Horizon survey flawed
The Chronicle Journal | Wednesday, October 10, 2012 | www.chroniclejournal.com
The Chronicle Journal | Wednesday, October 10, 2012 | www.chroniclejournal.com
Recently, Horizon Wind Inc. has circulated a postcard survey in Thunder Bay to determine the amount of support for their proposed Big Thunder Wind Project. All respondents will have their names entered in a draw for the opportunity to win a trip for two to Antigonish, N.S., to visit Horizon’s Maryvale wind project. The cards or online entries are to be sent to a local public relations firm (Firedog Communications) which Horizon has hired to conduct its publicity campaign.
Some information on the card is misleading or incorrect. For example, it is stated that the wind turbines will have no impact on the sugar maple forests but clearly some of the turbines (such as No. 4 and No. 5) as well as the western switching substation are to be located in sugar maple stands and will devastate these forests.
As a retired university professor I can confidently state that any graduate student who proposed to conduct a survey in this manner would not receive approval from his or her thesis committee to proceed with such a flawed study as the results would be invalid. The population sampling is incorrect; the preamble includes biased and inaccurate information; and the results will be scrutinized by a biased observer.
I feel the results of this survey should be ignored regardless of whether they support or don’t support Horizon’s proposed project and am submitting this letter in anticipation of Horizon attempting to use this survey as a ploy to demonstrate public support for its project.
Ron Lappage
Thunder Bay
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/10/11/horizon-survey-flawed/