Rally declares ‘It’s now or never’ to stop wind turbine development

Rally declares ‘It’s now or never’ to stop wind turbine development : Prince Edward County News countylive.ca:

The battle against government-enabled Industrial Wind Turbine projects has been stepped up in Prince Edward County.

Members and friends of the County Coalition for Safe and Appropriate Green Energy (CCSAGE) believe “It’s now or never” as the projects threaten to destroy the County’s naturally green environment.

“A real white pine does not kill birds. A real white pine does not cause illness, raise Ontario’s electricity rates, destroy tourism or reduce property values”, is the campaign mantra, said Duncan Fischer of CCSAGE.

“Citizens have launched the “Naturally Green” and “Turbine-Free” campaign, through CCSAGE, aimed at convincing provincially-elected representatives that a majority of Prince Edward County residents strongly believe that their personal health and economic viability depend upon maintaining turbine-free neighbourhoods in this tourist-based area. Their goal is to stop final approval of proposed industrial wind farms in the southernmost part of the County,” Fischer said.

Read the entire article at countylive.ca:

Nature Canada’s Ted Cheskey will lead hike at Ostrander Point

Nature Canada’s Ted Cheskey will lead hike at Ostrander Point : Prince Edward County News countylive.ca:

On Thursday May 17, Ted Cheskey from Nature Canada will lead a nature Hike at Ostrander Point Crown Land Block. This is a unique opportunity for everyone to see what we will lose if the Ontario Government persists in its plan to allow Gilead Power to develop Ostrander Point into an Industrial wind turbine facility.

Read the full column, including details on how to join in the hike on Thursday, at the countylive website

New Interactive Web Map to Help Reduce Bird Mortality From Wind Development

The American Bird Conservancy has produced a tool to illustrate the threat to birds from wind turbines.  While the tools are available by state, the overview map shows many, many, existing and proposed industrial wind turbine projects in Ontario located in the orange zones that signify globally important bird areas, key migration corridors, key habitat areas “for birds on the Red Watchlist, and Marine Important Bird Areas.

New Interactive Web Map to Help Reduce Bird Mortality From Wind Development:

Wind Map Screen Shot ©American Bird Conservancy. Click here to open the Web map.

Washington., D.C., May 3, 2012) A new, interactive web-based map, created by American Bird Conservancy (ABC)—the nation’s leading bird conservation organization, is now available, and has the potential to dramatically reduce bird impacts from wind turbines. Open the map.

Using Google Earth as a platform, the map highlights more than 2,000 locations in the United States where birds are likely to be particularly vulnerable to impacts from wind energy development. Key sites are colored either orange or red to indicate their relative importance to birds.

Birds can be impacted by wind power both through direct collisions and by displacement from nesting, foraging, or transit areas. The map addresses both of these issues by identifying both concentrated migratory flight paths and key habitat locations.

Where eagles dare not fly: Waterloo looms as wind farms power town revolt

This report from Australia starkly covers many concerns about industrial wind turbines.  

Where eagles dare not fly: Waterloo looms as wind farms power town revolt | The Australian:

Picture from The Australian artice

Waterloo has become a hotbed of concern among locals, many of whom claim to be suffering ill-effects from the wind turbine development.

They want independent noise measuring and for Senate inquiry recommendations for research into the impact of low frequency noise to be adopted. Some want to be relocated and many want the wind turbines to be turned off at night.

Village resident Neil Daws is concerned his chickens have been laying eggs with no yolks.

Ironically called wind eggs, the yolkless eggs can be explained without wind turbines.

But together with a spike in sheep deformities, also not necessarily connected to wind, reports of erratic behaviour by farm dogs and an exodus of residents complaining of ill health, Waterloo is a case study of the emotional conflict being wrought by the rollout of industrial wind power.

When Adelaide University masters student Frank Wang surveyed residents within a 5km radius of the Waterloo wind turbines he found 70 per cent of respondents claimed they had been negatively affected by the wind development and the noise, with more than 50 per cent having been very or moderately negatively affected.

Please read the entire article at The Australian

Nature Canada Blog: Ostrander Point Decision: Chance to enhance Ontario’s Green Energy Policies

Nature Canada has posted an article by Ted Chesky, which argues powerfully against surrendering more important bird areas to the IWT trend.

Nature Canada Blog: Ostrander Point Decision: Chance to enhance Ontario’s Green Energy Policies:

Prince Edward County Field Naturalists, Nature Canada, and Ontario Nature have repeatedly urged the Ontario Government to protect Ostrander Point, and reject a proposed industrial wind energy project there. As a final decision on this project from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment is pending, it’s a good time to restate the key arguments for preserving this special place, and why the Green Energy Act would suffer a serious blow to its credibility if the project is approved.

Please read the rest of  article, starting at paragraph 3 at the Nature Canada blog (I’ve warning you on paragraph 2!)

SPEAK UP FOR ONTARIO’S ENDANGERED SPECIES THREATENED BY IWT’s

The folowing message is sent out by Keith Stelling

JUST SEVEN MORE DAYS TO SPEAK UP FOR ONTARIO’S ENDANGERED SPECIES THREATENED BY WIND TURBINES

Voting on this amendment takes place on Tuesday, 24 April so there is not much time let them know that their amendments to the Ontario Endangered Species Act and other environmental legislation are unacceptable.

Many people have already written to their MPP. Now we have to keep up the pressure on the NDP and the Ministers.  Here is an easy way to register your displeasure at the changes proposed to Ontario’s environmental legislation. You can use these easy on line feed back forms to voice your concerns:

“Are the Merits of Wind Power Overblown?” (1997 op-ed)

 A 1997 editorial by Robert Bradley Jr. is reproduced at Master Resource

“Are the Merits of Wind Power Overblown?” (1997 op-ed: How does it read today?) — MasterResource:

Wind power has proven itself to be a perpetual “infant industry,” with its competitive viability always somewhere off on the horizon. Proponents have always argued for continued subsidies on the rationale that commercialization is within sight. In 1985 congressional hearings, for example, an executive of the American Wind Energy Association testified that “the goal for this industry . . . is the lowest-cost source of electricity, along with hydro, available to a utility by 1990.”

Read the entire article at masterresource.org

Green Groups Sue To Stop California Wind Project That Threatens Condor

Environmental Groups acting as environmental groups

Green Groups Sue To Stop California Wind Project That Threatens Condor – Forbes:

Three national environmental groups on Friday sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management over its approval of a planned NextEra Energy Resources wind farm in the Tehachapi region of California that state and federal wildlife officials had warned threatens the critically endangered California condor.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club had also sued Kern County last October over its green-lighting of the 300-megawatt North Sky River project.

As I wrote in an investigation…

Read the entire article at forbes.com

Association to Protect Amherst Island

The Amherst Island Wind Info site posted notification that The Association to Protect Amherst Island (APAI) has launched a great website; also posted was a link to an APAI Biodiversity Paper.

Association to Protect Amherst Island:

Algonquin Power plans to build 31 to 37 (500 foot tall) Industrial Wind Turbines on Amherst Island. If erected, the adverse consequences to Amherst Island’s unique environment and many species-at-risk will be significant, perhaps irreversible. The project must be stopped.

• 34 Species at Risk
• Located on the Atlantic Migratory Flyway
• Important Bird Area (IBA) of Global Significance
• Internationally recognized for concentrations of wintering hawks and owls / Owl Woods
• Ranked 2nd in biodiversity significance (Lake Ontario Islands – Northeast)

Visit the APAI website

Radar mitigation at wind farms to cause more deaths

Mark Duchamp notes radar solutions proposed to alleviate avian deaths have not done so – and seem designed solely to propel projects forward by feigning attention to environmental concerns.

Radar mitigation at wind farms to cause more deaths:

Save the Eagles International (STEI) and the World Council for Nature (WCFN) denounce the use of ineffective mitigation to prevent bird and bat collisions at wind farms. Developers claim that their radar systems will detect birds and bats, and shut off wind turbines to avoid collisions. STEI and WCFN warn that this new mitigation scheme will actually increase bird and bat mortality worldwide.

For instance, an “avian radar” will be installed in the middle of the proposed Ocotillo wind farm in Southern California, which will stand in a migration flyway for golden eagles and other protected birds (1), while overlapping local golden eagle breeding territories and the habitat of some endangered species. The 112 wind turbines of 2.3 MW each will reach 456 feet into the sky with a combined rotor sweep equal to that of all the eagle-killing turbines of Altamont Pass. The blades will have a faster tip speed at 174 mph when rotating at 16 rpm, and STEI notes that it has been proven larger turbines kill more eagles than smaller one.

The full article can be read here