January 17, 2011
Letters, Ontario

Windmills – What’s in your wallet ?

The Beacon Herald, www.stratfordbeaconherald.com

Last year Dalton McGuinty steam rolled the Green Energy Act. In the fine print of this act is an unconstitutional assault on all tax payers’ rights, not just land owners. That should set alarm bells ringing for every resident of this province. All municipalities in Ontario have lost any say in regards to construction of windmills or solar units. Do not be lulled in to dream land by the image of a few little windmills turning romantically in the wind ( when it does blow ) these windmills are huge industrial scale electrical generating plants with many economic and health problems attached. It should raise alarm when leases the land owners are required to sign contain gag orders that do not allow them to speak of any health or economic issues. This seems very contradictory when the government that took away the municipalities rights on this issue and the companies that are constructing these generating plants , claim there are no issues. STRANGE INDEED !!

The idea of Windmill technology as GREEN is insulting to me as a taxpayer . Building a windmill uses enormous amounts of energy and material. You must keep an equal amount of gas or coal fired plants running side by side in standby mode when the windmills are turning as they will inevitably stop . You cannot not ramp nuclear up or down fast enough to keep the grid stable. Some form of carbon based power plant must be kept running. . Checks these facts online by looking up , Germany, Denmark, Holland etc. This a very expensive , ineffective way to produce power with almost zero effect of reducing the carbon foot print.

Where is the GREEN advantage ?

Windmill production of hydro is clearly neither GREEN nor economical

European countries have proven that subsidized power has created a few jobs ,but as many or more are lost. Industry cannot afford to pay for overpriced electricity . Tax payers are paying dearly for this misguided idea.

The NIMBY ( not in my back yard ) tag has been used on land owners that are reluctant to see these windmills built. That is misleading . Talk to them in person. The majority do not want them built in anyone’s back yard. Not up north, not on lake front , not on the Niagara Escarpment. All logical areas geographically, but there is no economic benefit for all of us and to many unresolved health issues. If there were not , why the gag orders on leases. Why the gag order on MPP Richardson on this issue ? Something stinks in the countryside, but this smell is coming from Queens Park.

Health issues alone should be the tipping point to have the construction of more generating plants ( windmills ) stopped until health studies are properly done. But rural owners are only 2 to 3% of the population, so who cares. You could forget the health issue ( if you can sleep at night ), but keep your wallet open near the bed stand. Keep a good relationship with your banker as well, because you are going to need lots of money for taxes to pay for this boondoggle for decades to come.

People tend to forget that when your municipality owes money , that is your debt . If the municipality gets a grant from the provincial government, that is also your debt . If the provincial government gets grants from the federal government, that is your debt as well . Over paid subsidized hydro is only going to add more debt to you, is not GREEN and only temporally creates an expensive form of employment.

If you choose not to think about this issue with compassion on how it will affect landowner’s health and property values for the rest of their lives, I urge you to think how it is going to affect your financial and mental health situation when you and your children are crushed under an ever increasing tax load.

Craig Dill


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/01/17/windmills-whats-in-your-wallet/