Cleaning out our forests
The Guardian, www.theguardian.pe.ca 17 March 2012
Eastern Kings’ community council will be voting on Monday on whether or not they want to accept the proposal brought forth by Energy Minister Wes Sheridan for a second wind farm in their area.
Sheridan claims that this proposal will benefit the citizens in the community through financial incentives and a huge increase in power production.
I think this whole issue has really been spun towards Sheridan’s side because the community already rejected a proposal from a private company. What makes this proposal so different? If it was really beneficial, why would there need to be so many incentives to get the council on board?
Sheridan claims the community would rather the turbines be in a heavily forested area and he claims that this will produce “clean energy”, but area must be cleared in the forest for these wind turbines to be put in place. Sheridan has expressed no concern for the preservation of the wildlife living in these forests. Even if the company selected for the proposal doesn’t choose deforestation, there is still a risk of local bird mortality. A report from the P.E.I. Energy Corporation (2001) stated that birds in the province can be affected by turbines through the blades, lighting, wires, and collisions in poor weather conditions. The disturbances to the birds through the loss of their habitats and changes to their migration are also a huge concern for wildlife management in the province.
For those who couldn’t care less about the flight paths of these birds, another big issue with wind turbines has been noise pollution, and though the turbines have been proposed to be well enough away, the area isn’t that big and the noise will surely affect some community members.
Overall, it seems to be that the only community that would profit would be Eastern Kings, and I think Sheridan is really pushing this without showing us any real facts on how this is going to benefit the province as a whole in the long run. He says clean energy is good for the province, and I’d agree with him – if this energy was clean.
Isha Gupta,
London, Ont.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/03/17/cleaning-out-our-forests/