February 14, 2012
Ontario

Wind Concerns Ontario announces Golden Pinwheel Awards for the wind power industry

Wind Concerns Ontario, freewco.blogspot.com 13 February 2012

Wind Concerns Ontario, a coalition of more than 50 community groups concerned about the effects of industrial wind power plants throughout the province, has announced its first annual Golden Pinwheel Awards.
“We had a bit of fun with this,” said WCO president Jane Wilson. “But it is a serious business: Wind power is being pushed through Ontario as an answer to a number of problems, but it’s really a giant profit-making scheme for a few individuals and companies. It won’t ever live up to the promises of job creation and power production, and instead will end up costing the people of Ontario millions.”

1 The “Green Doesn’t Mean Honest” Golden Pinwheel : Bullfrog Power. In September, the clean energy retailer was fined by the Ontario Energy Board for using misleading contracts and marketing practices.
2 The “Pie in the Sky” Golden Pinwheel: to Toronto Hydro jointly with Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative for their fantasy claims about the Toronto Exhibition Place wind turbine, which has barely operated above 13% efficiency and has cost investors millions. Maybe to recoup their losses they should charge Dalton McGuinty a fee every time he uses the useless icon for a photo op.
3 The “Take It for Granted “ Golden Pinwheel: the Ontario Power Authority for insisting it pays for its own advertisements instead of cash-strapped Ontario ratepayers.
4 The “Best Supporting Role in a Political Debacle” Golden Pinwheel: former Minister of the Environment, John Wilkinson, who ignored his own constitutents as well as other rural Ontario residents who don’t want their communities turned into wind power factories, and was defeated in the October 6th election, helping to create a serious rural/urban division in Ontario.
5 The “I Can’t Hear You-lalalala” Golden Pinwheel: Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty who is ignoring the Auditor-General’s criticism that the province is spending too much on renewable energy schemes, particularly wind, that the claims of 50,000 jobs being created are unsubstantiated, that health problems are being ignored, and that the province embarked on all this without a single cost-benefit study.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/02/14/wind-concerns-ontario-announces-golden-pinwheel-awards-for-the-wind-power-industry/