Over 100 wind turbines in Middlesex County now under construction

Right now in Middlesex County:

• Suncor’s Adelaide wind project was approved today: read more

• WPD’s Napier project approved last week: read more

• NextEra’s Adelaide wind project is almost done the appeal process. read more

• NextEra’s Bornish wind project’s appeal denied. read more

All the proposed wind projects in Middlesex County (above) have now been approved and will be under construction, if they aren’t’ already. That’s over 100 wind turbines. If you want to see what it look like, check these pictures out, or come out and see for yourself.

In Lambton county:

• NextEra’s Jericho wind up for final public comment: read more

• Suncor’s Cedar Point wind up for final public comment: read more

That’s another 130+ wind turbines.

Grand Bend? That’s another 111 turbines.

This is what Christmas looks like to many in rural Middlesex and Lambton Counties.

If you have 100 good ideas of how to stop the wind turbines, just implement 1 of them on your own. That makes a difference. Action is what is need!

Activist says she won’t cease and desist

By Paul Morden, London Free Press
Middlesex County anti-wind turbine activist Esther Wrightman says she’s not giving in to a cease and desist warning from lawyers working for NextEra Energy Canada. A letter, dated March 20, was sent to Wrightman calling on her to remove YouTube videos and wind resistance website postings because of company logos altered to read “NEXTerror” and “Nextterror Bullies Canada Inc.”

“Our request is simply to not use the corporation’s registered, trademarked logo in a manner that is defamatory,” NextEra spokesperson Josie Hernandez said in an email. Hernandez said company officials attempted to contact Wrightman personally to resolve the issue before the letter from the lawyers was sent. Wrightman said phone calls where made to her home but she never spoke directly to those company representatives. “We aren’t trying to limit debate, which is clear from our letter, but we have rights in our logo that are entitled to protection under the law,” Hernandez said.

The letter from the lawyers to Wrightman mention in particular use of “NEXTerror” in a video shot in January as crews destroyed a bald eagle nest on the site of NextEra’s Summerhaven wind project in Haldimand. The tree holding the nest came down with the permission of Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources. The letter from the lawyers asks Wrightman to remove that video – as well as a second one interviewing company officials about the nest – from YouTube by March 22. Read article

CTV News: Could wind developments impact tundra swan visits?

CTV News

Protesters worried about migrating tundra swans

Terry Heffernan, Special to the Times-Advocate
GRAND BEND — About 70 people were in attendance at a protest Sunday of the planned installation of wind turbines in or around the Thedford Bog near the Lambton County Museum.

At issue is the tundra swans that use the bog to rest and feed on their way from their wintering grounds in Chesapeake Bay to the Arctic shores breeding grounds. Protesters believe that building turbines in the bog will disrupt the flight path of the swans and they will disappear from the area and never return as long as the turbines are in place.

Before the turbines get final approval, members of the Trees Not Turbines on Ontario’s West Coast, Ontario Wind Resistance, Middlesex Lambton Wind Action Group, WAIT Plympton-Wyoming and Wind Concerns Ontario are attempting to convince NextEra to stop the turbine invasion in the area. Read article

Protesters say turbines will disrupt migratory patterns of swans near Grand Bend

London Free Press
GRAND BEND – With thousands of tundra swans honking in the background, dozens of anti-wind protesters rallied Sunday against plans for giant turbines in the area. “These companies have no concerns for nature. It is just sad,” said Dave Griffiths of Bluewater Against Turbines citizens group. The protesters harvested signatures from more than 50 carloads on a petition calling for a stop to plans to establish the wind farms in the area. The protesters maintain the turbines will disrupt the migratory patterns of the swans and other wildlife. NextEra Energy Canada, which is seeking government approval for the Goshen and Jericho wind farms, has said it will abide by any setbacks required to protect the swans. Read article

Nextera: skillful manipulators of tax credits

John Fund, National Review
President Obama likes to talk about making sure “the biggest corporations pay their fair share.” Treasury secretary Tim Geithner calls for tax reform to close loopholes and subsidies. Budget hawks say federal spending must be curbed. Congress and federal environmental regulators claim they are doing everything they can to save endangered species. By doing nothing and waiting for December 31 to pass, all of those folks could strike a blow in support of each of these policies. All they have to do is let the federal production tax credit (PTC) for wind energy expire on schedule this coming Monday.

Begun 20 years ago to spur the construction of wind-energy facilities that could compete with conventional fossil-fuel power plants, the tax credit gives wind an advantage over all other energy producers. But it has mostly benefited conventional nuclear and fossil-fuel-fired electricity producers. The biggest user of the tax credit is Florida-based NextEra Energy, the nation’s eighth-largest power producer. Through skillful manipulation of the credits, NextEra from 2005 to 2009 “paid just $88 million in taxes on earnings of nearly $7 billion,” Businessweek reports. That’s a tax rate of just 1.25 percent over that period, when the statutory rate is 35 percent. Read article

Massive line clears way for wind projects

GREEN ENERGY: $700-million project completed
By JOHN MINER, The London Free Press

Completion of the biggest transmission line project in Ontario in 20 years clears an important hurdle for a series of massive wind turbine projects in Southwestern Ontario, including eight within 70 kilometres of London.

Completed six months ahead of schedule, the $700-million Bruce to Milton transmission project will allow electricity to flow from refurbished reactors at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, and from wind and solar projects that have received conditional contracts under Ontario’s green energy program.

They sound homey — they aren’t

By JOHN MINER, The London Free Press
GREEN ENERGY: Don’t be fooled by the names of many of the massive wind farms sprouting up across Southwestern Ontario. There’s a local ring to them, but they’re actually owned by multinationals as far-flung as Calgary, Florida and China, to name a few. John Miner reports.

The names have a comforting, familiar ring — Adelaide, Bluewater, Goshen, Bornish. Jericho.

But if you’re looking for who controls the massive wind farms under development in this part of Ontario, you won’t find their head office anywhere close to their local namesakes.

While incorporated as separate companies with local-sounding names, the real control of these wind farms resides in Juno Beach, Fla., home to NextEra Energy, the third largest nuclear power company in the U.S. and the largest industrial wind company in North America.

NextEra Energy owns Florida Power and Light and NextEra Energy Resources, which owns NextEra Energy Canada. It, in turn, owns the planned Adelaide Wind Farm, as well as neighbouring Bornish, Goshen and Jericho.

It’s a similar story for much of the fresh wave of wind farms that have won contracts with the Ontario government.

NextEra Goshen Wind Meetings – May 29,30

NextEra public meeting notice to update on proposed changes regarding a transmission line for the project.

Project to consist of 63 1.6MW turbines (project documents)

Date:    May 29
Time:   4-7PM
Place:  South Huron Recreation Centre 94 Victoria St. East, Exeter MAP

Date:     May 30
Time:    4-7PM
Place:    Stanley Complex 38594A Mill Rd., Varna MAP

Concerned citizens attend wind turbine meeting

February 22, 2012 Scott Nixon– Exeter Times

GRAND BEND – Those interested and concerned about the several large-scale wind turbine projects planned for the region packed the Grand Bend Public School gym last Thursday for an information meeting presented by the Middlesex-Lambton Wind Action Group (MLWAG).

Guest speakers presented information on the health concerns of humans living near wind turbines, the impact on the environment, real estate values and electrical pollution.

MLWAG is appealing the Zephyr Wind Development in the Watford area and member Muriel Allingham kicked off the meeting by noting that 422 industrial wind turbines are planned for Huron County, with 250 in Lambton Shores, including 48 in the Grand Bend area. She said the turbines are taller than a 50-storey building.
“These things are quite big monstrosities.”

Of the concerns some members of the public have about large wind farms is the potential of the harm the turbines will do to their health. On that note, the Michaud family of Thamesville spoke about how their health has been affected since turbines were erected near their hobby farm.

The family built their home in 2006, discovering in 2009 that turbines were planned for the area. Within two days of the new turbines going online, Lisa Michaud was in the emergency room with vertigo. She has experienced sleep deprivation from the constant sound of the turbines and has a constant ringing in her ears, along with pain.

Grand Bend gets the Wind Turbine virus too (111 of ’em)

If you take a look at the NextEra map for the 63 wind turbine “Goshen Wind” project, you wouldn’t even think the turbines would be larger than a pin head. And conveniently the dots are green…. the same colour as the background. So I helped the company out and put some colourful turbines in myself – I know, they shhould pay me.

While I was at it, I thought you might also like to see the 48 “Grand Bend Wind” turbines that are proposed by Northland Power. Cottagers, while you were worried about the turbines in the lake, these monsters were creeping up behind you on land.