Blog Archives
NexTerror Wind and Rural Fear
by Harvey Wrightman
The Liberal party, engaged in a collective effort of navel-gazing, is puzzled as to why rural residents have such irrational fear of the great green future planned for them – all the prospective leadership candidates affirm that the wind energy program will proceed as planned.
One of the newest wrinkles to the wind program is now coming to light. The 300 or so wind turbines planned for north east Lambton, north west Middlesex and southern Huron Counties require transmission lines to get to Hydro’s 500kv main line some 40 km away. The wind companies, in their typical corporate arrogance, planned their projects first, leaving transmission details for later, never anticipating that things here would be any different than they are in Kansas or Missouri where you send out your “landmen” (that’s what this particular breed of slime is called) to offer a few dollars for the easements required – and the poles are up before anyone even knows about it. Almost everything on private land so there are no hassles with municipal or State bureaucrats. So, we can do the same thing here, right? – Well, not exactly. Read the rest of this entry
Nextera: “historically stray voltage comes from hanging lines.”
By Laura MacDuff, The Post, Hanover
DURHAM – The Municipality of West Grey met with NextEra energy at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting. As part of the approval process for the wind turbines planned for just outside of Durham, NextEra needs to make consultation with West Grey. This began on Monday. Questions by council were answered by Derek Dudek, community relations consultant for NextEra, and Adam Rickel, project manager of the Durham project. NextEra also hired a West Grey police officer to be present at the council meetings, to ensure the safety of all people at the meeting.
Mayor Kevin Eccles said to NextEra that council is elected to represent the people. He said that the vast majority of people within West Grey don’t want the turbines in their municipality. He said that was why West Grey passed a resolution saying that West Grey will not be a willing host to the turbines.
“We hope that we’re providing them with accountable information that will ease their concerns with respect to the centre,” Dudek answered.
Councillor Bev Cutting made it clear to the NextEra representatives that West Grey would be getting their own independent peer review done by West Grey, at a cost to NextEra. She said that all of those proposing a project have to have it reviewed by an independent peer reviewer and that the company proposing a project always pays.
The mayor questioned the company to do tests about stray voltage around the turbines. “Would that not be a proactive thing for the company to do?” Mayor Eccles said he had heard stories of stray voltage in and around the Ripley wind turbines and the Kincardine ones. Adam Rickel said that there is a lesser risk for stray voltage because the cables are buried underground. He said that “historically stray voltage comes from hanging lines.” Read the rest of this entry
Anti-wind groups watching transmission line battle
by Heather Wright, Sarnia This Week
Middlesex Lambton Wind Action is closely watching talks between Middlesex County and NextEra Energy. NextEra has several wind projects in Middlesex and Lambton County. It’s planning to build transmission lines to carry the energy created by the turbines in southern Ontario and it wants to build them on municipal and county right of ways.
NextEra recently went to Middlesex County Council to talk about the plan. Draft documents from the Jericho project, with 92 turbines in Lambton Shores and Warwick, show the transmission lines would also stretch into Lambton County. Lambton County Councilors recently gave county staff authority to negotiate with wind energy companies about access to county right of ways.
Esther Wrightman of Middlesex Lambton Wind Action says NextEra wants to build a separate line of polls to carry the energy being produced because Hydro One would not allow NextEra’s lines on their poles. In some areas, that could mean Hydro One poles on one side of the road and NextEra’s on the other.
“A good portion of our county roads will have poles on each side of the road,” she says. “You just double the chance of hitting a pole (in an accident) by putting poles on the other side of the road, too.” Middlesex County engineers have asked NextEra to come back to the county with plans from an engineer. Wrightman is pleased, saying the transmission lines will have a devastating effect on the landscape of rural Ontario.
“They will be running by people’s homes, near schools; it is very invasive, it is going to drastically change the community.” She’s also concerned about the infrastructure left behind “white elephants with transmission lines running down your road” she calls them, should the energy companies pull the turbines out of service. Read the rest of this entry
MLWAG 