All posts by Marianne Kidd

Mayor Hewitt wants credit for Vibrancy Fund.

This Mayor  for Haldimand was  also  in a Samsung Commercial to represent wind coming to our area…don’t forget next year at election time! Rob Shirton was the only councillor who didn’t vote for the Bribrancy Fund. Maybe it’s time to start canvessing for Mayors who would actually work for the people, instead of against them!

Tuesday, August, 27, 2013 – 1:01:08 PM – Ken Brownell, The Sachem

Mayor Ken Hewitt stated that this term of council had to deal with the negative comments that stemmed from the agreement, and he did not want to see another term reap the rewards from it. I guess he feels he will not be re-elected, so let’s screw the people of rural Haldimand one final time. I and many others were told by Hewitt that the money from the Vibrancy Fund would be spent in the rural areas only, as it is us who have to put up with the turbines. This means to me that if some facility were to be built, it would be built in rural Haldimand, not downtown Caledonia, Dunnville or any other urban town. If the people from these towns want to use the facility, let them drive through beautiful “turbine Haldimand” to use it. Also, how much sense does it make to borrow the money ahead, pay interest on it, and then get less to use? Is there really something we need right now? Maybe there is, so let’s hear about it; then, let Council make a decision based on what the people want, not what Mayor Hewitt wants. Shouldn’t we get a say on what to use the money for and when to use it? Or does Mayor Hewitt and his Council nail us once again? As to the credit Mayor Hewitt is seeking, if you worked for me, it would only be long enough for me to say the words of Donald Trump: “You’re fired!”

Link to  original article here: http://www.sachem.ca/opinion/mayor-wants-credit-for-vibrancy-fund/

Ostrander Point — please sign the petition

Please sign the petition to show the MOE we don’t need to waste more money against the people!

CCSAGEadmin's avatarCCSAGE Naturally Green

[As you know, the Ostrander Point decision has been appealed by both Gilead / OPSEU and the Ministry of the Environment, so there’s a chance that the revocation will itself be revoked, resulting in the project’s going ahead.

Here is a request from County resident and dedicated naturalist Cheryl Anderson to sign a petition addressed to Premier Wynne.  Please take a moment to add your name to those who want to save Ostrander Point.]

From: Cheryl Anderson
Subject: Avaaz petition

Friends,

I have created a petition and I hope you can sign — it’s called: Save Ostrander Point In Prince Edward County.

We all know how important this issue is, and together we can do something about it!

Read more about it and sign it here: http://tinyurl.com/no4t2uo .

We have solid evidence that the County government is behind us – let’s move now to make sure the Premier knows how we feel…

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Wind farms are a breach of human rights says UN. No, really.

August 28, 2013  – James Delingpole – The  Telegraph

Come to unspoilt Scotland. Not.

Over the last year or so, I’ve been getting emails from two campaigners – Irish engineer Pat Swords and Christine Metcalfe, a retired community councillor from Argyllshire – urging me to report on their campaign to have Britain’s and Ireland’s renewable energy policy declared illegalunder the UN’s Aarhus Convention.

I never got round to doing so, not because I didn’t wholeheartedly support them but because I thought: “Naaah. Ain’t never going to happen.”

I mean: how could it possibly? The United Nations, as we know, is the very belly of the beast; the onlie begetter of almost all the world’s most far-reaching and dangerous environmental policies. It was under the auspices of two UN organisations – the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organisation – that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established. As I report in Watermelons, even as far back as 2004 it was responsible for launching over 60,000 environment projects – each with its crack team of sustainability consultants, conservation biologists and other pseudo-science looters draining the public purse for dubious green causes. Worst of all, the UN is the home of Agenda 21, probably the single most all-encompassingly fascistic policy ever devised. Or, as I describe it in the book:

Agenda 21 effectively puts an end to national sovereignty, abolishes private property, elevates Nature above man and places a host of restrictions on what we’ve come to accept as our most basic freedoms – everything from how, when and where we travel to what we eat.

How could an organisation as corrupt, depraved and enslaved by deep-green ideology possibly do anything to help the little guy against the depradations of Big Green?

Well, it seems I owe Pat Swords and Christine Metcalfe an apology. Like most people I hate saying “sorry”. But on this occasion, I’m overjoyed to have the opportunity.

Here’s how the Independent reports it:

Plans for future wind farms in Britain could be in jeopardy after a United Nations legal tribunal ruled that the UK Government acted illegally by denying the public decision-making powers over their approval and the “necessary information” over their benefits or adverse effects.

The new ruling, agreed by a United Nations committee in Geneva, calls into question the legal validity of any further planning consent for all future wind-farm developments based on current policy, both onshore and offshore.

The United Nations Economic Commission Europe has declared that the UK flouted Article 7 of the Aarhus Convention, which requires full and effective public participation on all environmental issues and demands that citizens are given the right to participate in the process.

Yes, I thought “too good to be true” too. But even the wise Richard North appears to think the story has legs.

As too does one expert lawyer:

Says David Hart, QC, an environmental lawyer, “This ruling means that consents and permissions for further wind-farm developments in Scotland and the UK are liable to challenge on the grounds that the necessary policy preliminari

Continue Reading  at: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100232949/wind-farms-are-a-breach-of-human-rights-says-un-no-really/

“Citizen’s Rights” Defeats UK Government in Landmark Wind Energy Ruling

August 30, 2013 – Principia Scientific  International

This week Christine Metcalfe, 69, a Scottish community councillor, scored a stunning landmark legal victory bringing to a halt the UK government’s unlawful and unpopular wind energy initiative. In effect, all British wind farm development is mothballed until grassroots public consent is granted – if ever.

wind turbine fire

Below Christine provides her personal insights on this extraordinary long running battle in which Britain and the EU were ruled to have breached citizens’ rights, protected under the UN’s Aarhus Convention.

A personal view on the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee’s draft decision on Complaint Ref. ACCC/C/2012/68

By Christine Metcalfe

Initially, like millions of others, I believed the claims made relating to wind power technology. I wanted to. It seemed to wipe away the perceived problem of climate change by using a free source of energy!

I also cherished the belief that in an open democratic and Europeanised society policies and public participation in decision making were open, rational and defensible. So I have some sympathy with those who have yet to appreciate that both the UK and the EU created immense and powerful mechanisms for counteracting climate change without the open scrutiny, intellectual accountability and checks and balances which lie at the heart of the Aarhus Convention, and which at our peril we take for granted.

So the independent Committee’s Ruling will be extremely valuable in

highlighting issues that must be rectified in the public interest. But despite the subject matter it is not just about renewable energy policy or fixes for climate change: its principally about practice, participation and transparency. It shows that it is not merely possible, but imperative that our authorities are held to account not only by experts, but by ordinary citizens at the ‘grass roots’ of society.

The complaint – stemming from local injustices in a far-flung corner of Argyll, but driven by seemingly unassailable EU-wide policies with an ostensible global rationale – has enabled exposure of an increasing disconnect between authorities. They have become politicised and committed to the current orthodoxy, despite increasing scientific and technical evidence to the contrary. It is the very lack of open-ness, scrutiny and accountability that has allowed this to go so far that it is in danger of becoming immutable and those who challenge it branded as heretics rather than democrats.

The informed public must now be more willing and able to deploy the Committee’s Ruling whenever the need arises. This is especially true now that the tentacles of political will are using government organisations to further their aims. Continue Reading at: http://principia-scientific.org/supportnews/latest-news/293-citizens-rights-defeats-uk-government-in-landmark-wind-energy-ruling.html#.UiCqJ-pTNak.gmail

WLGWAG takes a Different Direction with HAF Wind Energy Project

Thank you for fighting for the people Anne and Ed! Press Release Below from WLWAG:

On the advice of our Lawyer Eric Gillespie, Anne Fairfield and Edward Engel (on behalf of the West Lincoln Glanbrook Wind Action Group), in an agreement with the Lawyers for Vineland Power Inc , have asked for a Consent Dismissal of their Appeal for an Environmental Review Tribunal Hearing and their STAY Motion. Our Canadian Constitution is called our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Our constitutional question asks if the manner in which Industrial Wind Turbines are being approved is unconstitutional insofar as they allow for the violation of our rights under Section 7 of the Charter, among other things. The Minutes of Settlement indicate that when the matter of the Constitutional Question is decided before at least two other Tribunal Hearings, which are currently in process, the answer will be brought back before the Tribunal hearing the HAF Wind Energy project and applied to our Constitutional Question as well. In the meantime, residents of West Lincoln should watch for announcements of the upcoming information event, Year in Review, being planned for September 25th in the Wellandport Community Centre. This will be your opportunity for “one-stop shopping” for all the information you wish you knew about Wind Turbines in West Lincoln and Haldimand County, and why WLGWAG has been opposing this potential Industrial Invasion for over three years. Mark this “Go-to-Event” on your calendars now and spread the news to your neighbours so they can get involved.

Corrupt Electricity Reporting

Posted by  Adams  on 28 August 2013, 2:59 pm

Here is a time line to help readers understand the background behind some of the Toronto Star’s reporting of Ontario electricity news.

November 23, 2010: In an email exchange Ben Chin, Ontario Power Authority VP, former Ontario Liberal candidate, and also former senior media advisor to then Premier Dalton McGuinty discusses with senior communications staffer, Alicia Johnston, employed in the Ontario Minister of Energy’s office. Johnston complains about negative reporting by Tom Adams and proposes that “We’ve got to get him (Tyler Hamilton) out as an ‘expert’ commentator.” Chin replies, “We need to throw him (Tyler Hamilton) some work.”

Ben Chin has presented himself as an authority on politics and journalistic ethics, including this interview soon after he left his then prominent career in broadcast journalism.

May 3, 2011: The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), closely supervised by the Ontario government, released a report on “Smart Grid” development in the province. The Corporate Partners Committee participating in the report included a Who’s Who of international energy technology firms selling Smart Grid concepts around the world. The Ontario government’s electricity policies heavily emphasize promoting Smart Grid. In a footnote, the report thanks Tyler Hamilton for his assistance in preparing this report.

Here are two examples of Toronto Star Business Section articles that subsequently appeared on the subject of Smart Grid authored by Tyler Hamilton. Both news reports omit mention of Hamilton’s IESO funding:

May 11, 2012: The smarter the grid, the less you notice it

June 29, 2012: Smart Grid, Delayed Delivery

Here is the complete response of the IESO, issued earlier today, when I sought details on how much Tyler Hamilton got paid for his work on the Smart Grid report:

Tyler Hamilton was the successful respondent to a competitive procurement process for the delivery of this report.

The IESO uses competitive procurement processes, such as RFQs or RFPs, to evaluate proposals according to a pre-determined set of criteria – including costs and experience. As with standard procurement practice, all bids submitted through this process are subject to non-disclosure agreements.

On Twitter, I have been asking Tyler Hamilton to disclose how much the Ontario government and agents have paid him and his associates like Corporate Knights. As of this posting, no response from Hamilton has been forthcoming.

The evidence presented here indicates that Tyler Hamilton’s electricity reporting in the Toronto Star has been corrupted by a conflict of interest. I have previously reported on evidence of similar politicization developing within the Ontario public service. The Ontario public service has contributed to a cover-up of the gas scandal that includes responding to inquiries from the Information and Privacy Commissioner with information she has identified as “inaccurate and incomplete”.

Given the importance of an independent press and a professional public service in protecting the public interest, the corrupting effects of Ontario’s ongoing electricity policy challenges appears to represent a substantial threat to the province’s future.

Read original article here: http://www.tomadamsenergy.com/2013/08/28/corrupt-electricity-reporting/

Exclusive: UN ruling puts future of wind farms in Britain in jeopardy

Another blow to the wind industry….the truth will set you free!

Donna Quixote's avatarQuixotes Last Stand

Tribunal warns that the Government acted illegally by denying public participation

Margareta Pagano –The Independent —  August 27, 2013

Plans for future wind farms in Britain could be in jeopardy after a United Nations legal tribunal ruled that the UK Government acted illegally by denying the public decision-making powers over their approval and the “necessary information” over their benefits or adverse effects.

The new ruling, agreed by a special United Nations committee in Geneva, calls into question the legal validity of any further planning consent for all future wind-farm developments based on current policy, both onshore and offshore.

The United Nations Economic Commission Europe has declared that the UK flouted Article 7 of the Aarhus Convention, which requires full and effective public participation on all environmental issues and demands that citizens are given the right to participate in the process.

The UNECE committee has also recommended that the UK must…

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Information Meeting in Selkirk – Oct. 3

Information Night Regarding Property Devaluations

Esther Wrightman's avatarOntario Wind Resistance

Eric GillespieIt is now a reality as you are all aware. The turbines are in and here to stay. I have had many calls and emails concerning what our next course of action should be. So, on Thurs. Oct. 3, 2013 at 7.p.m. at the Selkirk Centennial Hall there is going to be an information meeting.

I have contacted Eric Gillespie (lawyer) and Ben Lansink ( property appraiser) and they are willing to come and discuss our property devaluations as well as any legal options we may have. I would appreciate you putting the word out there and letting everyone being affected by the turbines know about this meeting.

Ben_Lansink_Appraisal_ExpertI believe it is time for anyone being affected, whether by devaluation in properties that are trying to be sold, or health issues that are starting to surface, to decide what our rights are worth to us. It is time to…

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Long Point Waterfoul – Wetland and Waterfoul Research – IWT Development Monitoring

 

The Great Lakes provide habitat for millions of waterbirds that migrate within the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyways and also provide wintering habitat for significant populations of several waterbird species. The Ontario Government, through the Green Energy and Green Economy Act, is promoting the placement of thousands of onshore and offshore industrial wind turbines. Most of which are located along the Great Lakes shorelines where large concentrations of waterbirds migrate, stage and winter. Long Point Waterfowl is concerned that placement of industrial wind turbines close to important staging, migratory and wintering habitats could adversely affect waterbirds through direct mortality (collisions) and/or displacement from important and traditionally used habitats. For instance, European studies have shown that waterbird use of traditionally used habitats declines substantially following the construction of closely associated onshore and offshore industrial wind turbines. Based on the potential for adverse impacts on waterbirds, Long Point Waterfowl has urged industrial wind turbine developers to not place turbines in or near important waterbird habitats and have requested that governments provide more restrictive requirements for industrial wind turbine setbacks and pre and post- construction monitoring.

Long Point Waterfowl, in collaboration with the Canadian Wildlife Service, recently expanded our lower Great Lakes shoreline and offshore surveys to provide more information on which regions of the lower Great Lakes should be protected from industrial wind turbine developments. During the winter and spring of 2009 and 2010 several offshore (1 and 3 kilometers) transects were flown to document the density of waterfowl and other waterbirds using potential offshore wind development areas.
Long Point Waterfowl and the Canadian Wildlife Service hope to continue these pre-development surveys this fall to get a better understanding of the density and use of waterfowl and other waterbirds in proposed offshore wind development areas during fall migration.

Long Point Waterfowl in collaboration with the Canadian Wildlife Service and the Seaduck Joint Venture are also surgically implanting Long-Tailed Ducks with satellite transmitters as part of a Phil Wilson’s M.Sc.research project. Locations obtained from these birds will allow Long Point Waterfowl and others to better understand microhabitat use of wintering waterfowl on the lower Great Lakes. This information will also answer questions pertaining to any potential overlap between areas used by waterfowl and sites for potential offshore wind energy development.

Katelyn Weaver will be starting her M.Sc. with Long Point Waterfowl in January 2011. Katelyn will be conducting a retrospective analysis of Tundra Swan satellite tracking data that was collected by Long Point Waterfowl as well as data collected by Dr. Khristi Wilkins as part of her Ph.D. project. Katelyn will be using this data to study the habitat use of Tundra Swans
staging on the lower Great Lakes and will be making recommendations for the placement of industrial wind turbines in the region.

Everett Hanna (Ph.D. Candidate) is sudying the staging ecology and habitat use of Sandhill Cranes on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. His project has included the attachment of satellite transmitters to 13 Sandhill Cranes captured on the island. Habitat use information provided by these satellite-tracked birds will enable Everett to make recommendations pertaining to industrial wind turbine placement on Manitoulin Island and elsewhere on the migratory route of Eastern Poulation Sandhill Cranes.

Checkout the website here: http://longpointwaterfowl.org/research/staff/current-staff-research/industrial-wind-turbine-development/