Soaring renewable energy costs set to stoke German energy debate
Financial Times
Chris Bryant (in Frankfurt)
15 October 2013

The cumulative total that German consumers have spent subsidising green energy is set to pass €100bn next year, a symbolic mark that could fuel further political debate about the country’s costly energy transition to renewables.

The rising cost of Germany’s energy transition from nuclear and fossil fuels to renewables is set be one of the top items on a new German government’s agenda.

Germany aims to raise the percentage of renewables in its electricity mix to 35 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050 – from 23 per cent last year.

Germany’s four network operators revealed on Tuesday that the annual cost to support German renewable energy feed-in tariffs is set to rise to €23.6bn in 2014, from €20.4bn this year.

The surcharge added to German electricity bills…

It’s only a small appetizer of sorts, but the news that the Ontario Research Chairs symposium in Toronto last week featured a poster presentation by the University of Waterloo Renewable Energy Technologies and Health (RETH) study on industrial wind turbines and health problems is BIG.

Here is a report from health researcher Carmen Krogh. The only record of the presentation is a photograph of the poster, but here is the summary:

University of Waterloo Research Chair

With the wind scam pulled to a grinding halt in Australia – and European wind weasels under threat as Europe gets set to pull the plug on the fat pile of subsidies that provide them with essential, life giving nourishment there – it seems that their next targets are the very poorest and most corrupt countries on the map.

Funny about that.

Wind power: that’s another scam brewing up
Business Recorder
14 October 2013

Although it is not known whether or not the government is seeking to steer clear of different brewing scams in various economic areas, it is quite clear that it has in fact encouraged a fraudulent scheme in wind power energy sector to swindle the national exchequer. According to sources, the ‘Letter of Intent (LoI)’ game, which is strongly characterised by conceit, deceit and intrigues, has become a convenient tool to inflict huge financial losses on nation’s…

Travis Fisher and Alex Fitzsimmons — Right Side News — October 23, 2013

The wind industry promotes itself as better for the environment than traditional energy sources such as coal and natural gas. For example, the industry claims that wind energy reduces carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming.

But there are many ways to skin a cat. As IER pointed out last week, even if wind curbs CO₂ emissions, wind installations injure, maim, and kill hundreds of thousands of birds each year in clear violation of federal law. Any marginal reduction in emissions comes at the expense of protected bird species, including bald and golden eagles. The truth is, all energy sources impact the natural environment in some way, and life is full of necessary trade-offs. The further truth is that affordable, abundant energy has made life for billions of people much better than it ever was.

Another…

Having beaten off a concerted wind weasel effort to keep him out of office, Angus “The Enforcer” Taylor bagged over 60% of the Vote and it looks like he’ll hold the Federal seat of Hume for as long as he wants it.

STT hears he was less than happy with the dirt and skulduggery pulled by wind industry goons and their backers during the election campaign, including personal attacks on his family – nice guys, hey?

But it looks like they’ve just won themselves a date with a .44 Magnum, as Angus re-loads and takes aim at the subsidies these scammers need to survive and on the property devaluations their giant fans cause.

MP calls for compensation
Tom Sebo and Lloyd Scroope
Goulburn Post
21 October 2013

MEMBER for Hume Angus Taylor says rural land owners who’ve had their properties devalued by neighbouring wind farms deserve to be compensated.

His…

Tracey Hinchberger — Kincardine News — October 22, 2013

Is this what “green energy” is supposed to look like? This is a question I keep asking myself, and would like to pose to Premier Kathleen Wynne and Minister of Energy Bob Chiarelli.

As a writer of an environment-themed column I should be pleased to see the fruits of the provincial government’s Ontario Green Energy Act sprouting up all over our municipality.

Instead, as yet another wind farm project has been approved for the area, I find myself dismayed. I am also heartsick for the residents who have fought so hard to oppose these developments and who will be impacted the most by their presence.

While I realize wind turbines utilize an unlimited resource and produce energy that does not create pollution (at least the operational turbine itself) I have never been convinced they are the Holy Grail of clean energy…

Taking it to the streets…

Peter Epp — QMI Agency — October 22, 2013

Last Saturday’s anti-turbine demonstration on Highway 402 was the logical result of the Ontario government’s refusal – through its Green Energy Act – to permit local residents and their elected municipal councils the opportunity to make a decision about the location of wind turbines.

Reports say about 150 vehicles, many of them farm machinery and pickup trucks, shut down the mid-section of Highway 402 just west of Strathroy. The rally began at the highway’s intersection with Forest Road.

The rally was staged by protesters upset with the location and sheer number of wind turbines located in western Middlesex County and eastern Lambton County.

What must be frustrating for the protesters – many of whom it can be assumed live and work in that region – is that Saturday’s protest was one of the few avenues they…