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May 29

The CAW’s rules for “community involvement” in their wind turbine committee in Port Elgin

In a letter from Ken Lewenza to the Town of Port Elgin, he proposes his Terms of Reference for the Community Liaison Committee.   Not surprisingly, the odds are stacked in their favour.  This committee is not there to help the community.

But they want to give the appearance that they are trying.  According to Mr Lewenza “My staff and I have attempted to craft a meaningful and reasonable proposal”

The “stipulations” and “restrictions” that Mr. Lewenza proposes:

1) “At no time shall the number of community representatives be allowed to outnumber the amount of CAW representatives”    (Sounds fair to me.)

2) “To provide an ongoing flow of accurate information about the CAW wind turbine’s operation”

3) “No material or information will be released to the public without approval of the full committee”  (see item #1)

4) “to receive related community feedback which is directly related to the operation of the CAW wind turbine through written submission’  (who determines if it is ‘directly related’? – see item #1)

5) “to review written feedback that supplements, but ultimately corresponds with the official complaint protocol established by the CAW under direction of the MOE”  (Ever call the MOE about getting sick if you live near a wind turbine?  All you get is, “we can’t help you with that.”  Guess that’s going to be the CAW’s stance as well.)

6) “All information collected and recorded discussion will remain the legal property of CAW”   (sounds reasonable — NOT!)

7) “All documents, papers, reports and or work product of the committee is the property of the CAW Canada and is privileged and as such shall not be admissible or used in any Court or tribunal proceeding” –  (English translation – “Gag Order”.   This also prevents you from taking your case to court or to a tribunal.)

Here’s my question:

If these bloody things are so innocuous, so clean and there’s NEVER been any proof that they cause harm to humans or wildlife, WHY is there ALWAYS a gag agreement involved.  Every single time.  That alone should be sending off red flags to all of those who believe the hype that there’s nothing harmful about wind turbines. — DQ

 

 

May 29

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Meaford Deputy Mayor Harley Greenfield — “Are we fighting turbines or not?”

Chris Fell — Simcoe News — May 28, 2012

Meaford Deputy Mayor Harley Greenfield wants to know if the rest of council is willing to take on the industrial wind turbine (IWT) industry or if council is going to roll over and let turbines invade the municipality. Deputy Mayor Greenfield made the comments about wind turbines at Meaford council’s regular meeting on Monday, May 14.

His comments came in response to a presentation from local resident Mike Osborn, who asked council to implement policies that would offer further protection to people that might end up living near industrial turbines. Greenfield told council its time for the Municipality of Meaford to make a statement to local residents and representatives of wind power companies about Meaford’s intentions.

“What I really would like this council to do, and I have mentioned this before, I think what we need to do as a council is to make a statement to our residents. Either we accept IWTs, we go along with them, accommodate them, or the other option is we can’t refuse them but, we can say to these companies, we really don’t want you folks here, we don’t welcome you here, and we’re going to throw up some roadblocks. I really wish our council would decide,” said Greenfield.

Other members of council were silent on the issue, although council has previously passed a resolution asking for a moratorium on industrial turbine development until the province fully and independently investigates health issues that surround the issue. Greenfield’s comments about the matter came after Osborn made a presentation to council about the turbine issue. Osborn asked Meaford council to consider passed a bylaw similar to the bylaw enacted by the Township of Wainfleet on April 10, 2012.

Osborn said that under the Municipal Act municipalities are allowed to pass bylaws “for purposes related to the health, safety and well-being of inhabitants of the municipality.” Osborn said the matter is time sensitive, because that section of the Municipal Act is set to expire on July 1, 2012.

“Given the intransigence of the present Liberal government in their relentless pursuit of turbine installations, we must expect that they will revoke or not renew this provision of the Act,” said Osborn. The Wainfleet bylaw increases the setback an industrial turbine must be from a home from 550 m up to 2 kilometres. The bylaw also requires turbine builders to provide indemnification for any loss of property value or adverse health effects to the extent of 100 per cent.

(To continue reading, click here)

May 29

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Wind farm hearing in Hagersville underway

Monte Sonnenberg — Simcoe Reformer — May 28, 2012

HAGERSVILLE - Haldimand Wind Concerns and other opponents of the Summerhaven wind farm near Jarvis have their work cut out for them.

In opening arguments before the province’s Environmental Review Tribunal on Monday, project advocates reminded the panel that the threshold for scrapping the project is very high.

“The onus is on the appellants,” Nadine Harris, counsel for the Ministry of the Environment, said in her opening remarks about the 58-turbine project. “The onus is on the appellants to prove that the project will — not may — cause serious harm if operated in accordance with the terms of its approval.”

Harris and Toronto lawyer Dennis Mahony, counsel for Summerhaven LLP, addressed their opening comments to the fact that Haldimand Wind Concerns, the main group opposing the project, intends to call 20 witnesses to testify about their experiences with 10 wind turbine projects elsewhere.

Mahony reminded chair Heather Gibbs that the terms-of-reference for the hearing limit the tribunal to weighing evidence directly related to the construction and operation of the Summerhaven network. Mahony said anecdotal evidence from non-experts about turbine projects elsewhere should carry no weight. Mahony told the panel it had to leave open the possibility that people who say wind turbines make them ill may be suffering from psychosomatic symptoms.

(To continue reading, click here)

May 28

International Power Plc's Teeside Gas Power Station
1 Comment

Renewable energy investors fear UK dash for gas

Concerns that gas may be preferred to renewables sees UK fall down ranking of world’s most attractive countries for clean energy investment

The Guardian — May 28, 2012

Fears the UK will use gas-fired power stations to deal with its looming energy crisis rather than turn to renewable sources have seen the country drop out of the top five most attractive countries for clean energy investment.

The UK dropped to sixth out of 40 countries in Ernst & Young’s quarterly report, published today, falling back below Italy after a strong performance in offshore wind energy had raised its position earlier in the year.

The new emissions performance standard for power plants unveiled in last week’s draft Energy Bill sparked fears of a new dash for gas if it is used as a bridge fuel while coal-fired stations are phased out.

The cuts to solar feed-in tariff subsidies coming into force in August also had a negative impact, although this was exacerbated by a reweighting of the indices towards solar, which affects the UK disproportionately given its primary strength is in wind power.

 (To continue reading, click here)
Related article:  James Delingpole — If this is Britains energy policy, we’re toast

May 28

AU — Growing health concerns pit Queensland against the wind

Graham Lloyd — Environment Editor, The Australian — May 29, 2012

A “GROWING body of evidence” that wind farm noise could have health effects has prompted Queensland Health to call for caution when approving wind farm developments.

Queensland Health has in effect become the first government health agency to recommend that wind turbines not be built within 2km of homes. In a letter to Tablelands Regional Council, Queensland Health’s director of environmental health, David Sellars, recommended a “precautionary approach” be taken to approval of the proposed $500 million Mount Emerald wind farm near Walkamin on the Atherton Tablelands.

Related article:

Waubra-foundation-600-associations-worldwide-demand-a-reality-check

 

May 28

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Body Blow to German Global Warming movement!

Thanks to Watts Up With That?

From No Tricks Zone

Body Blow to German Global Warming Movement — Major Media Outlets Unload on “CO2 lies”!

“THE CO2 LIES … pure fear-mongering … should we blindly trust the experts?”

That’s what Germany’s leading daily Bild(see photo) wrote in its print and online editions today, on the very day that renowned publisher Hoffmann & Campe officially released a skeptic book – one written by a prominent socialist and environmental figure.

This is huge. More than I ever could have possibly imagined. And more is coming in the days ahead! The Bild piece was just the first of a series.

Mark this as the date that Germany’s global warming movement took a massive body blow.

Today, not one, but two of Germany’s most widely read news media published comprehensive skeptical climate science articles in their print and online editions, coinciding with the release of a major climate skeptical book, Die kalte Sonne (The Cold Sun).

(To continue reading, click here)

Related article:  Germany returns to coal power as nuclear sits idle

May 28

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James Delingpole — If this is Britain’s energy policy, we’re toast

James Delingpole — Environment — May 25, 2012

“Global warming” is SO totally over. Even President Obama concedes this now. The problem is that after twenty years or more of infectious drivel from the richly-funded global junk science community (NASA, the Royal Society, the “University” of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, the National Academy of Sciences, etc), the minds of too many politicians have been poisoned, and too much damage has already been done.

Which brings us to Energy Secretary Ed Davey’s draft energy bill. It’s a disaster. It will, if implemented, do untold damage to the British economy and the British landscape. So much is obvious to anyone with half a brain or the merest smattering of knowledge about Britain’s approaching energy gap, about the utter uselessness of “renewables” and about the shale gas story. Yet it seems that few in our political class can see it. And that those who do – Graham Stringer, Peter Lilley – seem not to have enough clout to make any difference.

(To continue reading, click here)

May 28

Screencap, Live cam at North Pole, May 28, 2012

Huge quantities of Arctic ice expected to hold up Alaska drilling

Thanks to Sandy at Crux of the Matter  for this little gem.

Kim Murphy — Los Angeles Times — May 28, 2012

SEATTLE – The heaviest polar ice in more than a decade could postpone the start of offshore oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean until the beginning of August, a delay of up to two weeks, Shell Alaska officials said.

Unveiling a newly refurbished ice-class rig that is poised to begin drilling two exploratory wells this summer in the Beaufort Sea, Shell executives said Friday that the unusually robust sea ice would further narrow what already is a tight window for operations. The company’s $4-billion program is designed to measure the extent of what could be the United States’ most important new inventory of oil and gas.

Shell has pledged to end its first season of exploratory drilling by Oct. 31 in the Beaufort Sea and 38 days earlier in the more remote Chukchi Sea to remain within the relatively ice-free summer season.

Meeting with reporters and Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, on board the Kulluk drilling rig in the Seattle shipyards, Shell’s vice president for Alaska operations, Pete Slaiby, said the company had given up on its controversial attempt to win permission from the federal government to extend Chukchi drilling though October as well.

“Not this year. I think it’s a done deal,” he said.

The summer ice melt in the Arctic has often reached record levels in recent years in what many scientists believe is a sign of climate change. But this year a high pressure zone over the coast of Alaska, low winter temperatures and certain ocean currents have combined to bring unusually large amounts of ice not only to Alaska’s northern coast, but farther south in the Bering Sea as well, National Weather Service officials said.

(To continue reading, click here)
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But, but…..Al said…..2012….huh?   I don’t get it.  Let me go check the latest screen caps from the North Pole.
 
Well, son of a gun!  Look at that!  – DQ

May 28

Maine’s Gov. Lepage criticism of wind creating uncertainty

Kevin Miller — Bangor Daily News — May 27, 2012

ELLSWORTH, Maine — Recent statements from Gov. Paul LePage regarding wind energy are causing some angst in Maine’s wind power industry at a time changes in Augusta and Washington, D.C., are creating uncertainty over political support for renewable energy.

Since his election in 2010, LePage has questioned the economics behind wind power as part of his administration’s focus on lowering energy costs for Maine ratepayers. But the Republican governor’s rhetoric has intensified in recent months, suggesting that the technology is increasing energy costs and padding the pockets of “special interests.”

“We have people in Maine who say that wind is the answer. And it is the answer for people who lobby for wind,” LePage told a crowd in April. “Wind is costing us dearly. It’s costing us jobs, it’s costing us investment and it’s costing us big.”

Those comments came months after LePage repeatedly suggested that state policies designed to encourage development of wind power were partly responsible for Maine’s higher electric rates — a claim sharply disputed by renewable energy proponents.

More recently, LePage has used the debate over wind power to attack independent U.S. Senate candidate and former governor Angus King, repeatedly calling him “the king of the wind cartel” and suggesting he made “a fortune” on ratepayers backs. King was until recently a large stakeholder in Independence Wind that built the 22-turbine Record Hill wind farm.

(To continue reading, click here)

May 28

1939 — Climate grows warmer, claim some who know

From the Sarasota Herald-Tribune — Sunday, November 12, 1939

Note:

“may be the start of one of the major changes in climate which the earth has not known since geological time, long before any recorded history”

“since the turn of the century, there has been such a persistent trend to higher temperatures, world-wide in scope, as to suggest that the orthodox conception of stability of climate needs some revision at least”

“every year since 1922 has been above average”

May 27

Solyndra_0

Green Energy jobs far short of Obama goal

Brian Hughes — The Examiner (Washington) — May 26, 2012

President Obama has made much of his commitment to green energy as he launches his re-election bid, but the nascent industry has produced far fewer jobs than the president promised, despite massive, repeated infusions of taxpayer dollars.

Since taking office more than three years ago, Obama has routinely promoted wind, solar and other green energy efforts, touring factories — often the beneficiaries of federal grants — and touting the manufacturers as cutting-edge job producers who are leading America’s transition to energy independence. He had promised in 2008 to help those companies create millions of jobs.

“We can invest $15 billion a year in renewable sources of energy … to create 5 million new jobs, new energy jobs, all across [the] country, jobs that pay well, jobs that can’t be outsourced,” Obama, the candidate, told an Ohio crowd.

But the president has fallen far short of his own mark.

The wind industry has actually lost about 10,000 jobs since 2009, even though it doubled its domestic production, the American Wind Energy Association reports. And Republicans were quick to point out that as Obama blocks the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas, the oil and gas industry has added 75,000 jobs since the start of his term.

(To continue reading, click here)

May 27

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Waubra Foundation + 600 associations worldwide demand a reality check

Health Alert — Canada Free Press — May 27, 2012

Foundation + 600 associations demand a reality check

On May 11th, 2012, Australia’s Waubra Foundation demanded (1) that governments worldwide conduct full-frequency-spectrum sound monitoring inside the homes of wind turbine neighbors suffering from Wind Turbine Syndrome. Today, the federations EPAW and NA-PAW, regrouping over 600 associations of wind industry victims from 28 countries, are hereby adding the voices of their members to support this demand, essential in their view for establishing the truth regarding the effects of wind farms on health.

The Waubra document states: “Recent acoustic survey work in the USA (Falmouth) and Australia (NSW) has confirmed that low frequency noise and pulsatile infrasound emitted by wind turbines have been measured inside the homes and workplaces of sick people, and occur when they are experiencing the symptoms of Wind Turbine Syndrome.” (1)

The Waubra Foundation was founded in 2010, as Australians living in the vicinity of the Waubra wind turbines were increasingly complaining of sleep deprivation, headaches, nausea, impaired concentration, etc. leading to more serious ailments, especially with chronic exposure. “The Australian wind developers and health departments ignored our health warnings”, says the Foundation’s CEO, Dr. Sarah Laurie, “so now we are specifically addressing governments and noise-pollution regulatory authorities worldwide, as the problem is global”.

(To continue reading, click here)

May 27

ottawa

Turbine tussle whips up in Ottawa area

Justin Sadler — Ottawa Sun — May 26, 2012

Ottawa’s not known as the windy city, but within a few hundred kilometres of Parliament Hill’s Peace Tower, hundreds of wind turbines are being proposed for small communities where big developers hope to make an even bigger windfall.

Ottawa has largely been spared from the fuss and fury of wind power projects, but among the 29 Eastern Ontario proposals on the books at the environment ministry, three projects are within city limits, while many more are just beyond the outskirts.

According to the ministry, Richmond, Galetta and a third Ottawa location are in the pre-submission stage as they await renewable energy approval applications. Other sites include Carleton Place, Mountain, Dundas, North Dundas and Eganville.

Another proposal to build about eight turbines, each 626 feet tall, in North Gower is in the planning stages.

“It’s a quiet community, but that will change when we become a giant power-generating factory. It will change the quality of the village and quality of life here forever,” said North Gower resident and Wind Concerns Ontario president Jane Wilson.

Her primary concerns over wind farms include unknown health risks and property devaluation she estimates at $47 million for the community.

“Once these huge machines go in that do produce noise and vibrations, we’re going be in a very different place to live,” Wilson warns.

As fast as the proposals hit bureaucrats desks, furious opposition swells in reaction.

Government and proponents are finding that harnessing wind power is not a breeze with communities across the province uniting to stop the industrial developments.

(To continue, click here)

May 27

Is there "one person" who "drives McGuinty's Green Energy Plan"?

Reblogged from The Big Green Lie:

Click to visit the original post

People across Ontario are trying to get a handle on “why their Townships and lands and homes and health”  are being literally “sacrificed” by a Provincial Government’s disastrous Green Energy Plan to construct massive Wind Farms across Rural Lands in Ontario.

Who is “behind the scenes” here to provide funding and cash for ventures that do nothing but generate huge profits for a small handfull of “investors” at the expense of all Ontario Land Owners?

Read more… 710 more words

May 26

Wind opponents mobilizing June 14 in Forest, ON

Paul Morden - Sarnia Observer - May 26, 2012

One of three public information meetings being organized by a group opposed to industrial wind farms will be held June 14 in Forest.

The session is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the Royal Canadian Legion hall on Albert Street.

Companies behind several proposed wind farm projects in the region are expected to hold their own public meetings soon, said Muriel Allingham, a member of the Middlesex Lambton Wind Action Group.

“And, we believe that shortly after that they will be receiving an approval from the government,” Allingham said, “and they will be going ahead with these wind turbines.”

They include the Jericho wind project in Lambton Shores, as well as others that could see a large number of turbines built across the two counties, the group says.

“We’re hoping to have some information meetings for the public so they can see the other side of wind development,” Allingham said.

(To continue reading, click here)

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