The Americans are watching Europe’s wind power debacle in horror – a little like a bunny in the headlights – the glare catches its gaze and it’s just not quite sure what to do next.

But – maybe, just maybe – they’ll hop to safety before they get overrun by the greatest economic and environmental fraud of all time.

Here’s one smart bunny warning his compatriots that it might be time to move.

Europeans learning the hard truth about wind and solar energy
cfact.org
Larry Bell
13 August 2013

Germany, Denmark pay 3 times current U.S. rates for energy — and our leaders want us to pay that much as well.

Although blades on the 150-foot wind turbines at the new German offshore Riffgat power plant 9 miles off the North Sea island of Bokum are finally turning, there is one big problem.  They are doing so only because they…

Manitoulin Expositor
It has become fairly common these days to hear about various communities in Ontario fighting to stop the building of industrial turbines in their neighbourhoods. The latest to jump on that bandwagon is the Municipality of Amherstburg in Lambton County. That brings it to 64 townships that have said they will not be willing hosts for industrial turbines and 33 that have expressed concerns.

Leamington Mayor John Patterson says after attending the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference he thinks the provincial government is willing to listen to concerns from across the province. I have yet to see any evidence of that. As far as I can tell, the Liberal government is gung-ho with the subsidies to big wind companies like Northland Power, which is in the process of building the sites for 24 industrial turbines on McLean’s Mountain on Manitoulin Island.

Since my last column on wind…

Greenpeace have just made a massive miscalculation of who to mess with in the Arctic, in this case Russia.

The story goes like this Greenpeace wanted to go the Northern Sea Route in Russia’s Arctic and protest, for that read, interrupt the search for oil and gas in the Arctic, the Arctic is reckoned to have 13% of the worlds undiscovered oil reserves and around 31% of the worlds undiscovered natural gas reserves.

Entry to the Northern Sea Route is by permit only, Greenpeace applied 3 times, and 3 times the Russians rejected the application, so the nobly motivated watermelons at Greenpeace decided they would ignore the lack of permit and go anyway.

A major miscalculation by Greenpeace, the old USSR might be gone, but the new Russia led by Comrade Putin is little changed from the USSR, now instead of the KGB, there are the incredibly rich oligarchs and…

Registered nurses, including those who have chosen not to take membership in their provincial professional association the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario or RNAO (it is supposed to be voluntary) and those who have actually resigned over the RNAO’s hyper-politicized policies, received an interesting piece of mail last week.

If you don’t read the missives from the College, you will have missed the fact that the College will now require registered nurses to have liability insurance in excess of $1 million, no matter where, or if, you practise. The RNAO is now luring former members back with the offer of insurance coverage.

For nurses in independent practice, this is a conundrum: the RNAO offers such insurance, but then you have to rejoin at a cost of several hundred dollars, AND once again belong to this organization that has, frankly, developed a rather curious set of policy goals.

Despite increasing reports…

There’s as an old Chinese proverb that says “even a rabbit will bite when it is cornered.”

But when the targets under attack are wind weasels and the parasites that depend upon them, you can expect not just the odd rabbit-nip, but every dirty trick in the book.  Remember you’re standing between these people and a fat pile of taxpayer and power consumer cash.

The subsidy bonanza has been pulled to a screaming halt in Spain.

The Germans are lamenting the insane costs of their great wind rush – spiralling “green” power costs have resulted in 800,000 German homes being cut-off from the power supply.  And with a power punter revolt on the cards – Angela Merkel is winding back its ridiculous raft of subsidies to wind power.

Hostility to giant fans is spreading like wildfire through communities around the world.  Quite ordinary, apolitical people are now highly…

Environmental Registry
Proponent:   Powerblades Industries Inc.
615 Rusholme Road, Welland Ontario  Canada L3B 5N7
Instrument Type:   Environmental Compliance Approval (project type: air) – EPA Part II.1
This proposal is for a new Environmental Compliance Approval (Air and Noise) for wind turbine rotor blades facility located in Welland, Ontario.

The facility will have eighteen (18) exhaust fans and two (2) dust extraction systems serving the processing area, as well heating and stand-by power systems. Emissions to the atmosphere will include ammonia, petroleum distillates, ethylbenzene and suspended particulate matter.

Public Consultation:
This proposal has been posted for a 45 day public review and comment period starting August 21, 2013. If you have any questions, or would like to submit your comments, please do so by October 05, 2013 to the individual listed under “Contact”. Additionally, you may submit your comments on-line. All comments received prior to October 05, 2013 will…

Ben Pile is a researcher who works with me and my colleagues on energy issues.  He was interested by my recent blog on the politics of shale gas, and came up with his own very interesting aperçu on the media coverage of the issue.  I thought I should share it with you.

He has been trying to compare the reaction of the media — and the BBC in particular — to the shale gas and wind farm campaigns respectively.

The BBC national coverage of anti-wind campaigns, he notes, has been all but silent, and fails to address the concerns of the campaigners themselves.  BBC local coverage reports the protests more accurately and fairly. It seems clear that a few hundred anti-fracking protesters from around the country can attract the attention of the national media, simply by making a very visual image — dressing up, banging drums, causing widespread…

Manitoulin Expositor
NEMI has turned its back on a great potential tax base and a lifeline for the community: retiring Baby Boomers. We retired and moved to the Strawberry Channel in December 2011. Almost a year later, we found that 24 Northland Power Wind Turbines (the largest in Ontario: 422 feet high) will be built in our backyard. Had I known, I would not have looked at this area as a place to purchase our dream retirement home. Our retiring friends have now decided to look instead to Lake Nipissing. Another couple will settle in Parry Sound rather than live near wind turbines.

We are all retired from industrial areas like Espanola and Sudbury and our objective is to get away from industrial messes. I have been told that Northland Power will contribute a paltry $10,000/year to the tax base and possibly three long-term jobs. Our property taxes for 2013…

UNWILLING HOSTS: Group plans to lobby province for better rules

By Chip Martin, London Free Press         With 64 municipalities and growing, Ontario’s Unwilling Host movement, opposed to industrial wind turbines, took its first step this week toward organizing into a coalition.

During the annual meeting of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario in Ottawa, about 60 delegates agreed to create a network to swap information, said organizer Kevin Marriott, mayor of Enniskillen, in Lambton County.

“There is a real willingness from everybody to form some group to go forward,” Marriott said.  “It’s going to be a step-by-step process,” he said.  Logistical problems exist in gathering municipal representatives from across the province on an ongoing basis, he conceded, so some options will be considered.

The movement is in response to a promise from Premier Kathleen Wynne that, from now on, wind turbines will be located in municipalities…