Ontario wind farms are really wind factories

Jim Merriam, London Free Press
The twin counties of Bruce and Grey, which lie south of Georgian Bay and west of Lake Huron, have been the source of much of rural Ontario’s opposition to wind factory developments. These developments are commonly called wind farms, but wind factories is a more accurate description.

The opposition to turbines spread across the province just about as fast as the giant turbines started to crop up. Since Ontario has been in the throes of a rush to wind power for a number of years, that was fast indeed. The breadth of the opposition to wind turbines is nowhere better documented than in the results of the last provincial election when voters across rural and much of northern Ontario turned their backs on the McGuinty government. They did so largely because of the way local planning controls were neutered so wind factories could be forced down rural throats.

A major argument against wind factory developments is the adverse effects they have on the health of nearby residents. Provincial health officials gave no credence to those concerns and news releases to that effect from 2010 still show up when you search the topic on government websites. Read article

Oil Springs Information meeting draws a crowd

Paul Morden, Sarnia Observer
Landowners need to get advice before signing on with wind energy companies, says lawyer Wallace Lang. He was speaking to about 250 people gathered Thursday evening at a wind turbine public awareness meeting held at the community centre in Oil Springs.

It was organized by Enniskillen Township resident Chad Burke and his family after representatives of wind companies began approaching landowners in the rural Lambton County community. Mayor Kevin Marriott has said three companies are behind several proposals for wind farms in the township.

Lang was one of several speakers at the meeting Burke organized with help from local anti-wind groups. “Take care,” Lang told the crowd about documents used by wind companies. “Because it’s a binding agreement once you sign it. Lang said the companies have developed documents they have found to be saleable to landowners. “You’re not dealing with a bunch of amateurs here.”

Burke said he discovered the wind companies have become active in Enniskillen when they approached his in-laws. As well as organizing Thursday’s meeting, Burke said he expects to see an Enniskillen citizens’ group form and join forces with other anti-turbine efforts in Lambton. “The whole idea is to spread awareness and not let these into our community,” he said. Read article

Tory MPP says high electricity costs kill job creation

Paul Morden, Sarnia Observer
A wind energy association is disputing Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey’s claim wind energy isn’t affordable. Bailey and Ontario’s PCs have said they will cancel the Feed in Tariff program the Liberal government has used to attract wind and other renewable energy projects to the province. “We want to return electricity generation and power generation in Ontario to be a job producer, and not a social policy to try and get people to support wind turbine-generated electricity,” Bailey said.

The Tories point to the Feed in Tariff program, and the province’s Global Adjustment charge, as causing rising electricity prices the party says harm Ontario’s manufacturing sector. “We see industry, already, taking another look at where they’re going to locate,” Bailey said. “We’ve lost a lot of industry to Quebec and our neighbours.”

Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association, said comments by Bailey and the PC’s “perpetuate the myth that wind and renewable energy is the driving force behind electricity prices increases in the province.” Read article

Send us to the ERT? Better to send us straight to the gallows.

by Harvey Wrightman
I was at the Goderich Court on Friday to hear more legal arguments about a wind project. Shawn and Trish Drennan are opposing the “K-2” wind project, a massive 142 turbine project which will cover most of Ashfield/Colborne/Wawanosh Township. At the noon recess Shawn asked me, “How does this court hearing compare to an ERT hearing?”. Well, let’s see – the motion to strike the Drennan family’s application for an injunction on the construction of the Pattern/Samsung K-2 wind project – that sentence alone illustrates how convoluted this whole wind business has become, so horribly twisted that the Drennan’s have sought to cut through it all  with a plea for relief to the Court.

The Crown and K-2 insist that there is an overall “public interest/benefit” in constructing wind energy projects. Mr. Bredt, lawyer for K-2 also submitted that “…one wouldn’t consult with the public if one wasn’t concerned about the impacts…,” he said it with the same leery smirk that I had so often seen on the  $500/hour lawyers engaged by companies for the ERT appeals.  Remarkable! This wonderful Renewable Energy Application (REA) process was so lovingly crafted to care for and protect the “receptors” (persons).  So exceptionally nurturing is this process and so intent is the government on rigorously assessing the quality of service, that we now have the attention of 2 sets (both federal and provincial) of academic/engineering/medical professionals who will “study” subsets of the subject “receptor populations” to better define the impacts on “receptors” – on a gross, averaged level, not individual specific. In the court room I’m sitting beside a person/receptor forced to move from a house surrounded by turbines, who has heard this BS far too many times.  I’m always amazed at the ability of people affected to not give in, but to continue to resist in the way they are capable of. Rural citizens are in a battle with an administrative structure gone hay-wire.

Southern Ontario Tundra Swan Spring Migration through wind projects

Ontario Wind Resistance – Tundra Swan 2013 Spring Migration

Are you watching the annual spring migration of the tundra swans? Are they flying over areas that will be proposed wind developments, or landing in fields that will soon have turbines? Send your observations and pictures to Ontario Wind Resistance onwindresist@gmail.com to create a visual to illustrate this amazing journey of these birds as they rest and  forage on the shores before  moving onto their summer nesting grounds in the high Arctic. Displacement of these swans is a serious concern that is being ignored by the wind developers and our provincial government. View all images and reports here

K2 Wind project subject of court fight

Paul Cluff, London Free Press
GODERICH – Shawn and Trish Drennan got some vocal support before heading into the Huron County Courthouse for another round of a legal battle against a proposed wind farm in their home community. About 75 protestors gathered outside the Huron County Courthouse early Friday to voice their opposition to wind turbines. The Drennans are fighting the proposed K2 Wind project, which could see upwards of 140 turbines erected in Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Township. It’s a provincewide issue.

“It is really important that were are here today, said Lorrie Gillis, of Flesherton, in Grey County. “There are 91 communities now who are saying no to turbines. But the new Wynne government seems determined to carry on with this. We use every means possible to fight this.”

Stan Franjkovic said the Bornish project near his home in Parkhill has raised big concerns for community members, including health issues and declining property values. Franjkovic, a realtor for 25 years, is angry with the Liberal government. Franjkovic said he left communism behind in the former Yugoslavia only to “find it again” in Canada. Read article

New transmission lines spark plans for up to 51 wind turbines near Petrolia

Heather Wright, Sarnia Lambton Independent
Enniskillen politicians and residents are watching with worry as three companies make the rounds asking landowners south of Petrolia to sign leases for wind turbines. Enniskillen Mayor Kevin Marriott says in the last few months three companies have been speaking with the municipality about projects which could bring as many as 51 turbines to the rural township.

The mayor says there has been major interest since the Ontario Energy Board gave approval for Hydro One’s $40 million upgrade of a major transmission line which goes from the Lambton Generating Station into London. The upgrade allows for up to 500 megawatts of additional renewable power in the area according to documents filed at the time with the OEB. “These transmission lines that are coming from the Courtright coal-fired facility are being upgraded and all of the sudden there is an interest to feed that line,” he says. Read article

Wind turbine protestors outside Goderich courthouse

CTV London : Protestors were outside the Huron County Court House in Goderich Friday morning as the K2 Wind farm goes on trial.  Inside, the courtroom was full with at least 100 people in attendance.  Locals want a proposed wind farm near Goderich stopped and they have filed an injunction in court to do so. Arguments Friday morning from the province suggest Shawn and Trisha Drennans’ injunction request should be dismissed because there is an environmental tribunal panel to deal with turbine issues.

The Drennans want the project halted until a health study is completed, but the province is siding with the wind company and wants the injunction quashed. Anti-wind turbine advocates rallying outside the hearing carried signs that read, ‘Stop the wind turbines’ and ‘Rural landowners deserve democracy.’ Arguments are expected to continue all day and a decision will likely not be made on Friday.  Read article

Dr. Arlene King(pin)

NextEra threatens legal action against Bluewater Township

By Mac Christie, Times-Advocate Staff
[excerpt] VARNA – NextEra Energy, the developer responsible for the Goshen and Bluewater wind projects, which propose 52 turbines for the municipality between the two, also addressed council at its Feb. 19 meeting. Nicole Geneau, the project director for the Bluewater and Goshen projects, updated council on where the projects stand.

She noted the company expects to hear back from the government about the Bluewater project in mid-March. “We would anticipate starting construction, as I’ve always maintained, in the middle of this year, so June of 2013,” she said. “We would be fully operational by the end of this calendar year.”

NextEra’s legal counsel John Terry, with the law firm Torys in Toronto, spoke to council about the bylaw. He expressed concern with the bylaw, noting NextEra is making serious investments with regard to the project. “There are certain limitations as to what municipalities can do under the provisions of the Green Energy Act,” Terry said. “Council has to be very careful about staying within what it’s legally empowered to do. “I must say, when you look at the numbers involved . . . I am concerned that once we look at it that we may find that some of the proposals here are going beyond what municipalities can do.” He added there may be similar concerns regarding the unreleased road use agreement.

Terry added NextEra does have certain legal rights that they are willing to pursue. “If it becomes necessary to take steps in court in regard to bylaws that are passed or potentially to have to seek damages, if damages are involved, then NextEra will have no choice but to follow those routes,” he said. “There are very serious legal issues at stake here.” Read article