Wind farm bill defeated, but opponents vow to fight on

Local wind farm opponents vowed yesterday to keep pushing for independent studies into the effects wind turbines have on people.

Ontario legislators rejected Bruce- Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Murdoch’s call to halt industrial wind farm development until the province’s top doctor can assure the government turbines don’t harm people living nearby.

But defeating Murdoch’s resolution won’t stop growing opposition in rural Ontario, or mounting questions over how the big machines affect people’s health, wind turbine opponents said.
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Canadian Hydro drops plan to buy Lake Erie wind farm

Calgary-based Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. said Friday it has terminated its earlier plans to purchase a subsidiary that is developing one of the largest wind farms in the world in Ontario.
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Ontario farmer to tilt at wind turbines in court

TORONTO — A farmer on a small island in Prince Edward County, Ont., who said he fears the constant swooshing of wind turbines will harm his family’s health launched a legal challenge Monday against Ontario’s wind power plans.

Ian Hanna said his application for judicial review, being called the first of its kind, is his latest appeal to the government after petitions failed to stop plans for five turbines about 900 metres away from his property on Big Island in the Bay of Quinte.

The community of about 100 homes will be overwhelmed by the turbines, he charged.

“My parents taught us when we were growing up that we should stand up for what we thought is good and right and whether that’s for my family or for my neighbours, I intend to do that,” he said.
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Canadian Hydro plans offshore wind farm in Lake Erie

Ontario’s green-energy Klondike is spreading offshore, and in a big way.

Canadian Hydro Developers Inc., the country’s largest independent developer of wind-energy projects, said on Monday it plans to erect enough wind turbines in Lake Erie to power two million homes.

The area Canadian Hydro has targeted starts about five kilometres off the shore of Long Point Provincial Park and stretches roughly 80 kilometres west to a spot that’s 30 kilometres south of Port Stanley.

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Samsung looking to build Lake Erie wind farm

Giant conglomerate Samsung is apparently pondering a wind farm comprising 200 turbines on the north shore of Lake Erie but the Ontario government would only confirm Sunday that talks with the Korean-based company are in advanced stages.

The proposed wind farm, part of Samsung’s new push into renewable energy, would stretch about 25 kilometres from Port Maitland toward Nanticoke, an area considered to have excellent wind potential.

The Ontario government said the two parties have been involved in “months of extraordinarily co-operative effort” toward an agreement that would involve billions of new investment, including in manufacturing facilities.

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Green Energy Act a glaring example of Liberal government’s indifference to rights and interests of rural Ontarians

Owen Sound Sun Times
An Arran-Elderslie councillor wants his council to enforce its rights under the Ontario Municipal Act and impose a moratorium on wind energy projects.

Elderslie ward Coun. Mark Davis said last week the municipality can impose moratorium legislation for one year, with the opportunity to extend it for another year, “if we feel an issue needs further study. These wind energy projects certainly fall under that category,” said Davis, who has always been an outspoken critic of wind turbines.

“Council should consider implementing a moratorium to put a hold on these things until we know more about them, their impact and until the province gets its Green Energy Act in place,” Davis added.

Meanwhile, Arran-Elderslie is joining forces with other Ontario municipalities in a letter-writing campaign to Premier Dalton McGuinty requesting further study into the impacts of industrial wind complexes and other renewable installations.

“Bill 150 essentially excludes Ontarians from any say in the establishment and location of industrial wind turbine plants,” the letter states.

“It provides a glaring example of the Liberal government’s systematic indifference to the rights and interests of rural Ontarians and an inexcusable disregard for public health concerns.”

The letter asks for an independent third-party study “surrounding the rapid and improper installation of industrial wind projects throughout Ontario.”

Wind turbine farm generates controversy

Several planned wind turbines in the Strathroy area aren’t even up yet, but residents are already educating themselves as to the possible health hazards associated with them.

Over 200 people attended an information meeting hosted by the Middlesex Wind Action Group on Wednesday, Sept. 9. The gym at Adelaide W.G. MacDonald was standing room only.

At the heart of the issue is a proposed wind turbine farm that would see the construction of 40 turbines in Adelaide-Metcalfe Township. These are just some of the 128 wind turbines planned for this region.

Adelaide- W.G. MacDonald School is a located in the middle of the wind farm project proposed for the township.

Since 2006, Air Energy TCI Inc. (AET), The Canadian subsidiary of the UK based TCI Renewables, has been developing the Adelaide Wind Farm Project on nearly 7,000 acres of land within the township.

Officials with TCI hope to have the construction process started by 2011, and expect these turbines to be one of the first to receive an energy sales contract from Ontario Power Authority under the new Feed-In Tariff (FIT) program.
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Lake Erie off shore wind turbine opponents urge MoE assessment

A proposal to put 15 wind turbines as close as one kilometre offshore in Lake Erie should require an environmental assessment, Gord Meuser, a spokesman for the group Citizens Against Lake Erie Wind Turbines, said Friday.

SouthPoint Wind has completed its environmental screening report but Meuser said the group will be asking that it be bumped up to an environmental assessment with more studies specifically on Lake Erie and the impacts the turbines could have here. He said there aren’t other freshwater wind turbine projects for comparison.

“We’d be the guinea pig,” Meuser said.
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Wind farm opponents accuse Ontario Energy Minister Smitherman of ducking protesters

Opponents of new wind farms in Ontario are accusing Energy Minister George Smitherman of trying to duck protesters.

A group called Wind Concerns Ontario says Smitherman’s office hasn’t told anyone the energy minister will attend Thursday’s grand opening of the Wolfe Island wind project near Kingston.

The anti-windmill activists say Smitherman is “deathly afraid” he’ll face protests at Wolfe Island after he ran into about 50 protesters at a wind farm near Kincardine in April.

The government still had not put out an announcement late Wednesday afternoon indicating that Smitherman and Environment Minister John Gerretson would be at the Wolfe Island event.
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Ontario wind farm projects are being assessed by proponents and not independent environmental experts, figures show

Not a single wind farm project proposed in the past four years in Ontario has undergone an independent environmental assessment by the province, figures obtained by The Free Press show.
Despite requests from citizens’ groups for the assessments, 31 projects have been allowed to go through after a less stringent screening process undertaken by the wind farm proponents themselves.
“It demonstrates the process is a sham,” said John Laforet, president of Wind Concerns Ontario, a coalition of 33 smaller groups.
“Each of these projects is a foregone conclusion.”
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Ontario’s big windy gamble. The province is betting on wind power, and critics are lining up.

Ontario is already North America’s friendliest jurisdiction for wind and other renewable energy projects, thanks to its recently proclaimed Green Energy Act, meant to speed along approval, and the establishment of European-style 20-year fixed-price energy contracts. (Power companies are now required to integrate all new green energy projects into their grids and pay producers 13.5 cents per kilowatt hour for onshore wind farms, 19 cents/kWh for offshore wind, and up to 80.2 cents/kWh for solar power, versus about six cents/kWh for both hydro and nuclear energy.) The province, which is committed to shutting down its coal-fired plants by 2014, will have 1,200 megawatts of wind power in operation by the end of this year, and there are 103 more “shovel ready” wind developments, totalling 3,263 MW, in the pipeline. The proliferation of giant turbines—80-m-tall towers with 40- to 45-m blades—is already nearing the 5,000 MW supply ceiling the Ontario Power Authority has said it can easily integrate into its aging grid. But soon, there will be no more limits. Smitherman is promising a series of major power infrastructure announcements in coming weeks that will not only make wind a much bigger part of Ontario’s energy mix, but open up vast new areas of the province to commercial wind development.
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McGuinty government is flying blind when it comes to the development of wind power.

Erie Shores Wind Farm

Long Point Waterfowl is worried that the McGuinty government is flying blind when it comes to the development of wind power.

The waterfowl study group has set aside $300,000 for a two-year probe of wind turbines and their potential impact on waterfowl in the lower Great Lakes. Long Point Waterfowl is undertaking the research to address gaps in its understanding.

Scott Petrie, executive director of Long Point Waterfowl, is disturbed that the province wants to steamroll dissent on green energy projects when the scientific record is silent on the question of migratory waterfowl and wind turbines.

“I find what the McGuinty government is doing is very scary,” Petrie said. “They don’t want anybody speaking out against turbine locations. I’m very concerned about the Green Energy Act. We’re just trying to provide direction and to help ensure that green energy is as green as green can be.”
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Don’t back down on wind turbines

For renewable energy to have a future in Ontario, public support and confidence in wind farms is essential. The province should lead the way by ensuring that Ontarians have access to the most up-to-date research on the impact of wind turbines on public health.

In April, the government said it would fund a university-based research initiative “to examine potential public health effects of renewable energy projects.” But the initiative has not yet been launched. The province ought to make it a priority, with a special focus on wind turbines. That would ensure that Ontario’s regulations governing wind turbines are based on the best possible evidence.

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