Open letter to Senator Di Natale
Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2013 - Hamish Cumming
In response to your interview on ABC and various other written musings.
The Greens constantly amaze me with their lack of knowledge and their dogmatic views on wind farms that seem devoid of any facts.
Worse still is your concept that anyone who speaks out about the harm wind farms do to people, fauna and the environment is not acting in the interest of the public.
Funny, I would have thought the Greens were acting against the public interest with their refusal to acknowledge several peer reviewed reports that confirm turbine sickness, court cases in other countries that were won by people made sick by turbines and the fact that Waubra and other wind farms are not compliant to their permit conditions regarding noise.
The Greens accuse those that speak out against the wind farm companies of being on the coal companies’ payroll, whereas it is the Greens who are acting as spokespeople for the big wind farm companies, which just happen to be some of the same companies that own the coal fired power stations and run the coal mines. Hypocrisy at its best.
The Greens have become ruthless in defending the wind industry, the same as politicians and companies defended asbestos, tobacco and DDT for fifty years. The Greens have lost their social conscience and lost any credibility they had by selling out to the big business of the wind industry. History will judge you harshly for what you are doing now.
Greens constantly claim wind farms reduce greenhouse gases (GHG), but they rarely do. I have provided the AEMO data streams and facts to Greg Barber and Christine Milne, along with Loy Yang Carbon intensity figures from their published reports to verify this, but the Green still bang on about wind farms and how wonderful they think they are.
But the glaringly obvious proof was documented by the AEMO on July 4 this year. Between the time of 14.50 and 14.55 on July 4, Portland, Macarthur and Lake Bonny dropped 449 MW off the Eastern Grid in the 5-minute period. At the same time, in the same 5-minute period, coal fired power stations in the Eastern Grid loaded up 334 MW, gas added 61 MW and hydro 76 MW. A total of 471 MW. AEMO have confirmed this was an unplanned “failure” event, so power had to be taken from generators that had it available instantly, where coal was being burnt on standby. There was no blackout, not even a flicker from a light bulb.
AEMO have confirmed 500 MW drop-offs are regularly picked up by coal fired power stations.
It is estimated that there is 1000 MW of standby power fossil fuel being unnecessarily burnt to keep generators hot and available in case of such events, negating nearly all wind farm generation in Australia over an entire year of operation. In reality wind farms have made the carbon intensity worse, and the only reason there have been GHG savings at all is due to industry shutting down and reducing demand, and the swing from coal to gas in some states.
Further to this, the Greens support wind farm projects that fraudulently claim the absence of protected flora and fauna, even though overwhelming evidence of the presence of the species, and the destruction and displacement of the same species at existing wind farms has been directly issued to Greg Barber and Christine Milne. Surely wind farms should only be allowed in areas that are not environmentally sensitive – I would have thought the Greens would understand that!
I sent Greg Barber the peer reviewed Laura Navarrete reports on cranes interaction with wind farms in Texas; which show cranes are displaced out as far as 8m from wind turbines, yet the consultant that Greg keeps supporting and agreeing with claims displacement is only 350 meters. Proof at Yambuk, Waubra and now Macarthur show that it is over 5km. Brolga (cranes) cannot be accused of being NIMBYs or from being on the coal companies’ payroll. Yet when humans complain about the disturbance within 2 km they are immediately branded by the Greens as NIMBY or mentally ill.
It appears lately the Greens have forgotten what they originally stood for, to protect the environment and protect species from threat and to protect the people in society that cannot protect themselves! Instead the Greens now are spokespeople for big multi-nationals, claiming to save the planet by covering the countryside with turbines. All of Australia’s GHG is now less than 1% of the world’s emissions, wind farms in Australia will not reduce the global GHG emissions by any measurable amount. Wind farms will however displace Brolga from their habitat, threatening their survival; wind farms divide communities and make hundreds of people sick and force them out of their houses, and wind farms make big companies rich by ripping off the entire community through subsidies extorted from power bills.
I believe Bob Brown once said that the Greens were not here to keep the bastards honest, but to replace them. I think the Greens today are taking Bob’s comment literally.
Regards,
~~~
Hamish Cumming.
Mechanical Engineer, Farmer and Brolga Conservationist.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/11/11/open-letter-to-senator-di-natale/