presented themselves after the commencement of the turbines in our area.

DestroyedHomeI remember how you came to my home on two occasions and tried to reassure me that there would not be a negative impact to my health, my property values, and that I would barely be able to see the turbines from my home. In fact you brought me an industry study on property values near IWTs that claimed that property values would in fact rise. You sent a photographer to photograph the view from our home and then superimpose the turbines so that I would be assured that they would not be invasive. How brilliantly you deceived me. The reality of massive 120 meter machines placed 1,400 meters to 3 kilometers from a home is drastically different from  photographs of benign looking “windmills” peeping over the tops of trees. Since the installation of your project, 7 families have moved away siting the IWTs as the reason. Some just walked away, others suffered a huge financial loss on the sale of their property.

So while you, Mike continue to meet your investment criteria, I hope that you will remember that it is because of the suffering of so many individuals; babies, children, young adults, middle aged people and the elderly that you reap your benefits. Eventually it will no longer benefit the “common good” because the critical mass will become too great.

Thank you for taking the time to become informed. I’m guessing that the last 4 years have just flown by for you while we suffer a slow agonizing existence.

Sincerely,

Virginia Stewart Love

Today, remember NextEra, and their Nest Terror

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There is this thing that Facebook does: reposts a picture or comment from any number of years ago that was on your timeline, sporadically, and calls it a Memory. I believe you are supposed to cherish these posts and sigh with, “Time flies!” or “Isn’t that cute?!”

FBEagleNestThis morning the picture of the severed eagle nest was there and Facebook said: “Esther, we care about you and the memories you share here. We thought you’d like to look back on this post from 3 years ago.” Ahem. Well now. Some people have sweeter memories than others apparently. I should like all the cute little pictures scattered around the gruesome one of the crane and nest – kittens, flowers, children – awww! But I hate to tell ya FB, that so called ‘memory’ still feels like yesterday, and not in a good way.

The night before the eagle nest was cut, my dad was dutifully browsing the “Friday evening approvals” by the Ontario government (you know, when the reporters have all gone home for the weekend and no news story can be made until Monday, when the lead has lost most of its heat), and he saw this permit issued to NextEra Energy to destroy an active bald eagle nest. Really. He called me up. We didn’t believe it. Read and reread it. No… they wouldn’t do that. I mean, even when the government would unthinkably hand you a permit to commit an act like this, you wouldn’t go and cut a rare (only forty-eight nests in SW Ontario), massive nest, that was currently home to two eagles, down… would you?

Oh but then we had to think, “What Would NextEra Do?” Well yes, they would cold bloodedly do this, they had an access road that had be plowed through to three of their proposed wind turbines (yet to be built) – and this road demanded that these trees (including one with the nest) be cut in order for the project to proceed. They like words like ‘proceed’, as in “Proceed as Planned”. They wouldn’t want to disrupt a Plan for a silly little (or big) nest. Continue reading →

Fixing a bad law: Green Energy Act

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Law-Students-223x1024Wellington Times, Rick Conroy
The Green Energy Act (GEA) is the target of a proposed judicial review to be launched this fall. CCSAGE Naturally Green, a not-for-profit public interest corporation led by its directors Anne Dumbrille, Alison Walker and Garth Manning, believe the GEA is a fundamentally flawed piece of legislation. They argue the GEA tramples rights and freedoms, punishes rural Ontarians, contravenes statutes and conventions the province is bound to uphold, and, at its core, is fundamentally unjust.

One example: Currently, wind developer wpd Canada is appealing a decision, made under the provisions of the GEA, permitting it to build 27 of 29 industrial wind turbines it proposes in South Marysburgh. In making this appeal, the developer is allowed to make a wide range of arguments and present evidence in its favour. It will certainly argue that the decision will impair its ability to make money from the project. It may argue that the heritage value of the nearby properties has been overstated. It is likely to argue many things. Because it can.

Meanwhile, opponents of the project are permitted only to object on the basis that the project will cause serious harm to humans or serious and irreversible harm to plant life, animal life or the natural environment.

The developer is granted unlimited scope to argue in favour of its profit, while residents are restricted to just two near-impossible tests. The province designed the GEA this way.

Alan Whiteley, a lawyer acting for CCSAGE, considers the GEA a fundamental assault on the rights, freedoms and statutes that have been constructed to protect citizens and the environment from this kind of overreach by government. It is something, he argues, we must all resist. Read article

Rural-urban divide blowing in the wind

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wynne sarniaPeter Epp, London Free Press
Several factors contributed to Ontario’s rural-urban divide, but perhaps the greatest has been the Ontario Green Energy Act of 2009, which continues to exclusively target rural properties for wind turbines and, to a lesser extent, solar farms.

Since the legislation was rolled out five years ago, parts of rural Ontario have had its landscape altered and changed, probably for decades to come.

Yet what has contributed mostly to the ongoing rural-urban divide is people who live with wind turbines have had little to say about their development. They are almost all rural residents; those who live within urban centres have yet to be asked to be a neighbour to the towers. Read article

Tom Adams on OFA: Turkeys Voting for Thanksgiving

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mccabeTom Adams Energy
Yesterday, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture membership elected Don McCabe as president. Mr. McCabe was one of the architects of Ontario’s Green Energy and Green Economy Act, the main driver of the rampant price increases now hitting Ontario electricity consumers, including farmers.

In 2011, the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association awarded its Rural Community Power Leader Award to Mr. McCabe. The award recognized McCabe for the role he played in the Ontario Green Energy Act Alliance, the organizing body of the lobbyist campaign behind the creation of the Green Energy Act.

Here is an example of Mr. McCabe endorsing the Green Energy Act.

Here is an example of Mr. McCabe getting an earful from farmers and other rural folks who think McCabe’s advocacy for the Ontario Liberal government’s energy energy policies was a mistake. Read article

Wind power losing Wynne rural friends, opposition says

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WynneKissToronto Sun, By Antonella Artuso
THORNTON, ONT. – While Premier Kathleen Wynne insists she represents “one Ontario,” opposition leaders say her stand on wind power has made her few friends outside of urban centres. Wynne acknowledged that not all the people lining the parade route at the International Plowing Match and Rural Expo on Tuesday were cheering for her as the Ontario Liberal float passed by spectators.

But the premier rejected the idea that she’s unwelcome in rural parts of the province after gaining a majority government largely on urban and suburban votes. “I can choose any street in Ontario and there will be people who love us and people who don’t love us,” Wynne said.

Interim PC Leader Jim Wilson accused Wynne of being “disingenuous when she fails to acknowledge that Liberals are at odds with rural residents. “They place their wind turbines in communities where they’re not wanted at prices Ontario families can’t afford,” he said, noting the government will allow eight, 150-metre turbines at Collingwood Airport despite local concerns. Read article

Horwath passes the buck on GEA

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NDPPaul Morden, Sarnia Observer
[Excerpt] The Friday morning event came on the heels of a meet-and-greet the night before at the Ups ‘N’ Downs pub downtown where she was greeted by anti-wind turbine protestors. A 92-turbine wind project is current under construction in Lambton County, and another 46-turbine project is awaiting provincial environmental approval. Both have led to protests by opponents of wind energy and the province’s Green Energy Act.

“We believe that the Liberals have made a mess of the green energy sector, as well,” Horwath said. “It’s a sad day in Ontario when we have families pitted against each other, when we have neighbours pitted against each other, when we have communities pitted against each other.”

Renewable energy is something most people believe is a good thing but the Liberals decided to shut down community participation, “ignore the voices of local residents and rammed through projects,” Horwath said. “That’s a wrong-headed way of doing things.”

She said the NDP believes there’s no need to call in international companies to get green energy up and running in Ontario. Instead, Horwath said she would encourage municipalities, farm co-ops and First Nations to develop projects that are scaled to their communities and benefit local residents. “It’s very divisive and, frankly, is a failure of the Liberals,” she said. Read article

Grits’ fixation on wind power is a losing game

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How dreadful . . . to be caught up in a game and have no idea of the rules. — Caroline Stevermer

ontario-liberal-monopoly-game11Jim Merriam, London Free Press
Two games have taken on new meanings, thanks to opponents of the Ontario government’s fixation with wind power. First is the game of politics and second is the board game Monopoly.

A new game circulating via electronic media is called Ontario Liberal Monopoly. The game highlights the relationship between this power-hungry party and its various power flubs. Instead of jail, there’s an unemployment line for all those thrown out of work by the government’s destruction of the manufacturing sector. There’s also a wind victims’ safe house, presumably a place where all the folks can move after they’ve been driven from their farms by wind turbines that have caused serious health problems.

Permit me an aside. I recently exchanged correspondence with a dear friend who couldn’t understand how I could abandon the “Liberal family,” to which my clan has belonged since Ontario was nothing but unsettled bush. The answer: I could never support a party that condones big business delivering health problems to people and driving them off the land, for no good reason. I doubt most of my ancestors would have supported such reckless disregard for people either. Read article
See board game at Quixotes’ Last Stand

Grey Highlands looking at loophole in Green Energy Act

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grey highlandsDon Crosby, The Sun Times
Grey Highlands is hoping to take advantage of a loophole in the Green Energy Act to enact a bylaw that would freeze the issuing of permits controlled by council, slowing down the placing of industrial wind turbines in the municipality.

Chief administrative officer Dan Best stressed the proposed bylaw doesn’t purport to stop industrial wind turbines, but delay them until it can be determined whether they cause health problems.

The bylaw has the support of Grey Highlands Renewable Energy Working Group, a grassroots organization that has been challenging wind energy projects in the municipality. Read article

Durham: Environmental Review Tribunal hearing only concerned about concrete bases of three turbines

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democracy liberty freedomDon Crosby, The Sun Times
DURHAM – Frustration ran high during Tuesday’s preliminary hearing by the Environmental Review Tribunal into an appeal of the Ministry of Environment’s approval of the East Durham wind project. “We matter. We have the right to speak. Why are you bulldozing through . . .” said Glenelg Township resident Orah Randall in an impassioned plea to Robert Wright, vice-chair of the ERT, who conducted Tuesday’s hearing.

She urged Wright to exercise his discretion and give people who were turned down by the Ministry of the Environment status at the upcoming ERT hearing, set to begin next month. Randall was visibly frustrated that members of the community were being refused standing at the hearing because what they wanted to say didn’t fit into the narrow scope of the appeal launched by Leonard Van Den Bosch on Jan. 29, just days after the MOE approved the 23-megawatt East Durham wind project near Priceville.

In his appeal, Van Den Bosch claims that toxic chemicals contained in the concrete bases of three turbines next to his property will leach into the soil and contaminate groundwater that feeds the nearby Saugeen River. He’s asking for mitigating measures to protect the environment and the health of people who take their drinking water from the river. Read article

Wrong to assume

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New environmentalismWellington Times, Rick Conroy
The Prince Edward County Field Naturalists are wrong. Ontario Nature. Nature Canada. Both wrong. Dr. Robert McMurtry is wrong. The South Shore Conservancy is wrong. So too is the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory. Alvar, bird, butterfly, turtle and bat experts are all wrong. The municipality of Prince Edward is wrong. As are the majority of County residents who believed Crown Land at Ostrander Point should be preserved—rather than industrialized for the profit of one corporation.

And now we have learned that Ontario’s own Environmental Review Tribunal is wrong. A Toronto court has said so. This ought to keep Premier Kathleen Wynne up at night.

The Tribunal’s Robert Wright and Heather Gibbs spent more than 40 days hearing evidence, challenging testimony and witnesses and weighing competing claims. They began their task in a snowstorm in February; and delivered their decision on a hot July day last summer. Wright and Gibbs visited Ostrander Point. They walked around. They saw, with their own eyes, what was at stake. Read article

Ontario PC’s re-affirm commitment to scrap Green Energy Act

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(Queen’s Park)- Ontario PC MPPs Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton) and Lisa Thompson (Huron Bruce) offered the following statement on the PC Plan to scrap the Green Energy Act:

“Ontario PC Party under Tim Hudak maintains its commitment to scrap the Green Energy Act.

“That means we would remove subsidies on wind and solar, we would restore locally based decision making and we would implement a moratorium on developments until health and environmental impacts are assessed.   Continue reading →

This is what the Green Energy Act invasion looks like in Ontario

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South Kent Wind Samsung Pattern Chatham Kent

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One solar panel can’t connect to grid, but over 100 wind turbines can…

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CTV News
It was a $100,000 investment in a greener future, but four-years after Rita Van Geffen invested her retirement savings into a ground mount solar panel, she’s only now seeing a return and not the kind she was looking for.

In April 2010, Van Geffen invested in a solar panel, which has yet to be connected to the grid. “It’s doing absolutely nothing. I can’t get it connected,” she says. “I believed in green energy and I thought it was a good return on my money.” Read article

CTV solar

Thanks Kathleen, I’m Breathing Easier Now

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mcwynnetyChris Cooke, First Monday
So, here is how this works. The huge scrubber worth about a billion dollars towers over the idled Lambton Generating Station. Nothing is coming out of it because the generating station took its last coal in September and premier Kathleen Wynne would like me to believe that I can now breathe easier.

It’s a Sunday and I’m northbound between Wallaceburg and Sarnia. In the distance the billion – dollar scrubber can barely be seen. The crap coming out of Detroit Edison’s Belle River power plants at Marysville, Michigan is obliterating it. They don’t have scrubbers and by the emissions on this Sunday I question whether they are even using low sulphur coal. I can assure the premier I’m not breathing easier.

A few kilomtres away in Wyoming my printing presses are running but I’m paying a king’s ransom to power them. The total is $20,000.00 per month more than my competitors in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. I’m doing business in nanny state Ontario, home of tree huggers and green energy and a premier so far removed from reality that it is impossible to comprehend. At home my wife is bracing for the power bill. Neither of us is breathing easier. Read article

Green Energy “Disaster” Stumbling Block to Expansion

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Mayor of Sarnia bradleyFirst Monday
Sarnia mayor Mike Bradley says the province’s Green Energy Policy has been a “disaster” that is jeopardizing Chemical Valley expansion and has left taxpayers with a billion dollar asset that’s mothballed. Bradley told the Rotary Club of Sarnia Bluewaterl and the cost of power is a major discussion that could determine whether NOVA Chemicals launches a multi billion expansion in Sarnia. “The Province appears to be strapped by the Green Energy Act and isn’t moving on the issue.”

He lambasted energy minister Bob Chiarelli who compares energy costs in Ontario with places like Tennessee. “But we aren’t competing with Tennessee, we are competing with Louisiana and Texas which have similar energy requirements and are significantly more competitive.” Bradley says he understands the issues behind coal to produce power but believes it is unreasonable for the Province to shut Lambton Generating Station. “There is a billion dollar asset sitting there and the energy minister won’t consider alternatives.” Read article

More to learn about green energy

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South Kent Wind Samsung Pattern Chatham Kent McKinlay Rd 1Sarnia Observer, Peter Epp
In the early days of Ontario’s foray into wind and solar energy projects – well before the Ontario Liberals’ Green Energy Policy, which was enshrined within legislation in 2009 – countries such as Denmark and Germany were trotted out as towering examples of what could be ac, for example, massive wind turbines lined the sea coast. In Germany, wind turbine generation was eagerly embraced, and solar energy was so heavily encouraged that in many German communities the roofs of Lutheran churches were fitted with panels.

There was a determination in Denmark and Germany to reduce those countries’ dependence on fossil fuels, and to shift the generation of electricity to the communities and to the citizens. Generous subsidies provided an incentive – and there existed the promise of a manufacturing boom; the solar panels and the turbines would have to be designed and built, and they may as well be built in Denmark and Germany. Read article

Ontario sketches out 540MW Requests For Proposals in 2015

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opa_logoRenews
Ontario expects to issue a request for proposals for 540MW of renewable energy in early 2015 with winners announced in July of that year. It plans to procure 300MW of wind, 140MW solar, 50MW bioenergy and 50MW of hydro-electric capacity.

The Ontario Power Authority will continue stakeholder consultation over the next few months as it designs a new competitive bid process to replace the feed-in tariff program for projects larger than 500kW.

Developers will be required to pre-qualify in order to submit bids, the OPA said yesterday in an update on the Large Renewables Procurement (LRP). It aims to post a draft request for qualifications in March 2014 for stakeholder review. The final RFQ is to run from June to September 2014.

The agency expects to release an RFP in January 2015 with bids due in May of that year. Eligible projects must use existing transmission and the procurement is limited to areas that have sufficient connection availability, said the OPA. Read article

Hydro barons mad with power

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1297503452759_ORIGINALToronto Sun
TORONTO – Better get this column written before the power goes out and we retreat to our caves and candles. That’s where we’re headed, if the dimbulbs running Ontario’s electrical grid aren’t unplugged. Now, I think they’re even laughing at us.

When I watched Toronto Hydro’s new 12 Days of Christmas video on YouTube I assumed it was a Yuletide jest. It tells us to save energy by making ornaments from old incandescent bulbs and pine cones. It suggests we dine on such fare as “no bake” energy bars, “no cook” cheeseballs or chocolate coconut balls, “low cook” cheese dip and “no cook, low cook” fudge.” Excellent plan. We’ll keep our electrical bill down by eating nothing but raw food. I look forward to the “no cook” chicken. Perhaps it will be easier to digest in the dark.

Here’s my version of 12 Days, which was composed — by torchlight, presumably — some 300 years ago in deepest, darkest England. Altogether, now, folks, sing along…

On the 12th day of Christmas, the dimbulbs gave to us…
12 idled windmills,
11 workers snoozing
10 summer brownouts

Read article

Petition: Dismantle the Green Energy Act

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sign-the-petitionCanadian Taxpayers Federation
Dear Premier,

Ontario families are struggling to pay their energy bills, while the provincial government doubles down on subsidizing failed green energy programs.

We, the undersigned, call on the government of Ontario to dismantle the Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009 and stop letting green ideology guide our energy polices in Ontario at the expense of ratepayers.
SIGN HERE

Any opportunity is coveted

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Nextera Eagle NesterrorSarnia Observer
Those opposed to two wind turbine projects in Lambton County believe their ability to adequately respond to the projects’ posting on the Ontario Environmental Registry is hampered because of the holiday season. Suncor Energy wants to build 46 wind turbines in Plympton-Wyoming. The public has until Jan. 19 to respond with comments to the Registry. Meanwhile, NextEra Canada’s is proposing a 92-turbine wind projects for Lambton Shores and Warwick Township. It’s also been posted on the Ontario Environmental Registry, and public comments are being accepted until Jan. 3.

But at least the time period they’re being allowed is more than what was permitted by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources almost a year ago when an eagle’s nest was removed to allow for the Summerhaven Wind Energy Centre in Haldimand County. In what had to be a deeply ironic moment for the MNR, the ministry approved the nest’s removal on New Year’s Eve – without allowing a syllable of public comment – and posted notice of the nest’s removal only a day before the deed was done on Jan. 5. Talk about a rush job.

The incident illustrated a few of the inconsistencies found with Ontario’s Green Energy Plan. For example, who would have thought that a nest for eagles – home to what is arguably one of the strongest natural symbols for a clean and green environment – would be so quickly and quietly tossed for the sake of a wind farm, itself ostensibly being developed to save the environment? Read article

Energy lessons from Liberals absolute insult

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ChiarelliJim Merriam, Toronto Sun
I’d hate to have Bob Chiarelli’s nerve in a tooth. Chiarelli is Ontario’s energy minister. This week he pretty much told residents of the province to quit their whining and figure out ways to reduce their own electricity use and therefore their power bills. Now there’s absolutely nothing wrong with each of us trying to cut costs through energy conservation.

But it is totally unfair that we have to wear mitts and a toque to watch Duck Dynasty while at least two of Chiarelli’s compatriots enjoy all the spoils of being members of the legislature at our expense.

Remember, the Liberals bought wins in a handful of ridings in the last election with $1.1 billion of our money by moving power plants out of Oakville and Mississauga where the residents didn’t care for them.

The minister essentially thumbed his nose at any concerns we might have about that and at consumers in general when he announced a new program called “Empowering Consumers Through Energy Literacy.” The subhead: “Province launches new interactive resource.” Read article

The human cost of the Green Energy Act

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criminal-justice-system-1372884734-8899Toronto Sun, Garth Manning
In 2009, the Ontario government, seeking to appear green, expropriated our property rights and democratic freedoms with its Green Energy Act (GEA). The GEA removed the power of municipal politicians to represent their constituents in green energy matters and imposed 550 meters as a regulated setback in an attempt to protect rural citizens from industrial wind developments.

Many governments also fell in line with the worldwide movement to appear green, led by wind energy developers. But not all governments had the good fortune of hearing firsthand from people already adversely impacted elsewhere by wind turbines near their homes, as was the case for Ontario. And yet the Ontario government proceeded.

Unlike the costly Ontario process of appealing a wind project, Alberta has a different approach. There, appeals to Environmental Review Tribunals are substantially subsidized by the developer. By order of the Alberta Utilities Commission, developers pay a portion of appellant costs in advance, according to need. In stark contrast, in Ontario, where turbines are much closer to rural neighbourhoods, each local or regional group must raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover all legal costs for each appeal and to challenge not only the wind company but also the Ontario environment ministry. Read article