Category Archives: Ontario Wind

Cost Benefit, Government Misrepresentation, Ontario Wind

Controversial Donation tangles Lambton County Council

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money-handsHow does Lambton County end up taking money from a wind project it has been engaged in supporting residents bitter opposition to?  The County is being taken to task  over its recent action.  A staff report is to look at the process of how such tainted donations are accepted.

 

BY FEBRUARY 1, 2017 2:54PM

Agreeing that it’s too late to change the past, Lambton County Council has set new guidelines for handling possible donations from wind power companies.

Lambton’s Creative County Fund accepted a $200,000 donation from the Cedar Point II Wind Power Project in December.

Members of county council were not informed and many expressed concerns after, given the history of the project in Lambton County.

Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley hopes it never happens again.

“I think there was a great deal of disappointment and anger here, that the donation was accepted from a corporation, the industrial wind turbine group, who this county has been opposed to over the last three years and have gone to the courts to support the different organizations that have been fighting these industrial wind turbines,” says Bradley.

In the future, council has decided that all donations and financial or policy decisions pertaining to industrial wind turbines will be referred to county council.

County council also endorsed a motion from St. Clair Township Mayor Steve Arnold, asking staff for a report on how the donation receipt process works.

READ AT: http://blackburnnews.com/sarnia/sarnia-news/2017/02/01/county-sets-new-guidelines-controversial-donation/

Cedar Point under construction
Violation trees cut on wetlands
Fighting the NRWC Wind Project, Ontario Wind, Property Rights, Protecting our children

Niagara Wind CLC Meeting #4

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Tuesday February 7th, 2017 | 6pm
Wellandport Community Centre
5042 Canborough Road
Wellandport, ON L0R 2J0

The purpose of the CLC is to facilitate two-way communication between NRWF and CLC members with respect to issues relating to the construction, installation, use, operation, maintenance and retirement of the facility. All CLC meetings are open to the general public for observation.

Questions can be submitted in advance up until January 31st to Karla Kolli, CLC Chair and Facilitator at kkolli@dillon.ca or 416-229-4647 ext. 2354.

Animals and turbines, Destruction from turbines, Environment, harm to wildlife, Ontario Wind

Wind Turbine Bird & Bat Mortality Reports, with Summary- Ontario, Canada

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Posted on 01/24/2017 by

Below is a summary Maureen kindly assembled from all of the reports retrieved through the FOI. Have a good hard look at the numbers per project. Individually, these projects have got off scot free – they have never been challenged, never been questioned, never been charged, or even slapped on the wrist for these astounding kills. Dan tallied the actual raptor deaths on the right hand side, as many raptor deaths were ignored as “incidental” – not killed at the right time/place…more on that later. There is much more to glean from these reports – please share what you gather. This is a draft that will be added to and amended as we go.

Click here to download and view in full screen

Follow link to see all of bird and bat kill reports: http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2017/01/24/wind-turbine-bird-bat-mortality-reports-with-summary-ontario-canada/

 

Charter of Rights and Freedoms, ERT Appeal, fighting big wind., legal challenges, Ontario Wind, Unite the Fight!

Constitutional Challenge Court: January 19, 2017

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On January 19, 2017  Shaun and Trish Drennan  will continue to pursue the Constitutional Challenge against the Green Energy Act.  Self represented this time- they will be bringing before the Ontario Superior Court a revised statement of claim seeking remedy found in the protections guaranteed in Canada’s constitution.  Most importantly the action’s goal is to actively use the law to grant relief and prevention of harm from wind powered complexes.

WHAT: Constitutional Challenge  WHEN: January 19, 2017  10 am

WHERE: Goderich Court House (Ontario Superior Court-Divisional)

Unite The Fight

In 2014  four families (Dixon, Ryan, Drennan, Koplein) acted as the appellants leading the novel case. Falconers LLP acted on behalf of the families.  The Court’s decision failed to move the contested issues towards the desired resolution. Documents from the hearing can be reviewed at: http://www.falconers.ca/casestudy/wind-turbines-drennan/

dscn4286
Ontario Superior Court

The renewable energy approvals for  K2 Wind, Amrow Wind and St.Columban Wind remain in the  sights and cross hairs of law and legal argument. If the action succeeds it will impact statutory authorities enabling wind power.

Mothers Against Wind Turbines joined forces with other community- based interest groups  that formed the Community Coalition (14 groups in total) which was accepted as interveners in the  original hearing in 2014.   (Lambton County was accepted as an independent intervener)

Please show your support to Shaun and Trish.  Your seats in the seats would be appreciated. dscn4290

Green Energy, Ontario Wind

Turbines Go Up Hydro Bills Soar

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“I give wind turbines and solar panels a great deal of the blame for hydro costs,” said Lorrie Gillis, who drove from her country home near Flesherton, northwest of Toronto, to hold a picket sign reading “hydro bills $oar.”

Wynne gets cold shoulder from PM on hydro costs

By Rob Ferguson Queen’s Park Bureau  Fri., Jan. 13, 2017

Feeling more heat over hydro bills — and a cold shoulder on the touchy topic from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — Premier Kathleen Wynne acknowledged her government has to do a better job curbing electricity costs.

Wynne was greeted Friday by protesters outside a luncheon speech in Oakville shortly after Trudeau was put on the defensive over hydro prices at a campaign-style stop in Peterborough.

“It is not enough,” the premier said of her Liberal government’s move to waive the 8 per cent provincial portion of the HST on electricity bills starting this month. ‎

While Wynne was taking responsibility for hydro rates that have skyrocketed in recent years and left many homeowners and businesses struggling, Trudeau, under fire for a Caribbean Christmas vacation on a “listening tour” of the country, made it clear electricity prices are Wynne’s cross to bear.

At a Peterborough town hall meeting, a weeping woman brandished her hydro bill for the prime minister, saying she earns “almost $50,000 a year and I am living in energy poverty.”

Trudeau, who has frequently campaigned with Wynne in a mutual support pact, praised the woman for speaking out publicly and tried to alleviate her concerns about the impact of looming carbon pricing on energy rates while insisting “hydro bills are provincial.”

Speaking with reporters after that emotional encounter, the prime minister tried to dodge questions about Wynne’s electricity policies.

“As a Quebec-elected MP I have been trained to be very, very careful about weighing in on provincial areas of jurisdiction. It’s something that is important for positive working relationships with all provinces and I respect provincial rights and responsibilities to make determinations in their areas of jurisdiction,” said Trudeau.

Wynne took credit for the Liberal government’s upgrading of the electricity system since taking power in 2003 so “there are no more blackouts…no more smog days,” but admitted “the cost of the changes has burdened people.”

She told 440 people at an Oakville and Burlington Chamber of Commerce chicken lunch about a father of three who wrote to her at Christmas to say he had to scale back on presents for his kids.

“That is unacceptable to me,” she said during a 25-minute speech, promising “to find more ways to lower rates and reduce the burden on consumers.”

“I have heard the voices of the people of Ontario and it’s the right thing to do,” added Wynne, whose speech was briefly interrupted by a shouting protester in the lobby outside the dining hall.

“I acknowledge the concerns. I’m not exactly sure what her issue is.”

Outside the conference centre, a smattering of hydro protesters were mixed in with United Steelworkers from Hamilton concerned the province isn’t doing enough to safeguard their pensions in the Stelco bankruptcy.

“I give wind turbines and solar panels a great deal of the blame for hydro costs,” said Lorrie Gillis, who drove from her country home near Flesherton, northwest of Toronto, to hold a picket sign reading “hydro bills $oar.”

“She needs to go and we need someone whole will start to put people first and put people over policy and money,” added Gillis, who heats her home with a woodstove to save on electric heating costs…..

READ MORE: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/01/13/wynne-gets-cold-shoulder-from-pm-on-hydro-costs.html

Contracts Cancelled, Cost Benefit, Green Energy, Ontario Wind

Ontario Christmas Lights

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Do you like my Christmas lights? 

black-background

Oh Sorry.  I live in Ontario and can’t afford to turn them on.

D’Amato: Hydro woes will finish Liberals

Dec 14, 2016 Waterloo Region Record   By Luisa D’Amato 

 “Do you like my Christmas lights?” asks the latest joke circulating on social media.

The sentence is written in white on an imposing inky-black background. It’s puzzling for a moment as you stop to ask yourself where the lights are.

But then you get it. At the bottom of the black square is the punchline: “Oh sorry, I live in Ontario and can’t afford to turn them on!”

What is it with fuel and the Liberals, anyway? The political career of former Premier Dalton McGuinty was dashed by his party’s decision five years ago to cancel planned natural-gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga, costing Ontarians more than a billion dollars.

Today, high electricity prices are doing the same thing to the political career of Premier Kathleen Wynne. Out-of-control prices have put a chokehold on small businesses, the engines of job creation. Moreover, some families are forced to use dangerous portable heaters because they don’t have access to their electricity. It’s a crisis.

Politicians in power devote a lot of time and energy toward pretending that nothing is wrong, when it really is. But when you watch televised newscast clips of Wynne (whose approval rating is now at the lowest of any premier in Canada, at 16 per cent), you can see how rattled she seems to be.

While it’s touching that she takes responsibility, the politicians don’t quite seem to understand the significance of what’s happening. In one videotaped interview I saw, Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault agreed it must be “disconcerting” to have the power cut off because you can’t pay.

Not exactly, minister. “Disconcerting” is when someone else beats you to those prized theatre seats in front row mezzanine. Not being able to pay your hydro bill is a whole different thing. It’s crushingly stressful. It’s soul-destroying.

The opposition gets it. Both the Conservatives and New Democrats regularly pound the Liberals on this topic in the Ontario Legislature. New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath was in Cambridge on Tuesday to meet with a woman who struggles to pay hydro bills.

Think about why costs are soaring and you encounter the fatal flaw of the 13-year-old Liberal government. It meant well. But there’s a big difference between having a grand visionary outlook and actually being able to manage something.

Give McGuinty credit for dreaming up the idea that we could put people back to work and help save the environment. He thought it would create jobs for Ontario to produce wind turbines and solar panels. As an incentive, the government offered lots of money to buy the power back. That’s part of what put prices up so high, so quickly.

There’s more. The difference between low market prices and the higher prices promised to these new producers of wind and sun energy is called the “global adjustment charge.” Between 2006 and 2015, we paid an unnecessary $50 billion subsidizing this vision, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk says.

That subsidy accounts for 70 per cent of consumers’ electricity rates in 2013. But the difference between the market price — what we would be paying if the Liberals had left well enough alone — and the global adjusted rate isn’t clear on our bills. Lysyk says it should be. The government, unsurprisingly, wants to leave it murky. Because obfuscation is all they’ve got left.

ldamato@therecord.com

READ AT: http://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/7018820-d-amato-hydro-woes-will-finish-liberals/#.WFoJO-S5h8k.twitter

Contracts Cancelled, Cost Benefit, Green Energy, Ontario Wind

Is the FIT really Dead?

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zombie.pngThe flames of political fires are blowing hot shifting winds of change creating a scorching backdraft for Ontario’s renewable energy program. The Minister of Energy’s latest directive spells out the end of FIT application procurement (feed -in -tariff). FIT 6 is to be pronounced dead as of  the end of December.

“The final FIT application period will be held in 2016. The IESO shall cease accepting applications under the FIT program by December 31, 2016 and any unallocated procurement target at the end of that procurement process will remain unallocated”

A tiny step heading in the right direction. It is never too late to do the right thing and is on the right path of cancelling wind contracts.

Minister of Energy- Glen Thiebault’s December 16, 2016 Directive:

 

 

Contracts Cancelled, Cost Benefit, Green Energy, Ontario Wind

Industrial wind turbine industry found dead in Ontario

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coffin-and-mountaineersThroughout the industry’s life industrial wind turbine showed steady increases in real costs with each round of procurement. It became more expensive to acquire and more poorly sited –…

Source: Industrial wind turbine industry found dead in Ontario

Adverse Health Effects, Animals and turbines, Environment, Green Energy, Health, Ontario Wind

Public Information Meeting 2016

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Blue Heron
Blue Heron

“This Great Blue Heron was found injured along a fenceline south of Smithville on August 28, 2016. Its location was approximately 600 meters west of an Industrial Wind Turbine that had been in testing phase for several previous days. The SPCA was called and the bird was taken away. Remediation was not practical, for both legs were broken. The bird was euthanized a few days later.”    Loretta Shields presentation

West Lincoln Glanbrook Wind Action Group(WLGWAG) held their annual general meeting which was followed by a public information meeting held in alliance with Mothers Against Wind Turbines Inc. (MAWTI). Good eats, good people and good discussions ensued. The meeting was well attended including local West Lincoln Council members and the newly elected MPP of Niagara West- Glanbrook, Sam Oosterhoof.  The MPP took multiple questions ranging from rising electrical rates and included impacts and harms of the wind projects.  The area is the unwilling host of several wind projects including HAF Wind Energy and Niagara Wind.  The groups are hard at work to ensure protection of all residents from the risks now present in our communities.

Public Information Meeting and AGM – December 1st, 2016

The following documents were presented and discussed at WLGWAG & MAWT’s Public Information Meeting session;

1.) What’s New? – Dec. 2016 Update – By Mike Jankowski:
In Niagara, one of the world’s largest wind power generation facilities has risen above our landscape. Here, we discussed a brief overview of recent events, what we are doing about it and who we will work with to see it through.
Click here to view Mike’s presentation.

2.) The High Costs of Keeping the Lights On – By Deb Hughes:
From 2006-15, electricity costs have risen over 60% and continue to. Here, Deb discussed how this happened and explains how Wind Power Generation is playing a significant part in this.
Click here to view Deb’s presentation.

3.) Why We Didn’t Need Wind Capacity and What Really Replaced Coal? – By Catherine Mitchell:
In Ontario, businesses are challenged to be profitable and people struggle to pay their bills due to the high cost of electricity. Here we discuss why we already had extra power capacity without wind and that actually Hydro and Solar did more to replace coal than wind.
Click here to view Catherine’s presentation.

4.) Tree Cutting: Consequences to Ecological Services & Destruction of our Roadside Landscape – By Loretta Shields:
One of the main drivers behind the Green Energy Act was to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.  Carbon dioxide is considered a greenhouse gas, and shown to have a role in climate change.  Trees absorb or “sequester” carbon dioxide, and provide a means to store atmospheric carbon for many, many years.
West Lincoln, Wainfleet and Haldimand lost thousands of trees which were cut down or trimmed to make way for industrial wind power.  Ironically, no remediation plans for the replacement of these trees has been announced by the Niagara Region Wind Farm.  Our Community is now in a deficit position in terms of carbon sequestration.  Other ecological services provided by trees, including oxygen production, habitat for wildlife, the reduction of home emissions due to shading homes (cooling effects) and windbreaks (reducing heating costs) are now also reduced.

US Forest Carbon Calculator:  Click here

Click here to view Loretta’s presentation.

5.) Reporting Issues: What and Where Should I Report? – By Anne Fairfield:
The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change has authority over wind power generation and is the regulator mandated to protect communities. If you experience issues you suspect are due to wind turbines, it is essential you report them. If you do not report – it didn’t happen as far as the documented record is concerned – they can’t manage what they can’t see. Learn what to report and how.

Spills Action Centre: 1-800-268-6060     Call at any time to report
Click here to view Anne’s presentation.
Contracts Cancelled, Cost Benefit, Green Energy, Ontario Wind

Information is Power

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Wind Turbines --- say NOWind Warriors share the common quest seeking information about wind power. Information sources are often not available, incomplete or obscure.

The Independent Electricity System Operator is a starting point to understand the components of Ontario’s energy grid.  Experts are aware of IESO’s short comings and limitations but for citizen researchers the information presented marks a good place to begin the quest for knowledge and data about how power is generated.

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Interactive Map of Electricity Generation Sites:

ELECTRICITY GENERATION SITES: http://www.ieso.ca/ontarioenergymap/index.html

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Chatham Kent- Kruger Port Alma Wind view from Merlin Road 5

WIND CONTRACTS: https://www.powerauthority.on.ca/current-electricity-contracts/wind

 

installed-capacity-by-fuel-type-june-2016-for-power-data-with-solar

SUPPLY OVERVIEW: http://www.ieso.ca/Pages/Power-Data/Supply.aspx#list

ABOUT IESO: http://www.ieso.ca/Pages/About-the-IESO/default.aspx