Tell McGuinty we don’t want wind turbines 

Now that PEG and its incinerator proposal have been sent packing, hopefully for good, an older equally disturbing project is still with us. The IPC wind energy project in Sydenham is still very much alive, though temporarily on the back-burner. If it and / or others were to proceed, these projects would ruin Meaford’s prospects for prosperity as surely as any dirty incinerator would.

The issues have been discussed extensively in a presentation made to Meaford Council by Mr Jim Brunow on February 11th, 2011, as well as in letters to the editors of local media. Other than joining some 90 other municipalities in calling for a moratorium, Meaford has stayed on the sidelines of that debate. Perhaps it’s time for our council to revisit the issue. Here’s why.

Most of the arguments for the Green Energy Act are now demonstrably bogus. Simply put: wind-generated energy does not do what it was supposed to do, i.e. replace coal. That evidence, mostly from Europe and its 20 years of experience in the field, is so overwhelming that Germany, with some 26,000 wind-turbines installed, is now building the largest coal-fired electrical generating plants on earth, just so the lights won’t go out when there’s no wind.

Here’s a partial list of recent evidence that wind-turbines are such a social and financial disaster:

• The intermittent and unpredictable nature of wind-generated electricity means that there is no reduction of CO2 released into the atmosphere, hence no effect on climate-change. Virtually no one with experience in the matter now disputes that. Providing the specifics would take more space than this letter can provide, but, counter-intuitive as it might seem, it’s relatively easy to demonstrate why this is so.

• Wind-turbines make some people sick. Some companies are buying affected houses, with gag-orders imposed on the unfortunate sellers.

• Ontario now has the 3rd highest electricity rates in North America, due primarily to the lavish Feed-in-Tariff rates, which is causing hardship to families and driving businesses out of the province.

• When the wind blows at times when the power is not needed, Ontario has actually had to PAY its electrical neighbours to take the excess power. This problem gets worse with more and more Turbines.

• People trying to sell a home anywhere near an existing or planned wind-turbine project, are having zero luck attracting a buyer. That’s right here in Sydenham too. The companies’ line that there’s no effect on real estate values is demonstrably false. Ask any realtor.

So why are we still having to fight this invasion of wind-turbines smothering the country-side of Ontario like a biblical plague of locusts? We need not look too far or too hard.

Ontario Liberals have made a number of bad mistakes re matching electrical generating capacity to actual market-driven demand . They compounded these mistakes by choosing Green Energy as the magic wand that would do all things for all people… provided they were urban, poorly informed, willing to buy the big Green Lie… and vote Liberal.

It worked for them, spectacularly so, in the last election.

And that’s why there is an undeclared war against rural people, waged by a very effective cabal of politicians, wind and solar energy developers and their generous lobbyists who are masters at playing the subsidy game, as well as manufacturers who are now financially strapped because their prospects in Europe and elsewhere are disappearing faster than snow in May.

Let’s not forget the land-owners who signed on. There are fewer than you might think – just 9 of them for the 26-turbine IPC project in Sydenham. Some are absentee landlords while others are “hosting” turbines on land they own at some distance from their homes. Some were conned by fast-talking sales people. The remainder could use projected cash-flow (at around $ 15,000 per turbine annually) to finance a mortgage on a good house in town… if they can’t stand the turbine’s infrasound vibrations.

There is also the “green-washing” phenomenon: companies involved in the oil-sands, or coal-mining, or with other ecologically suspect reputations, are trying on the halo of renewable energy, just in case a “cap-and-trade” system comes to Ontario. There are lots of these in the Green Energy business.

So there you have it: gutless politicians unable or unwilling to admit and correct a gargantuan mistake, clever public opinion manipulators, operators taking maximum advantage of taxpayer-funded subsidies masquerading as national or inter-national do-gooders, truths cleverly hidden, falsehoods and flaws concocted and cleverly dressed-up as virtues. Thus a seemingly good idea became a hoax.

All of this in a democracy where a victorious premier or prime minister is supposed to become the steward and guardian of all the people, as opposed to attacking the vulnerable minority who, during the last election, gave him a black eye in all rural ridings, except one.

That, Meaford Council, is the situation we face. Premier McGuinty has recently said that he will only put Wind Turbines where local councils want them. Let’s take him at his word. No more dilly-dallying please. For the sake of us all, for our future as a tourist-friendly destiny, a wholesome place to live and a great one to retire to, please get off the fence. Real green is something very different from this masquerading imposter. Tell Mr. McGuinty we don’t want them.

Andre Den Tandt, Meaford