December 31, 2011
Australia

Wind farm proposal full of hot air

BY ERIN SOMERVILLE, Central Western Daily, www.centralwesterndaily.com.au 31 December 2011

A Carcoar doctor is pushing New South Wales parliamentarians to reject the state government’s draft wind farm guidelines.

The guidelines, labelled by the wind industry as among the toughest in the world, were released last week.

Dr Alan Watts, who is also a member of the Flyers Creek Wind Turbine Awareness Group opposed to a $200 million wind farm development in the area, is now appealing to state members to crack down even harder on the proposed guidelines.

In a message to parliamentarians, he has described the guidelines as “totally inadequate”.

Currently, New South Wales has no guidelines and all wind developments are considered under South Australian guidelines that were set in 2003.

“They are a rehash of the flawed South Australian guidelines they supposedly replaced and represent less than the Victorian government legislated,” Dr Watts wrote to parliamentarians.

“Your document is a dishonest attempt to placate the growing anger within the community towards the wind industry which is flourishing on greed, ignorance and subsidy.”

In his address to parliamentarians, Dr Watts has praised moves by the South Australian Liberal Party to create a five kilometre buffer zone between a wind turbine and an existing residence.

He is now lobbying New South Wales state members to push for a similar regulation to be placed in the guidelines.

In Australia there are no set buffer zones between a wind turbine and a home, however under the proposed NSW guidelines all residents living within two kilometres of a planned turbine must give consent for the development or the decision will lie with an independent regional planning panel.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/12/31/wind-farm-proposal-full-of-hot-air/