Alerts

posted:  May 20, 2020
Meetings, Noise •

Source:  Institute of Noise Control Engineering—Europe

Wind Turbine Noise 2021 — May 18-21, 2021

For our ninth conference we are in Dublin, capital of the Irish Republic. The hotel is ten minutes from the airport but with a bus service every ten minutes to the city centre. For those wanting to stay on site there is the conference hotel or the Holiday Inn Express next door.

The conferences attract delegates from the fields of manufacturing, planning development, academia and research and the environment as well as pressure groups, consultants and exhibitors. WTN2021 will provide an opportunity for all those with an interest in wind turbine noise, to present their work, to see and hear other’s work and to meet together and discuss common problems and solutions. We are now accepting abstracts via the conference website and the abstract deadline is 20th November 2020.

Subjects for presentations can be anything related to wind turbine noise – its generation, its prediction, its assessment and its effects on people. After Lisbon it was apparent that some people wanted more work on noise reduction of turbines and on development of more accurate propagation models. And we need more quantitative information on the impact of AM on people.

With the new draft Irish guidelines and other proposals round Europe, you might want to look at the current state of Regulations. But the choice is yours.

Watch this space for more information. If you are not on the mailing list, sign up now.

• Submit an abstract
• Organising Committee 2021

Conference homepage

posted:  February 11, 2020
Environment, Law, Newsletters, Ohio •

Source:  Seneca Anti-Wind Union

The Windbreaker

Contents (issue 36):
State lawmakers in the Ohio Senate urged to allow SB 234 wind farm referendum
Seneca Anti-Wind Union Investigates, Episode 3 – “Property Destruction, Forgery, and Trespassing; The Abuse of Host Community Citizens” (video link)
Wind Turbine Blades Can’t Be Recycled, So They’re Piling Up in Landfills (Bloomberg News link)

Download PDF: “Windbreaker, issue 36”

posted:  February 11, 2020
Economics, Emissions, Newsletters, Wisconsin •

Source:  SOUL of Wisconsin

SOUL of Wisconsin newsletter

View at: campaign-archive.com

Contents:

Getting Serious about CO₂: Part II (click here for Part I)

Off the Grid Perspectives After Three Years

posted:  December 8, 2019
Action alerts, Economics, Emissions, Hearings, Iowa •

Source:  SOUL of Wisconsin

Utilities Strive to Stifle Citizen Intervenors

Your presence is needed to support the efforts of public intervenors at the upcoming hearings in Dubuque. If successful, legal obstacles laid down by transmission builders ITC-Midwest and Dairyland Power Cooperative would remove Ms. Chris Klopp and three other public intervenors from impacting the technical proceedings and:

• Eliminate the only arguments challenging need for the proposed Cardinal Hickory Creek expansion transmission line.[1]
• Eliminate the precedent of an electric customer studying materials and substantively questioning utility assumptions and omissions in a utility case in Iowa;
• Eliminate the precedent of an electric customer directly defending public interests upon which utility decisions are supposed to rest.
• Eliminate the precedent of an electric customer in one state protesting the approval of a “cost shared” transmission project in another state. (Klopp resides in Cross Plains, WI, but such protest could arise from most Midwest states.)
• Eliminate the example of an electric customer insisting on the determination of electric bill impacts and CO2 emission reduction accountability as requested by an affected county government, Dubuque County, IA.
• Eliminate the example of an electric customer criticizing regional transmission planning for providing only regional generalizations of impact, and not clear quantification of impacts on state levels.

Why Ratepayer Resistance?

When a state like Iowa considers the proposal of a transmission line as large and as expensive as Cardinal Hickory Creek (CHC), profiting utilities and citizen parties known as “intervenors” make their arguments in a legal setting or “case.” Unlike regular citizens, utilities can afford to hire several law firms and industry experts to plead for them. Unless they have extra thousands, regular citizens must use the judicial right to represent themselves (without counsel) and, unless they hire technical experts, rely on records in the case or elsewhere to make their observations. Because of her great familiarity intervening in CHC in Wisconsin, this is the path Ms. Klopp has taken in Iowa. Here are some of samples of her observations: Iowa rates increasing fast (p15); transmission builder’s profits (p17); CO2 emissions on order of 2%-4% (p29) Dubuque County Iowa Requests for ratepayers (p7) and lack of cost benefit analysis for Iowa electric customers (p18)

What Obstacles Have Utilities Laid?

The four citizen intervenors are alone against large sums being spent to silence them. In the months leading up to the crucial public hearings December 10-12 in Dubuque, Ms. Klopp has faced round after round of legal filings seeking to strike her testimony and block her participation. She has endured repeated attempts to invade her personal life. Even though Ms. Klopp has studied the CHC case for nearly two years, holds a degree in Chemistry and has decades of experience at the Wisconsin DNR, Ms. Klopp has been routinely called down by law firms and lobbyists for clean energy groups as “lack[ing] training, education, or experience;” and making “misleading statements.” CHC agents are encouraging state regulators to strike her words from the record and “reject her position as unreasonable.”[2,3]

So far, while caring for family members with special needs at the same time, Ms. Klopp has managed to defend her rights from this barrage. The grind will continues through the holiday season without respite.

What Motivates Citizen Intervenors?

Like the majority of families living in rural settings, Ms. Klopp and fellow citizen intervenors Mike Deutmeyer, Linda Grice and Dena Kurt are protecting everything: their homes, farms and the natural assets they steward. Before and after assessments show that property affected by 345 kV transmission lines can lose from 15-75% value.[4] But even greater than devastating financial loss, they know from the experiences of others that once the towering, ever-present reminder is built, it forces people to abandon their homes, their purpose and their pride.

But that is not her strongest motivation. Ms. Klopp, who is also on the SOUL Board, recounted this summer that, personally, she could not allow the Cardinal Hickory Creek proposal that should have been defeated in Wisconsin earlier this year to breeze through Iowa regulatory review without constructive public discussion about the right energy path going forward. She observed that if engineering staff of Public Service Commission of Wisconsin was strong enough to stand up for truth and state that CHC was unlikely to meet transmission builders’ promises and to recommend much less expensive transmission system upgrades, she could too. Ms. Klopp filed to join the three citizen intervenors, bringing in her awareness, experience and skills.

An Injury to One is an Injury to All

Increasingly, citizens, land keepers, environmentalists, neighborhoods and communities across the county are being encroached upon by outside developers seeking to extract local resources for their personal gain. In some respects, the fight for the right of access to lunch counters, busses and elite clubs has climbed to higher order places where state law, agencies and courts are consistently swayed by those who yield more money and legal fire power. Monied interests are increasingly bold in their affronts because they are entirely unafraid to see matters, small and large, end up in court.

Despite the historical, popular opposition to CHC in Wisconsin that included hundreds of thousands of dollars of (mostly pro bono) legal commitment and the best experts in the US, PSC Com-missioners simply stood behind their association with monied interests and thumbed their noses at what was in the best interests of all. When challenged for having conflicted interests, Com-missioner Huebsch, who cannot propose transmission lines on his own, threatened the public in attendance, “And if you believe that this transmission line that we put up is the last you are going to have to deal with, you are wrong.”

Through history, it has been self-betterment, education and the will to solve problems as communities that has forged what is dearest to all. The ability to solve problems, through the bonds of friendships, families, neighbors and nations gives us grace and peace.

Developers with less generous interests are far less inclined to proceed when encountering persons like Chris Klopp and every community possesses such individuals. Consciously recognizing this ability in ourselves and those we depend on may be one of the most important things we can do.

Consider carpooling to Dubuque during the hearings December 10-12 and showing your support. Directions to Hotel Julien: https://goo.gl/maps/gwk1jJazb6n9G6XK9

NOTES
1. Klopp Reply Testimony, https://efs.iowa.gov/cs/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dID=277152
Klopp Response to Motion to Strike Testimony, https://efs.iowa.gov/cs/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dID=279403
Klopp Prehearing Brief, https://efs.iowa.gov/cs/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dID=280177
2. Motion to Strike Chris Klopp Reply Testimony and Exhibits, https://efs.iowa.gov/cs/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dID=277864
Resistance in Opposition to Chris Klopp’s Petition to Intervene, https://efs.iowa.gov/cs/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dID=273996
Klopp Response to Motion To Strike https://efs.iowa.gov/cs/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dID=279403
3. Quotes, in order:
ITC/DPC Prehearing Brief p.12 https://efs.iowa.gov/cs/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dID=280124
Clean Energy Intervenors Prehearing Brief p.15, https://efs.iowa.gov/cs/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dID=280117
4. Valuation Guidelines for Properties with Electric Transmission Lines, By: Kurt C. Kielisch, http://fieldpost.org/StarkEnergy/Studies/Valuation%20Guidelines%20for%20Properties%20with%20Electric%20Transmission%20Lines%201.pdf

posted:  November 15, 2019
Action alerts, Law, Ohio •

Source:  Seneca Anti-Wind Union

Please write a letter of support for Ohio House Bill 401 (Reineke Referendum)

The major provision of HB401 allows local voters in individual townships to vote on industrial wind turbine projects which have been ap-proved by the Ohio Power Siting Board for the areas in which these local voters live. Currently, there is no local vote allowed by Ohio law. There is no local control. The bill also requires the use of safety manuals to determine safe setbacks.

The opposition pushback against local control is fierce. We must let those we elect to represent our interests clearly understand that local control of wind projects by affected township voters is critically important. Affected residents must be given a vote to approve or deny a project for their town-ship.

The Energy and Natural Resources Commit-tee will hold a proponent hearing for HB401 on Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 11 AM

Your letter of support can be emailed to Chairman Nino Vitale, Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and the committee clerk, Naomi del Guidice, at: Rep85@ohiohouse.gov

Also copy Representative Bill Reineke at: Rep88@ohiohouse.gov

Letters may be short and need not contain technical information or expert opinion. Your thoughts and opinions in your own words are best. Points to consider:

• Express your support for HB401 (Reineke Referendum) to ensure local residents a vote to allow or disallow a wind project in their township.
• Ohio zoning today prohibits building a home in an area zoned for industrial use. Conversely, a wind developer can build an industrial power plant in a residential area near a home because citizens have been robbed of the right to prohibit this industrial use in their rural community. It is time to return local control to the people.
• The balance of power between a developer and rural residents of modest means is unfair.
• The Ohio Power Siting Board does not have staff expertise to conduct independent studies for wildlife, noise, health, economic impact, safety, etc. The community is forced to accept the OPSB recommended ap-proval and lacks resources for a challenge to the “evidence.”
• The tax abatement – the PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) – is not local control. In Logan County, the Commissioners denied the PILOT but the Scioto Ridge Wind Project now includes turbines in Logan County.
• If a proposed wind project will impact you personally in a specific way, feel free to add that information.

posted:  November 9, 2019
Fundraisers, Law, New York •

Source:  Seneca Anti-Wind Union; Erie-Huron Anti Wind

Spaghetti Dinner

posted:  October 15, 2019
France, Impacts, Publications •

Source:  Fabien Bouglé

Eoliennes : la face noire de la transition écologique

Edition 2022

Elles sont partout, incarnant le symbole de la transition écologique : sur les sites internet institutionnels, dans les livres scolaires, les publicités, les films, les médias… Les éoliennes ont envahi les campagnes et les littoraux et sont devenues dans le monde entier, par une propagande systématique, le symbole de l’écologie et de la lutte pour le climat.

Et pourtant, derrière cette image verte… Contestation populaire, pollution, émissions de CO2, atteintes à la santé et à la biodiversité, détournement de fonds publics, augmentation du prix de l’électricité, conflits d’intérêt, mafia : découvrez ce que le lobby du vent vous cache sur les éoliennes.

Acheter un livre.

Fabien Bouglé est depuis dix ans expert de l’éolien et auteur de nombreuses études et tribunes alertant sur le sujet. Chef d’entreprise dans le secteur financier et culturel, il est également élu municipal.

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