LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Wind power panned at meeting 

Credit:  www.simcoe.com 14 April 2011 ~~

Drawing a capacity audience to Meaford Hall was an easy job Saturday afternoon as Wind Power Meaford preached to a crowd of the converted.

The group’s educational forum on wind power was very close to a sell-out. Even a gorgeous spring day couldn’t lure people away from listening to a list of “expert” speakers from around Ontario discuss the problems with renewable energy resources, particularly wind power.

Despite a rather one-sided list of presenters, the meeting was still a fairly calm affair.

Tom Adams, a media and energy consultant with a long resume in the energy industry, kicked things off with a presentation that highlighted the downside of renewable energy resources – namely their unreliability.

Adams noted that such energy sources, specifically wind and solar, are best viewed as intermittent sources of power, something that is not an ideal match with the way Ontario’s energy production and transmission grid is set up.

“There’s a major disconnect there,” he said. “Most wind power is generated during surplus periods, and we have very limited generation flexibility in our system.”

Solar, Adams added, is likely even worse, and suffers as a reliable source for many of the same reasons. It’s even more cost prohibitive than wind power at the moment, he said.

“The cost of solar power, is, I think, unattainable. What we need to do is to get the economics of energy production working better.”

The audience listened politely and with some enthusiasm to Adams, but reserved more approval for the following speakers who began to more obviously rail against the provincial alternative energy policies.

“Has anyone here ever been told they’re NIMBY’s (Not in my backyard),” thundered Michael Trebilcock. “I always tell people, NIMBY has two meanings – the other is Next It Might Be You.”

That remark drew likely the heaviest ovation of the day from the audience, along with more cutting remarks from Trebilcock, the Chair of Law and Economics at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law. He’s also a Grey Highlands resident.

“I’ve found over the years there are two kinds of Greens,” he said. “There are idealogues who don’t care whether they ruin the economy if there’s even a hint of environmental good to come out of it, and then there’s the type who’s interested in the green of our money.”

“Over the last few years,” Trebilcock said to heavy applause,” there’s been a corporate feeding frenzy in the renewable energy field. It’s time to tell these losers to get their hands out of our pockets and the footprint off our landscapes.”

He, like several other speakers, suggested this fall’s provincial election could make a huge difference in alternative energy policies if the Liberal government under Dalton McGuinty loses. That might be the best hope of stopping some of these wind projects, he said.

Trebilcock also took aim at the high cost of some of this alternative energy. He said solar and wind power are being subsidized by the province at a rate of at least 13 cent a kilowatt hour to as high as 80 cents. That’s while the going rate for selling is six cents.

“It’s not sound public policy,” he said. “It’s expected that electricity costs will rise by 46 per cent over the next five years and renewable energy resources still require fossil fuel backup.”

He encouraged everyone in the audience to support local municipalities who are trying to fight the province over the issue and have some measure of planning control over these projects returned to them.

Source:  www.simcoe.com 14 April 2011

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon