Industrial wind turbine hearings piling on top of each other

Colliding schedules brought out a series of sharp exchanges at the appeal hearing of the White Pines industrial wind project on Friday. On Monday, in a dramatic twist, the appellant, the Alliance to Protect Prince Edward County (APPEC) asked the Tribunal members to step down from this hearing.

There had been a growing sense among observers that the adjudicators in this hearing appear to be driven more by meeting deadlines than ensuring the appellants get a full airing of the facts they believe will stop 27 industrial wind turbines from being constructed between Milford and the gates to the Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area in South Marysburgh. Parts of three appeal hearings— Ostrander, White Pines and Amherst Island— have all been crammed into the final weeks before Christmas.

The appeal of the Ostrander Point project should have been completed by now. However, a blizzard of emails and documentation—connecting the dots between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry species-at-risk expert’s advice that the project would in fact cause serious harm to the Blanding’s turtle and the Ministry of Environment’s subsequent approval of the project anyway—has slowed down that hearing’s schedule. This hearing resumes on Thursday in Demorestville.

Meanwhile, hearings into a project that seeks to blanket Amherst Island with 26 industrial wind turbines is getting underway in the first week of December. Eric Gillespie is serving as counsel to appellants in all three hearings.

read more: The Times, Nov 27 2015