So much for wind power “saving the planet” – fossil fuel suppliers are watching their diesel sales soar as it becomes the fuel of choice for the back-up generation needed when wind-watts go missing – an inconvenient fact covered in Bobby thumbed a “Diesel” down ….

You could say green dreams are going “Up in Smoke”.

But it’s another kind of wind power fiasco that’s creating more opportunities for diesel suppliers – this time – in the North Sea.

Windpark To Nowhere … 22,000 Litres Of Diesel Fuel Burned Every Month To Keep Windpark From Rusting Away!
NoTricksZone
P Gosselin
13 August 2013

Germany has ambitious plans of erecting huge offshore wind parks in the North and Baltic Seas with the hope of generating lots of natural, climate-friendly energy.  The Riffgat offshore wind park, comprising 30 monster turbines located some 15 kilometers from the North Sea island of Borkum, is…

One of the stalwart arguments of the wind power development business in North America is that things have gone well in Europe and Scandinavia, and there is no cause for concern about health problems resulting from the environmental noise and vibration (infrasound) produced by the huge machines, which are getting bigger all the time.

In fact, the wind business says, the people who believe in health problems could have a few screws loose. Go to the Canadian Wind Energy Association’s website http://www.windfacts.ca and look at the justification they give in the form of references there. They continue to rely on the Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health report from 2010, inadequate as it was then, and supremely outdated and narrow as it is now.

Anyway, here is a letter from a doctor specializing in community health in Denmark, who makes the following claims:

• there are health problems in Denmark and…

If you are at all aware of the damage being done to Ontario communities by wind power projects, and the reports of health effects from the environmental noise and vibration (soundpressure, infrasound, low frequency noise) you’re already very concerned that reports of excessive noise and ill health effects are not being followed up by our provincial government. The wind power debacle is in addition to other Ontario health scandals such as the ORNGE mismanagement and eHealth.

You also cringe at the amount of money being given to wind power developers when at the same time, services are being cut, plans for new hospitals cancelled or put on hold (in some cases, despite community fund-raising efforts), rural health services being cut back or removed altogether, and professional services such as physiotherapy curtailed.

So now, how rich it is that the Ontario government has announced more help for children with special needs…

Credit: By Rhona Weir | The Scottish Mail on Sunday | 4 August 2013 | ~~

Rhona Weir was infamously snubbed by the First Minister at the SNP Conference at Inverness where this 93 years young lady was offered a brief meeting with a very junior minister in a hotel room at some remove from the conference centre in a damage limitation exercise. Major press coverage resulted in the offer of a later meeting at Bute House in Edinburgh, to be staged managed by SNP spin doctors. Despite facing a serious operation the next day, Rhona went to Edinburgh and met the First Minister. Photographs of the doughty Lady were sent around the world and I think it was definitely Rhona 2 Salmond 0.

For those outwith Scotland, Rhona is the wife of the late Tom Weir, one of the most loved and respected writers and TV presenters of Scotland’s…

Bob Boughner, Chatham Daily News
Transport Canada is being asked to clarify why it hasn’t taken action against a wind turbine company advised in June to remove eight turbines near the Chatham-Kent Municipal Airport. Chatham-Kent Essex MPP Rick Nicholls said Friday the turbine company – GDF Suez Canada – is dragging its heels “and the longer it stalls the more money it makes from the turbines.”

“It irritates me, especially since this is a safety issue,” said the MPP. “I’m constantly being asked by people why the turbines haven’t been removed and I’ve written to Transport Canada to get answers.” Chatham-Kent Essex MP Dave Van Kesteren said Friday he is also concerned over the lack of answers and intends to follow up with the agency in Ottawa. Meantime, David Timm, vice-president of the turbine company, insisted Friday his company has never received an “order” from Transport Canada to remove the…

The RSPB, always rather a suspect organisation in terms of its political activities, has excelled itself.   It has formally objected to plans by Cuadrilla to drill for shale gas, on the grounds of potential damage to birds.

Remember that the RSPB is a knee-jerk supporter of green policies and “action to prevent climate change”.  As part of its approach, it is a vocal supporter of wind turbines, apparently oblivious to the fact that wind turbines, on many estimates, kill millions of birds (and bats) every year,  and are very ineffective at reducing emissions. The industry responds that cats, and traffic, kill more birds than wind turbines.  This may be true, but turbines preferentially kill rare birds, raptors, and migrating birds.

So let’s get this clear: the RSPB is a charity for the protection of birds.  The clue is in the name.  Well-meaning elderly folk leave the RSPB generous legacies

Orangeville.com
Will the province’s Renewable Energy Approval (REA) process pass a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms litmus test? Despite objection from the Ministry of the Environment (MOE), Ontario’s Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT) has agreed to hear a constitutional challenge to the REA process in Shelburne next week.

“That’s the big news. They’re willing to sit and listen,” said Dennis Sanford, president of Wind Resistance Melancthon. “Certain rights have been squashed or ignored through the whole (REA) process and we’re trying to call attention to that fact.” The province recently gave Dufferin Wind Power Inc. the green light to construct a 99 MW wind farm in Melancthon and run a 230 kV transmission line from that site to Amaranth. Both Sanford and the citizen’s advocacy group, Conserving Our Rural Environment (CORE), promptly appealed that approval to the ERT.

After pre-hearings held earlier this month, the ERT is willing to hear…

The Standard
Niagara’s two smallest municipalities can boast of dozens of allies in declaring enough is enough in their wind turbine war. Wainfleet and West Lincoln are among a growing crop of municipalities province-wide which have declared themselves unwilling hosts to wind turbines. They’ve earned backing from Niagara Region — though that’s due to be revisited — as more municipalities come down against wind turbines.

“There’s force in numbers. There’s solidarity,” said West Lincoln Mayor Doug Joyner, who has sharply criticized the Ontario government for stripping municipalities of planning authority over turbines. Since Premier Kathleen Wynne’s vow not to impose turbines on places unwilling to take them, the list of municipalities saying no has climbed. Currently, 61 of 444 Ontario municipalities have declared themselves unwilling hosts.

The number, Joyner said, “just shows to the provincial government we’re trying to keep the premier at her word. She said municipalities that don’t…

Over next weekend, from 16^th to 21^st August, the No Dash for Gas protest group is planning to hold their Reclaim the Power action camp somewhere in Balcombe.  As yet the location for the camp has not been disclosed and remains a mystery.

There have been reports in the media and on the group’s website that they will be here in response to a call from Balcombe to protect our interests. I have yet to establish who, if anybody, issued this invitation. It most certainly was not the Parish Council, and the local anti-fracking group, NoFibs, has confirmed it was not them.

For perhaps too long I have been sitting on the fence balancing the opinions in our village and tolerating extreme views, but the time has come to speak up.

Whilst villagers have voted that we oppose any future fracking and whilst having respect for those who…