August 16, 2006
Australia
Australia
Plans for a controversial wind farm industry in the south-east of New South Wales will be under debate at a forum to be held in Cooma next week.
The Cooma Monaro Shire Council is organising the meeting because of what it says is significant interest in setting up wind turbines across parts of the Snowy River, Bombala and Cooma Monaro shires.
Mayor Roger Norton says the region lends itself to the alternative electrical energy source because of the open landscape and dependable air currents.
But he says any developments need to be carefully planned.
“There’s quite a substantial growth in the push for sustainable alternative energy, environmentally friendly,” he said.
“On the other side people are very strongly committed to maintaining the existing unique Monaro landscapes.”
One of the groups opposed to the giant turbines on the Monaro describes them as a ‘blight on the landscape’.
Grazier Jim Litchfield represents the Reduced Emissions and Landscape for Monaro group and says he is worried about their impact on land values.
“They create a disparity in land values,” he said.
“There is clear evidence now that if you owned a block of land in view of a wind tower your land value will decline.
“I suppose the bottom line of all this is if wind power was going to make a significant difference to this problem we call greenhouse then we would put up with all those sorts of things.”
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2006/08/16/monaro-wind-farm-proposal-to-be-debated/