Plympton Wyoming Residents air concerns on wind turbines

Sarnia Observer

Citizens group forms in Enniskillen Township : C.O.R.E.

By Paul Morden, Sarnia Observer
Convincing landowners to turn down wind companies is the best way to keep Enniskillen Township free of wind turbines, says its mayor. The rural township that surrounds Petrolia has been targeted by wind energy companies, leading to the forming of a citizens’ group opposed to wind turbines, as well as plenty of concern in the community.

Enniskillen Mayor Kevin Marriott said he’s encouraged by the number of farmers and large landowners who have already told him they won’t sign leases with wind companies. “I’m not leasing my land,” said Marriott, who farms in the township. “It’s still possible to stop these projects in Enniskillen, but the landowners have to be willing to not sign.”

Marriott said he believes a community information meeting township resident Chad Burke and his family organized earlier this month helped make the case against signing leases with several landowners who attended. “If enough people can say, ‘No,’ then it stops them in their tracks.”  The meeting attracted about 250 people and Burke said the citizens’ group that has since formed – Conservation of Rural Enniskillen (CORE) – plans to attend an upcoming township council meeting. “We do have some questions that we want to ask, just to see what Enniskillen’s going to be doing moving forward.” Read article

Anti-wind turbine group jumps to the defence of tundra swans and area rest stops they covet during migration

By John Miner, The London Free Press
After losing their battle to save a bald eagle nest from the chainsaw, anti-wind turbine activists are turning their fight to the tundra swan. “If we continue to allow industry to displace and destroy our habitat, we are really looking at an environmental disaster in the long run. It is not just the tundra swans, it is the geese, it is the eagles,” said Muriel Allingham of the Middlesex Lambton Wind Action Group.

An information rally is planned for 11 a.m. Sunday, south of Grand Bend at the Thedford Bog, where the swans stop to rest on their spring migration from the Chesapeake Bay area to nest on the Arctic coastline. The Grand Bend area, where thousands of the tundra swans can sometimes be viewed, also falls within two large wind farms planned by NextEra Energy, a subsidiary of U.S. energy giant NextEra, formerly known as Florida Light and Power.

At least one of the 80-metre-tall wind turbines is proposed to be sited within the bog area. Plans for the two wind farms — Jericho and Goshen — call for construction of 169 turbines. Allingham said the turbines will disrupt the swans’ migration route. “This Florida-based company is coming into our province and running roughshod over our wildlife,” Allingham said. Read article

Activists say turbines could impact swan migration

Tundra Swan vs Wind Turbines Info Rally
Date: Sun. March 24
Time: 11:00am – 2:00pm
Place: Greenway Rd, (Thedford Bog) Grand Bend MAP  &  map of viewing area

Paul Morden, Sarnia Observer
Tundra Swans fly over farm fields near the Lambton Heritage Museum earlier this month. The swans traditionally visit the area during their annual migration. Members of the Middlesex-Lambton Wind Action Group plan to rally Sunday. 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., along Greenway Road in Lambton Shores to take their message to swan watchers.

Muriel Allingham, with the Middlesex-Lambton Wind Action Group, said some of its members will out along Greenway Road from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to pass along information to the public. The road, near the Lambton Heritage Museum, is a popular spot to view tundra swans stopping over in the Thedford bog during their annual migration. The wind action group is fighting plans to build wind farms in the area, and says turbines could impede the swan’s migration.

Nextera Energy Canada is seeking provincial approval to build as many as 154 wind turbines in the area with its Jericho and Goshen wind projects. “A lot of people believe wind power is green,” Allingham said. “They don’t understand how it affects the environment, the wildlife and people’s health.” Read article

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne urged to meet with rural leaders

By Paul Morden, Sarnia Observer
Enniskillen Township Mayor Kevin Marriott says he knew getting a moratorium on new wind farms in Ontario was a long-shot when he hand-delivered his request to the Premier Kathleen Wynne. It was in a letter he gave her when they met up Monday at the Grain Farmers of Ontario March Classic conference in London.

A past-director on the board of the grain farmers commodity group, Marriott was serving as a master of ceremonies at the conference Wynne had agreed to attend. The opportunity to speak directly to Wynne came along as wind company agents have been knocking on doors in Enniskillen and looking for landowners willing to lease land for wind farms. “I put some thought into it last weekend when I knew I might have the chance to talk her and give her a letter,” Marriott said.

It says wind energy development is dividing rural communities. It also ties turbines to high electricity prices the mayor says hurt Ontario’s manufacturers and jobs. Along with asking for a moratorium on new wind projects, while federal health officials study its impact on human health, Marriott’s letter urges Wynn to meet with rural leaders. He said the premier appeared open and willing to consider the request when he spoke to her Monday, but he added, “She stopped short of promising anything.” Read article

Rural municipalities fight wind farms with high fees

John Spears, Toronto Star
Two rural Ontario municipalities are putting expensive new hurdles in front of wind farms in their communities. Councils in Bluewater, on the Lake Huron shoreline, and West Grey, about 165 kilometres northwest of Toronto, have passed bylaws squeezing more money from prospective wind developments.

Politicians say they’re trying to protect the interests of their communities, where many people greet large-scale wind farms with apprehension: West Grey, for example, has formally declared itself an “unwilling host” for big wind farms. But the wind company in both cases, NextEra Energy Canada, isn’t going quietly.

It has dispatched lawyers from Torys LLP to both councils to argue that the bylaws won’t hold up under Ontario law. “We believe the law is on our side,” said NextEra spokesman Steve Stengel in an interview from the company’s head office in Florida. In a letter from Torys to the Bluewater council, the company argues that the new rules “would unlawfully impose financial obligations on NextEra.” Read article

Windfall of donations for Plympton-Wyoming/Suncor court battle

Heather Wright, Sarnia-Lambton Independent
They’re putting their money where their mouth is. The anti-wind group WAIT in Plympton Wyoming is accepting donations to help pay for the municipality’s court battle against Suncor Energy. Suncor is in the final planning stages of the Cedar Point Energy Project which will place about 28 industrial turbines in Plympton-Wyoming.

But Plympton-Wyoming Council balked at the project and its lack of input because of the Green Energy Act. Council passed its own bylaw under the Municipal Act to “protect the health of our people,” according to Mayor Lonny Napper. The bylaw called for turbines to be 2 km away from homes instead of  550 meters mandated by the Green Energy Act and placed large fees on each turbine for decommissioning.

The municipality was served notice of a court challenge by Suncor earlier this month. Plympton-Wyoming has vowed to fight the move, hiring lawyer Eric Gillespie who is known for his work with anti-wind activists. The move was applauded by WAIT and now it will be supported financially as well. “The council is meeting next week to figure out how they are going to pay for the legal battle, says WAIT spokesperson Elizabeth Bellavance “in the meantime, WAIT is going to accept funds on behalf of the municipality.”

WAIT has a bank account set up at the Southwest Credit Union in Wyoming to accept any donations. Donations can also be sent to WAIT at Box 219, Plympton Wyoming, N0N 1T0. Read article

Wind turbine petition heading to Queen’s Park from Plympton-Wyoming

Paul Morden, Sarnia Observer
Anti-wind farm activists in Plympton-Wyoming say they plan to deliver a petition with more than 2,500 signatures Friday to Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey. The group, We’re Against Industrial Turbines in Plympton-Wyoming (WAIT-PW), has been circulating the petition since forming to oppose Suncor Energy Products’ plan to build up to 46-turbines across a wide stretch of rural northern Lambton County.

The petition calls for wind turbine development to stop “until citizens are property consulted and informed, and the local government processes respected.” Members of WAIT-PW group plan to meet up with Bailey, a member of Ontario’s PC opposition, at 4:30 p.m. outside the municipal office on Niagara Street in Wyoming. “I intend to take those petitions and present them in the House to the minister of energy and formally let him know what the people of Plympton-Wyoming, and the surrounding area, think of their wind turbine program,” Bailey said. Read article