Citizens across the province ask: “Is Ontario still a democracy?”

We live in such a bizarre time. Ideology and greed has overtaken our ministries and government. The biggest loser will be wildlife habitats and the creatures that live there. How incredibly sad.

CCSAGE Naturally Green

[Here is an opinion piece from the Prince Edward County Field Naturalists.]

Citizens all across Ontario have been asking themselves this question.
Over the past decade, municipalities and planners have participated in provincial programs to preserve our important natural heritage. People have joined together to help by participating in planning for the Niagara Escarpment, Oak Ridges Moraine, and countless smaller areas. They have contributed funds to conservancy and land trust organizations to allow the purchase and protection of significant natural areas.

In spite of all this, the Ontario government’s Green Energy Act has allowed developers to plow roughshod over important natural habitat. The Prince Edward County Field Naturalists will be in Divisional Court from Jan 21-24 to defend an Environmental Review Tribunal decision they won last July to stop an industrial wind turbine development at Ostrander Point Crown Land Block. The Ministry of Environment and the developer, Gilead Power, are appealing…

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P.E.I. arenas say their new wind turbines an expensive ‘burden,’ want them removed

Abigale Subdhan | January 16, 2014  National Post

Several Prince Edward Island rinks that were convinced to make the expensive conversion to wind power, but never saw the promised savings, are now trying to get rid of the trouble-plagued turbines and win compensation for their troubles.

“We went into debt to purchase this windmill on the promise that it would make us money and it would help us with our power costs,” said Tom Albrecht, vice-president of the South Shore Actiplex in Crapaud, P.E.I., which spent $70,000 and received another $230,000 from the federal and provincial governments to install a turbine.

“The bottom line is buy us out and give us our money back.”

Read the rest or article here.

Committed Citizens Can Change The World

people unitedTurbines Not As Benign As Promised            Susan Smith  Niagara This Week    January 14, 2014

It was recently found in the German Supreme Court that the Enercon Wind Turbines are performing much louder and with potentially greater harm to people than previously determined. The Enercon turbines, E82, height 124 meters and E101 height 135 meters (with blades 183.5 meters or 602 feet in height) are proposed for the 77 Industrial Wind Turbines in the Niagara Regional Wind Corporation Project in West Lincoln. These turbines are among the tallest in the world.

The World Health Organization guarantees that we should be able to live without the negative effects of noise which can interfere with communication, annoy our psychophysiological systems, effect our productivity and social behaviour and cause noise induced hearing impairment. Are we going to have such guarantees with the planned project in West Lincoln?

Children living and attending schools within the proposed wind turbine project will be exposed to low frequency noise, acoustic noise, mechanical noise and infrasound. Children with asthma, Asberger’s syndrome, epilepsy, bronchitis, autism, ADD, ADHD, CAP are more greatly affected by extraneous noise. These children may have more sleeplessness, headaches and jaw issues. It may be more difficult for them to comprehend in reading and process mathematics if turbine noise interferes with their learning.

Many of the children at non-participating homes will be close to the minimum 550 meters from a turbine. Host farmer children, according to information from the NRWC project, may be living much closer than 550 meters from an IWT. This will mean that host children may live in homes much closer to wind turbines than the current Ontario guidelines allow.

Read the rest of this excellent article here.

Germany’s Bavaria Moves To Kill Off Unsightly Wind Energy Industry Using 10H Rule

By Pierre Gosselin No Tricks Zone January 13,2014
Windkraftwerksprojekt auf Langenzenner Flur gestoppt
Industrial wind projects in Bavaria are on hold pending the new siting rule.

I got an email from the head of an Ontario wind-turbine protest-group seeking information about wind power development in Germany.

Ontario, it appears, is poised to industrialize its landscape – thinking this will somehow lead to nicer weather. The head of the protest group wrote that the Ontario windpark promoters and lobbyists “are continually referring to Germany and their Energiewende and how successful their implementation of renewables is in that country.”

First off, the claim that the Energiewende in Germany has been successful is an outright lie, and it shows that Ontarian leaders haven’t done their homework on wind power and renewables. The German politicians and activists who spread that myth forgot to mention that 1) German power rates have skyrocketed due to the feed-in act, 2) industries are now threatening to leave, citing costly and unreliable energy supply, and 3) protests against windparks in Germany are becoming increasingly fierce as nobody wants them in their backyard anymore. Moreover, the outputs are far from what was promised. More than ever plans for new windparks are being forced offshore. But there too the technical problems, and thus profitability problems, are great.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Germany is drastically scaling back its subsidies for renewable energies and windparks. Last year alone Germany saw a 55% plunge in solar investments, and over the last 2 years Germany’s solar manufacturing industry has been all but obliterated. So much for the green dream.
– See more at No Tricks Zone.

Bavarian Prime Minister Seehofer imposing 10 x h regulation for windturbines

Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer has put a halt to any further construction of “monster windmills”, as he calls them, in the German State of Bavaria. A new rule is to be imposed that all turbines must not be within a distance of 10 times the height of the turbine to an inhabited structure.  Two hundred metre model turbines will now have to be built at least 2km away. There are currently 600 wind turbines in Bavaria with plans to have 1500 built.  He has noted that in their new concept there will be significantly less built.  With this 10-H regulation, wind power in Bavaria will be dead, as was noted by Green leader Ludwig Hartmann.  And not a moment too soon.  Lucky Bavarians.  Maybe Prime Minister Seehofers’ counterpart here in Ontario, Premier Wynne, should see these articles and get inspired!

Sorry some of  these articles are in German, you will have to use Google translate.  Enjoy!

Prime Minister Seehofer slows the development of wind turbines after violent civil protests in Franconia.  http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/bayern/Windkraft-Zwangspause-veraergert-Teile-der-CSU-id28074622.html

Wind turbines should not come too close to houses.  http://www.br.de/nachrichten/windkraft-windraeder-seehofer-100.html

Adios Energiewende.  http://www.merkur-online.de/aktuelles/politik/seehofer-erlass-gegen-windkraft-3217052.html

Windpower blocked in Bavaria: Opponents feel vindicated. http://www.mainpost.de/regional/bayern/mosaik;art16683,7872996

CSU Stops expansion: Wind power in Bavaria on the brink: http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/bayern/CSU-stoppt-Ausbau-Windkraft-in-Bayern-auf-der-Kippe-id28313722.html

Seehofer wants to tighten spacing requirements.  http://translate.google.com/translate?depth=1&hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3DStromversorgung%2Bin%2BGefahr:%2BCSU%2Bwill%2Bschnellen%2BBau%2Bvon%2BErsatzkraftwerken%26nord%3D1%26biw%3D1680%26bih%3D904&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=de&u=http://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2014-01/energiewende-Bayern

Seehofer sabotages the Energiewende. http://www.newscron.com/render/1253798/72690177#.Us2xeCuEi70

By the end of the month Ilse Aigner wants to deliver a presentation as the new distance regulations for wind turbines are to be applied in practice.  This time they will probably coordinate closely with Seehoferhttp://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/energiestreit-in-der-csu-seehofers-schwierigste-mission-a-942515.html

Compensation is sought from blocked windturbines in Bavaria.  http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.mainpost.de/regional/bayern/Blockierte-Windraeder-Aiwanger-fordert-Entschaedigung%3Bart16683,7880267&prev=/search%3Fq%3DBlockierte%2BWindr%25C3%25A4der:%2BAiwanger%2Bfordert%2BEntsch%25C3%25A4digung%26nord%3D1%26biw%3D1680%26bih%3D904