January 19, 2012
Australia

CSIRO wind farm report ‘unbalanced’

Sarah Scopelianos & AAP, www.weeklytimesnow.com.au 19 January 2012

The Australian Environment Foundation is slamming a CSIRO report which claims wind farm support is higher than reported in the media.

The report, Exploring community acceptance of rural wind farms in Australia, released earlier this week, looked at nine wind farms across South Australia, NSW and Victoria and analysed 49 articles from 19 newspapers in the second half of 2010.

The report found more reasons for wind farm opposition were reported than reasons for support and that rural residents who backed the developments did not seek media attention or political engagement to express their views.

Australian Environment Foundation executive director Max Rheese said the report was “unbalanced research masquerading as science”.

“Our view is that the report is based on a biased and inadequate review of the available peer-reviewed literatures, much of which does not support wind energy on economic, environmental or health impacts,” Mr Rheese said.
“The report is littered with errors and the material referenced in the report presents a one-sided view of the robust community debate about the adverse impacts of wind farms.”

The Foundation said of the 27 interviews conducted over the eight selected wind farms, only three farms had commended operations.

The group was also concerned the report made no reference to nine peer-reviewed studies since July 2011 linking wind turbine operation with adverse health effects from low-frequency sound.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/01/19/csiro-wind-farm-report-unbalanced/