July 04, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WIND GROUPS DISMAYED WITH COURT RULING

Grey Highlands/Plympton-Wyoming – Two citizen’s groups, situated hundreds of kilometres apart in Ontario, who are both opposed to wind turbine developments, are disappointed with the decision of the Superior Court in London released on June 28^th, 2016, to confirm the decisions made by the Environmental Review Tribunals (ERT) on their respective wind projects. The two groups had joined forces to appeal their respective ERT decisions.

Gary Fohr of Grey Highlands stated one of the concerns. “The Green Energy Act puts the burden of proof on citizens to prove that wind turbines are harmful. We were asking the court to consider that wind turbines have never been proven safe. There is no scientific evidence to support the government’s claim that industrial wind turbines do not cause harm.”

The groups appealed based on the ruling made by the Divisional Court in an earlier case, (Dixon). In that decision the court stated: “There is a difference between a negative determination that serious harm to human health has not been proven and a positive determination that engaging in the renewable energy project in accordance with the renewable energy approval will not cause serious harm to human health. Although no party raised as an issue on these appeals the failure of the Tribunal to confirm the decisions of the Directors, it is important that a tribunal follow its statutory mandate.”

We interpret that to mean the Tribunals are required to confirm that the evidence presented at the hearing provides proof that there will be no harm to human health.

At the Fohr ERT hearing, an expert medical witness for the project developer acknowledged that the current scientific evidence is insufficient to prove that wind projects will not harm nearby residents, and that additional scientific study is still needed in that regard.

In effect, the provincial government has been approving wind projects without definitive scientific evidence that the projects will NOT cause harm.

We believe this is not in keeping with the intent of the Environmental Protection Act which requires the developer for any non-renewable project, such as a mine or cement plant, to provide definitive proof that their project will not harm human health or the environment.   Only in the case of renewable energy projects is the onus reversed; the residents must prove serious harm before the project can be stopped.

Many people living close to turbines continue to complain about adverse health effects.  The scientific evidence is growing to support their claims. Apathy is turning to empowerment, as affected residents are encouraged to organize together and speak with one voice.

We’re not against renewable energy, but we believe such projects should NOT be located where they will cause serious disturbances and adverse health effects to nearby residents in their homes.   This is not acceptable collateral damage, and it’s unfortunate this has to be such a painful lesson.

While we’re disappointed with this decision, we are not discouraged from our ongoing efforts to advocate for the responsible implementation of these projects.

Contact:

Gary Fohr                                    Santo Giorno

 Grey Highlands                           WAIT-PW (Plympton-Wyoming)

garyfohr@gmail.com                     santo.giorno@hotmail.com

So-called “energy poverty” is getting worse in rural Ontario, a Global News investigation has found, with even small households paying hundreds of dollars a month to keep the lights on.

Officials, residents and experts are all sounding the alarm after electricity rates in the province rose 100 per cent in the past decade.

A range of factors are fueling the increases, including subsidies for clean energy, dealing with aging nuclear plants and maintaining and modernizing the province’s vast transmission and distribution system. But the problem is especially acute in rural Ontario, where steep delivery charges are the norm.

Rural Ontarians left in the dark as electricity bills skyrocket

A renewable energy company sent a letter to landowners suggesting they stop letting hunters on their property. The response seems to have arisen because of a case of vandalism involving gunfire that damaged a wind turbine. The wind company is asking that hunting not be permitted for “safety issues”.

Delta Waterfowl Foundation and Ontario Federation of Anglers & Hunters issued this letter of response on April 22, 2016.

The federal government’s inaction on wind turbine noise is making Canadians sick.

It’s been a year-and-a-half since Health Canada’s $2-million study determined low-frequency acoustic waves from industrial wind turbines cause community annoyance.

According to the World Health Organization, unwanted noise, even at a moderate level, can lead to a myriad of adverse health outcomes, including stress-related symptoms such as sleep disturbance, elevated blood pressure, cardiac events and depression.

It’s a “green” form of radiation sickness.

Canada’s Radiation Emitting Devices Act (REDA) is supposed to regulate the design and operation of devices that emit radiation, such as microwave ovens and tanning beds.

In sworn testimony at an environmental review tribunal, a Health Canada official confirmed industrial wind turbines — large, noise-emitting devices — are regulated by REDA.

REDA requires a manufacturer or importer of such a device to “forthwith notify the Minister” upon becoming aware its device is emitting radiations not necessary for the performance of its function.

On June 15, Barbara Ashbee of Mulmur, Ontario, together with hundreds of other Ontarians, sent an open letter to Health Minister Jane Philpott, asking why Health Canada has not insisted wind energy corporations report citizen complaints about noise radiation.

She wants the minister to meet with her and representatives of citizens suffering from turbine noise radiations.

Ashbee wrote: “Many in Ontario and elsewhere have logged serious health complaints with proponents/operators of wind turbine projects, provincial and federal government ministries as well as wind turbine manufacturers … As previous ministers and current Minister Philpott have been informed, the adverse effects of wind turbines are not trivial.”

READ MORE AT:  http://www.torontosun.com/2016/06/29/ottawa-silent-on-wind-turbine-noise

To sign the open letter sent to the Prime Minister of Canada: https://mothersagainstturbines.com/2016/06/24/an-open-letter-to-the-prime-minister-of-canada/

“This is an Interview that we did for Irish radio at our abandoned house in Roscommon .I am posting this in response to some questions about how we dealt with the wind farm noise issues ,did we get compensation from the developer ,did the developer buy our house any why we had to abandon our home, and why we did not sue the Developer . There are seven families in County Cork who are in litigation against a developer after they and their children abandoned their homes over six years ago .We were offered the same legal team on a pro bono basis and declined the offer for two reasons ,one was the fact that we are both over sixty years old and were not prepared to spend six years or more fighting an entity with deep pockets and time on their hands,sure they only have to stretch things out in the hope that we might die before we get to court .The second reason was that having spent the rainy day money buying a new home exposing ourselves to any further loss if we lost a courtcase was a chance we were not prepared to take .We did however over a two year period and at our own expense travel to over 40 village halls and community centres across Ireland whose beautiful places were going to be destroyed by Industrial wind turbines to alert people to the noise torture that we had endured for two years an the associated health issues so that they at least had the truth from two victims and could make an informed decision about Industrial Turbines in their back yards .Dorothy and I were blessed that we had the funds to move on buy another house and try to get back to the people that we were before we we victimised by this Government and corporate greed. Our hearts go out to you if you are being tortured and cant escape .”

Michael Keane

“But we’re not normal down here in Windham, and haven’t been since Big Wind”

Windham in Wonderland.

This commentary is by Nancy Tips, who is a member of Friends of Windham.

Have you read Lewis Carroll’s books about Alice recently? “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass” are meticulous depictions of very bad dreams. As such, they present a bit of a challenge to normal readers. But we’re not normal down here in Windham, and haven’t been since Big Wind, in the form of Spanish mega-corporation Iberdrola, came our way. For many of us, these books are a vivid portrait of daily life. Like Alice, we inhabit a disorienting, chaotic dimension, where time and space are altered. We are either very, very big, or very, very small. Nutty despots play crazy games with us, and we aren’t able to know the rules. Logic and ethics stand on their heads. In fact, Alice’s trials are astonishingly like our own.

Take the distortion of time. Alice enters a rabbit hole and falls and falls and falls. She falls for years, giving her plenty of time to apprehend the unutterable strangeness of her situation. Us too: in 2012 Iberdrola declared they would know in a matter of months whether or not to put wind turbines in our town; instead we had nearly four years of not knowing, during which we suffered the profound transformation of our stable world into its opposite. Four years gave us plenty of time to notice that property values and property maintenance are meaningless, given the threatened installation of 20 mammoth energy factories nearby. It was plenty of time for hints, rumors, fabrications, and veiled promises and threats to turn friends into people we barely recognize. It has been plenty of time for us to wonder at our powerlessness, while being told that we can just vote the threat away, on Iberdrola’s terms and Iberdrola’s timetable; and plenty of time to consider that, voting it away, we apparently open ourselves to an endless chain of new battles with new developers, stretching into eternity. Eternity? Surely we’ve already lived it.

Then there’s Alice’s being compelled to stand by herself against deranged despots who force her into grotesque games. In “Through the Looking Glass,” Alice plays a menacing game of chess with the erratic Red Queen; the rules of the game seem always out of her reach. For us, it’s Iberdrola’s turbine proposal, presented to us as the opening move in a high-stakes game. The rules of this game are likewise unknowable: until recently we didn’t even realize that Iberdrola’s proposal was a maneuver. Instead we imagined that it represented the corporation’s true intention. Now, although we don’t really know, it appears that perhaps it was a disingenuous feint; that our town is supposed to “negotiate;” that we are expected to create “setbacks” and “noise standards” and demand that Iberdrola adhere to them, ignoring our opponent’s experience, size and wealth and our own lack of same. Alternatively, perhaps we should hire a lawyer and experts (fees estimated to start at $100,000, according to one experienced negotiator) and turn our fate over to them. Only in a nightmare would a state invite mega-corporations to assault its villages, and then expect each village to develop a nuanced and successful defense entirely on its own and at its own expense. Perhaps, like Alice, we will eventually wake up from this dreadful dream.

And finally, there’s the question of logic and ethics. In Alice’s Wonderland and in ours too, the codes we have tried to live by are turned on their heads. Alice’s code involves manners and morals; the freakish sadists of Wonderland interrogate and abuse her in order to prove her code’s non-existence. In Windham, our logic and ethics are codified in our town plan. Among many other provisions designed to benefit the town and the region, our plan prohibits industrial wind installation in our forested land. This plan is no ordinary assembly of ideas: it cost us years to develop; it is based on careful study and the advice of land-use experts; it was required by the state and admired by regional planners. But our own freakish sadists, Iberdrola and its Montpelier cronies, have declared non-existent the logic of our plan’s development and its place at the heart of our orderly community. As for ethics, our town leaders refuse to support an industrial installation that will almost certainly result in increased flooding for our downstream neighbors, in our flood-prone region. As you might imagine, this ethical consideration is little more than a ponderous joke in the amoral, unprincipled Wonderland in which we’ve been forced to live.

So, if you want to understand and empathize with the plight of certain Vermonters, you might want to read “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass.” If you are unfortunate enough to live in Vermont anywhere near a ridgeline and a powerline, you will definitely want to read these books. They will serve as a primer on what your life will be like when the wind developers come, as they almost certainly will, to your town.

READ AT: http://vtdigger.org/2016/06/22/nancy-tips-windham-in-wonderland/

It got noisy, so the town filed for and was granted a noise abatement.

It got hit by lightning, which fried a controller and caused a shutdown.

Then the town realized it needed even tighter restrictions on noise output, so a modified abatement was filed.

The company appealed that.

Today, the wind turbine off Exit 8 isn’t spinning; it got too noisy again.

The ongoing saga of Kingston Wind Independence LLC, the owner of the turbine, or KWI, and the town of Kingston, which leases the property on which it sits, continued last week with a shutdown, this time for an indefinite period of time.

The problem?

The turbine’s yaw system, which adjusts the angle of the blade’s rotation around its vertical axis, has a defect.

“There’s a problem and they can’t quite figure it out,” Town Planner Thomas Bott said. “It’s making too much noise.”

Independence Wind Turbine defective in Kingston, USA.

READ AT:    http://kingston.wickedlocal.com/news/20160620/kingston-wind-independence-kwi-turbine-shut-down-due-to-mechanical-issues