Activist question why wind companies surveyed Rock Glen

Heather Wright, Sarnia-Lambton Independent
Muriel Allingham is questioning why the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority would allow wind energy companies to survey sensitive areas such as Rock Glen Conservation Area. Documents released by the authority released to Allingham, a member of Middlesex Lambton Wind Action, show a company called CanAcre, working for NextEra Energy on the Goshen and Jericho projects in Lambton and Middlesex, signed an agreement with the ABCA to have access to conservation land for field studies. Rock Glen Conservation Area in Arkona was among the nine tracts of land surveyed.

Conservation Authority General Manager Tom Proutt says the agreements were signed two-years ago, before there was wide-spread concern for the project. He says the company offered to survey the land and do an inventory of the plants and wildlife. “The agreements that wind energy companies had asked us for were part of their environmental studies they were doing,” says Proutt. “They were looking at our properties in terms of what was there and that was information that we would find useful because we don’t have the time or money to inventory our lands.”

But Allingham says the conservation authority should have known the companies were looking to use the lands – a use she says would not be appropriate. “Conservation lands are just that and it (wind energy projects) displaces wildlife and their mandate is to protect land and wildlife. Read article

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.

Join April 3rd UN-FiT PROTEST in Toronto!!

Recent FiT changes are an insult to rural Ontario
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

Gather@11:30    Speakers@12:00     March@12:30
   

Dalton’s benefactors are coming to Toronto to the FIT Forum.  The multinational wind energy companies benefiting from excessive Liberal government subsidies and lax regulation will be at the Feed’in Trough (FIT), with their plans to transform the landscape, the community vibrancy and homes of rural Ontario into an immense wind ghetto.    

In response, Rural Ontario is planning a massive protest. 

Directions:  Simcoe Park on Front Street, beside CBC building, opposite Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MAP) where the FIT Convention is being held.  From the main lobby of Union Station (look for signs to railway and GoTrain station to get to main lobby), exit at Front Street, go west (left) on Front St. past York St.  and Lower Simcoe St.  Simcoe Park is about 300 meters further west right next to the CBC building on the north side of Front St.

Take a coach from: 
Strathroy, London:   $30.00 – Contact  windactiongroup@gmail.com
Grand Bend, Exeter: $30.00 – Contact Dave at dgriffi1661@rogers.com or call 519-660-1152