NextEra Energy uses over 800 metric tons of concrete per wind turbine
Daily Commercial News
Ontario’s concrete industry has been enjoying the benefits of the province’s efforts to construct more wind energy and turbines. Concrete has been the material of choice to use as the foundation for wind towers, according the NextEra Energy, one of the largest wind and solar energy developers in North America.
“Given its durability, resilience and continuously improving environmental footprint, concrete can play an important role in building sustainable infrastructure,” said the Cement Association of Canada in a statement to the Daily Commercial News. “Enabling the deployment of sustainable energy by providing an important building material for wind turbines is one exciting example. Concrete also provides added economic benefits to communities where these turbines are built since concrete is always produced locally.”
NextEra Energy uses over 800 metric tons of concrete for each turbine they construct, with investments worth $1.7 billion and 8 wind projects in Ontario, also adding more jobs in the concrete industry. Read article
Mayor still confident in wind turbine stance
Paul Morden, Sarnia Observer
Plympton-Wyoming officials plan to consult with their lawyer over a recent court ruling that went against another Ontario municipality’s two-kilometre setback for wind turbines. Plympton-Wyoming is being sued by Suncor Energy over wind turbine provisions in its bylaws, including one that also calls for a two-kilometre setback.
The province only requires wind turbines be built at least 550-metres away from neighbouring properties and its Green Energy Act took planning approval powers for renewable energy projects away from municipalities. A Superior Court of Ontario judge ruled Friday the setback bylaw in the Niagara-area municipality of Wainfleet Township is invalid.
“We’ll be meeting, sooner than later, with our legal team and get some advice as to where we should go from here,” said Plympton-Wyoming Mayor Lonny Napper. “I don’t think it would change our stance any.
“I think we felt very confident with the way we presented our bylaws.” Suncor plans to build as many as 62 wind turbines in Plympton-Wyoming, Lambton Shores and Warwick Township as part of its Cedar Point Wind Power project. Read article
Enniskillen mayor skeptical of openness on Green Energy Act
Manitoulin Expositor
During the Ontario Liberal leadership campaign, Kathleen Wynne promised to give municipalities across Ontario more say when it comes to wind farms, after the Green Energy Act of 2009 took that power completely away. To date my correspondence with the new premier leads me to believe that she is not planning to live up to that promise. It would seem that the common trend of making promises during campaigns and then reneging on those promises once in power is happening yet again.
On March 26 Lisa Thompson MPP (Huron-Bruce) introduced a private member’s bill called “Ensuring Affordable Energy Act” which would give municipalities like ours, and many others, democracy back where it belongs. The residents of many communities have been torn apart by whether or not to build wind turbines in their neighbourhoods. Whether or not you believe that wind turbines are the right answer to Ontario’s future energy needs, there are communities that are willing hosts and there are communities who are not.
There is much anticipation that on April 18, 2013, both Liberal and NDP members will support a return to democracy in Ontario’s rural areas by supporting this bill. With the political climate at Queen’s Park if these two parties do not support this bill, then a spring election would be more than welcome. This is not a bill that concerns whether or not Ontario should support green energy; it’s about having something very important and fundamental to Canadians restored and maintained, namely democracy.
I strongly suggest everyone to contact their MPP and ask them to support this very important piece of legislation.
Kevin Marriott
Mayor Township of Enniskillen
Bluewater asks County Health Unit for health study on wind turbines
Lakeshore Advance
At Bluewater’s April 2 meeting, councillors passed a motion to ask the Huron County Health Unit to undertake an independent health study on industrial wind turbines. In a phone interview last week, Councillor John Gillespie said the request would take the form of a letter to the Health Unit, which will be made public after municipal staff draft it.
“We’ll wait and see what comes from the Health Unit,” he said adding, the organization’s mandate says it will investigate concerns of the community through research studies, but ultimately it will be up to the organization to decide if it is something they can do. “It was an idea I had in relation to the role of what the Health Unit might be able to do in relation to industrial wind turbines,” explained Gillespie. “With the mounting evidence locally and in southwestern Ontario with residents living close to wind turbines having issues like sleep deprivation because of low frequency noise and shadow flicker, I thought it would be good to examine the issue on a broader scale,” he said.
Bluewater has three wind turbine developments proposed for the municipality, which are at various stages in the Ministry of the Environment’s renewable energy approval process. “It was appropriate to ask under the circumstances,” he added. Read article
C-K residents living in shadow of industrial wind turbines resort to drastic measures
Chatham Daily News
David Libby has lived on Golf Course Line outside Ridgetown for nearly 20 years. He built his brick home with ceramic tiled floors in the kitchen and dining room. A decision, all these years later, that is helping him sleep in his basement at night.
In December 2010, two industrial wind turbines began operating a few hundred metres to the south of his property. The noise coming from their direction was waking him up at night. “I tried six different kinds of insulation to block out the noise through my bedroom windows,” said Libby. Sheets of one-inch Styrofoam and thick corrugated cardboard still cover his upstairs bedroom windows. “It helped,” he said. But, he says he gets his best sleep now in the basement. “I’m lucky I have nearly an inch of cement in my floors to help deaden the sound,” he said.
A neighbour isn’t as fortunate. Mike, who asked his last name not be published, has lived on Shewburg Line for over 20 years. “I would lie there wide awake (at night in bed),” said Mike. He too has moved a mattress into his unfinished basement to try to get a better night’s sleep. But rest still doesn’t come easy without sleeping pills, said Mike. Read article
Suncor Adelaide project up for 45 day comment period
Environmental Registry
Description of Instrument:
This posting is for a proposed Renewable Energy Approval by Suncor Energy Products Inc., for the Suncor Energy Adelaide Wind Power Project, proposed to be located in the Township of Adelaide Metcalfe, County of Middlesex, Ontario. This is a Class 4 wind facility with a total expected generation capacity of 40 megawatts (MW).
The proposed facility is considered to be a Class 4 wind facility under Ontario Regulation 359/09 (O. Reg.359/09) Renewable Energy Approvals under Part V.0.1 of the Environmental Protection Act. Applications for Renewable Energy Approvals are required to be submitted in accordance with O.Reg.359/09 for consideration for approval.
Other Information:
This comment period is for the public to review the proposal and provide comments and input directly to the ministry.
Public Consultation:
This proposal has been posted for a 45 day public review and comment period starting April 15, 2013. If you have any questions, or would like to submit your comments, please do so by May 30, 2013 to the individual listed under “Contact”. Additionally, you may submit your comments on-line.
All comments received prior to May 30, 2013 will be considered as part of the decision-making process by the Ministry of the Environment if they are submitted in writing or electronically using the form provided in this notice and reference EBR Registry number 011-8848.
Please Note: All comments and submissions received will become part of the public record. You will not receive a formal response to your comment, however, relevant comments received as part of the public participation process for this proposal will be considered by the decision maker for this proposal.
MPP McNaughton Pushes For Reply To Unanswered Wind Letters
April 15, 2013
PC MPP Delivered Hundreds of Unanswered Letters to Minister of Energy Today.
(Queen’s Park, ON) - Lambton-Kent-Middlesex PC MPP Monte McNaughton is pressing new Liberal Minister of Energy Bob Chiarelli to respond to hundreds of unanswered letters and emails from constituents and residents across Ontario. McNaughton delivered the file of unanswered letters to Chiarelli in the house this morning.
“Coming from a family business and one where customer service is paramount, I find this to be completely and totally unacceptable,” said MPP McNaughton. “Our constituents deserve answers, especially when they have taken the time to write and express their concerns or ask important questions. For a minister of the crown to simply choose to ignore these letters is not acceptable and is not right.”
The letters raise important questions and concerns about the Liberal efforts to encourage further development of industrial wind turbines. MPP McNaughton and the Ontario PCs continue to push for changes to the Liberals failed green energy act and costly FIT program. McNaughton will support MPP Lisa Thompson’s Bill 39 the ‘Ensuring Affordable Energy Act, 2013’ when it comes to a vote on April 18.
“Tim Hudak and the Ontario PCs are the only party fighting to halt further wind turbine development,” said McNaughton. “I have heard from thousands of people from across Lambton-Kent-Middlesex and they have told me loud and clear that they would like a pause, a moment to stop and consider these developments prior to more shovels breaking ground.”
As outlined in the Ontario PC policy white paper Paths to Prosperity: Affordable Energy, McNaughton and the PCs propose winding down the provinces Feed-in-Tariff Program (FIT), immediately halting all new projects still in the approval queue and stop contracting for power we don’t need, at prices Ontario residents cannot afford
Monte’s letter to the Minister of Energy regarding unanswered mail
NextEra’s Next Nest – near Parkhill
I spy with my little eye something that will NEVER AGAIN be removed by a wind developer in Ontario. An eagle nest. Over my dead body, NexTerror.
When the community labels Nextera “NexTerror” and “NextError”, it isn’t for just any old reason. Perhaps parody is ingrained in Canadians, and this is why Nextera has earned itself yet another new name: NESTerror. We watched the take down of the eagle’s nest in Haldimand, and literally vowed never again.
So this weekend some pictures of two bald eaglea and their nest were sent to me by a local resident. This nest is in the Nextera Bornish Wind Project (@ Kerwood Rd & Elginfield Rd), close to wind turbines (634m), and very close (187m) to the massive switchyard for the Bornish, Adelaide, Jericho and Cedar Point Wind Projects— a total of 221 turbines for Middlesex and Lambton counties. The Bornish and Adelaide projects are scheduled to be approved by the MOE this month.
The Haldimand nest destruction was not a ‘one-off’, I’m sure of that, even though Nextera rep Tom Bird told us, “I absolutely don’t want to do that again.” Not even a month after they took down the nest in Haldimand county, they were eying up one in Middlesex county.
Looking through Nextera’s website I came across these recent addendums from February, 2013:
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
Anti-wind activist “won’t back down” as NextEra threatens legal action
Heather Wright, Sarnia Lambton Independent
Esther Wrightman says she’s not about to be silenced in her fight against wind turbines in her community. Wrightman, a member of Middlesex Lambton Wind Action Group, recently received a Cease and Desist order from NextEra Energy after altering the company’s logo to make it read Next-terror and NextError on signs and videos.
“This use of the NextEra logo is unsanctioned, in violation of NextEra’s intellectual property rights and defamatory, especially in conjunction with the video makers’ disparaging comments about NextEra,” Awanish Sinha of McCarthy Tetrault law firm in Toronto writes to Wrightman. “While NextEra recognizes your right to object to its projects and to express your opinions regarding wind power and provincial policies regarding green energy, you do not have a right to utilize its name and logo in any manner or to defame the company.” Sinha writes company officials tried a half dozen times to talk to the activist by phone about their concerns, but weren’t able to reach her. When Wrightman added NextTerror Bullies Canada Inc. to a blog, Sinha says the company felt it had to take legal action. “The latest manipulation of NextEra’s logo has compelled NextEra to take this action and stop this escalating abuse.”
The company told Wrightman to remove all uses of the alter logos on the Middlesex Lambton Wind Action Group and Ontario Wind Resistance blogs. It also calls for two videos – one of company workers removing a bald eagle’s nest which was in the way of a new project in Haldimand County. Wrightman says that video and another of a company official telling protestors the Ministry of the Environment gave permission for the nest to be cut, have been viewed thousands of times and have shocked people. “I really believe it has more to do with them wanting the eagle nest video down,” she says. Wrightman believes the letter is simply a threat that the company uses with people who don’t agree with their projects. Read article
Bill 39: Ensuring Affordable Energy Act on April 18th
Date: April 18
Time: 3:30pm-3:45pm
Place: Queen’s Park, Toronto
Hello:
I am writing to you today to inform you that I will be debating Bill 39, the Ensuring Affordable Energy Act on April 18th.
This bill contains six key pillars:
- Wind turbines will only be placed in willing host communities, and municipalities will be given full veto over wind turbine projects in their communities;
- Wind power must be affordable—meaning the cost per kilowatt hour must line up with other sources of generation;
- The costly feed-in tariff (FIT) program will be eliminated;
- Municipalities will have the ability to decide whether or not they want to promote wind energy;
- The Niagara Escarpment and the Oak Ridges Moraine will be protected from wind turbines; and
- Municipalities will receive their planning powers for renewable energy back
I know that issues with wind turbines are important to you. This is why I am inviting you to join myself, and the PC’s for second reading debate on this important piece of legislation. It is estimated that debate would begin on this bill at approximately 3:30-3:45.
If you would like to attend second reading debate, please RSVP directly to Ashley Hammill in my office at ashley.hammill@pc.ola.org. RSVP’s are necessary as security needs to have the names forwarded to them prior to your arrival.
The Ontario PC Party and I appreciate your ongoing support, and we will work hard to ensure this bill is passed.
Regards,
Lisa Thompson, MPP
Enniskillen will wait to impose a two km zone for wind turbines
Heather Wright, Sarnia Lambton Independent
Enniskillen Township politicians say they’re considering a bylaw to keep wind turbines two kilometers from homes. But Mayor Kevin Marriott says council is waiting to see what happens with two prominent cases in the Ontario courts before acting. There are three wind energy companies going door-to-door in the municipality trying to sign farmers to wind leases. The projects could mean up to 51 turbines in the community.
A new group, CORE – Conservation of Rural Enniskillen – has been formed to encourage residents not to sign on, making it difficult for the wind companies to get the land base they need. So far, the companies have not secured contracts with the provincial government to sell power.
That’s why Marriott and his council told members of CORE at a recent council meeting they’re taking their time on imposing a two kilometer limit – which would be directly opposed to provincial law. Marriott says communities such as Wainfleet and Plympton-Wyoming which imposed the limit are facing legal challenges and are currently in court. A decision on the Wainfleet two kilometer set back is expected in weeks.
“When we hear that decision we thought we’d be in a better position to proceed with setback (requirements) like Plympton-Wyoming’s,” says Marriott adding a larger exclusion zone would be one of the best ways to stop wind projects in the community. “Two kilometers would pretty well eliminate any place in rural Lambton,” says Marriott. Read article
Nextera, Suncor – Answers needed to questions about OUR schools & YOUR wind turbines
Dear Nextera, Suncor, Media and School Board trustees,
I am quite upset to see incorrect and confusing numbers reported in the media as to how many and how close wind turbines are to be from the schools in Lambton County. It is not the media’s fault.
Nextera, Suncor: I have reviewed wind project noise documents for 4 years – I should be competent in it by now. But I find I am tearing my hair out reviewing the documents, trying to find the exact noise, and distances turbines are to the schools in your projects.
Currently, my frustration stems from:
- The Bosanquet elementary school does not even have a Receptor ID on the project draft map.
- The hundreds of receptor ID’s are not numerically ordered in the noise chart – and I honestly can’t even find the school ID (or in this case, it’s neighbour’s, because it doesn’t have an ID).
- At the wind developer meetings, the schools are not even identified on the large maps. Security was called over when I wrote “school” on the map location for others to be able to see. How’s THAT for informing the public?? No wonder the media doesn’t know the true numbers… Read the rest of this entry
LKDSB sending letter to premier and other ministers
[Ed note: the school board plans to have a presentation and a workshop with Dr. David Colby - This UNACCEPTABLE.]
Chatham Daily News
The Lambton Kent District School Board plans to inform the Ontario government some industrial wind turbines are being constructed near two of its elementary schools in Lambton County. Trustee Jane Bryce was successful in having a majority of trustees accept her motion during Tuesday’s board meeting in Chatham that a letter be sent to Premier Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Deb Matthews and Minister of Education Liz Sandals. She wants the letter to make them aware that provincial government of approval has been granted for two wind projects being build near the two schools.
She said five turbines are approved to go up near Aberarder Central School between Camlachie and Forest and another four turbines are to be built near Bosanquet Central School in Lambton Shores. Bryce questioned if the LKDSB were looking for a site for a new school “we probably wouldn’t put in the middle of where industrial turbines are.” She said she just wants to make sure the premier and ministers are aware of this situation, considering the number of people who have been asking for a moratorium on the construction of industrial wind turbines over potential impacts on human health.
Bryce raised the issue, which was discussed during a delegation to the board of trustees at the March 26 meeting about NextEra Jericho Wind Project near Aberarder or Suncor’s Cedar Point Wind Power Project near Bosanquet. Read article
Suncor moving ahead with wind power project
By Paul Morden, Sarnia Observer
A Plympton-Wyoming residents’ group fighting Suncor’s Cedar Point Wind Power project says it has more than 700 signed objection letters, and it isn’t finished collecting them yet. We’re Against Industrial Turbines Plympton-Wyoming (WAIT-PW) collected the letters at three open houses Suncor held last week into its plans to build a 100-megawatt wind farm in Plympton-Wyoming, Lambton Shores and Warwick Township.
WAIT-PW’s Ingrid Willemsen and Keith Watson delivered the letters to Suncor officials at the final open house in Watford, and asked the company to cancel the project. While the Suncor official they spoke with didn’t give any indication that would happen, “she definitely looks like she feels the pressure from the community,” Willemsen said. “I don’t know how they could turn a blind eye to so much protest.”
Members of WAIT-PW, as well as the Middlesex Lambton Wind Action Group and Conservation of Rural Enniskillen, a newly formed anti-wind turbine group in Enniskillen Township, were at the open houses also held in Camlachie and Thedford to rally against the company’s plans. Read article
Former mayor joins anti-wind turbine group
By Paul Morden, Sarnia Observer
It was the Ontario government’s decision to close the Lambton Generating Station that convinced Larry O’Neill to tear up his Liberal Party membership card. The veteran municipal politician in Enniskillen Township, past county warden, former provincial Liberal candidate and long-time party worker calls himself an independent these days.
The Liberal government’s decision to shut down the coal-fired plant didn’t make sense to O’Neill, just like its Green Energy Act and its rush to build wind farms in rural communities doesn’t make sense to the retired farmer and Chemical Valley worker who spent 16 years in municipal politics.
“I’m just boggled by it,” O’Neill said. “This has got very little to do with a clean environment for Ontario, and it’s got all to do with big money.” He’s worried about the impact wind turbines have on the health of people living next to them. “The question I have for the people who say there’s no health issue with them, is, ‘Would they want a house within 500 metres of one of them?’” O’Neill said he’s also concerned about the impact on residential property values, and the quality of life in rural communities. “I totally oppose the things.” Read article
Don’t look for justice in Ontario’s ‘debate’ on wind turbines
By: Anne McNeilly
It’s wealthy corporate behemoths supported by the government against vulnerable people with limited financial resources.
Toronto Star - When there’s social injustice, you don’t expect large corporations, the provincial government and a union like the CAW to be climbing into bed together to ignore the problem. But slap a motherhood label on the issue, such as the so-called“Green Energy” Act, and all of a sudden it’s OK to ignore the very real hardships, both health and financial, happening to people in non-Liberal ridings.
What’s more surprising about the wind-turbine debacle, though, is the relatively low media profile that Ontario residents who are being negatively affected by the monster machines are receiving. News outlets and publications usually lap up stories of social injustice. The problems associated with lead paint, urea-formaldehyde foam insulation, asbestos and cigarettes are all famous for the media attention they received that led to change.
But it was difficult even to find news stories last week about the wind turbine protest at the energy conference in downtown Toronto. People from across the province pooled their resources to hire buses to come to the city to try to draw attention to their plight. If there was a broadcast or a print story, I didn’t hear or see it.
And despite public outrage and protests, the Canadian Auto Workers’ union last week started operating a monster wind turbine, built with government subsidies, in its Port Elgin convention centre parking lot that violates the 550-metre Ontario setback regulations. Residents, particularly children, are already experiencing the sleepless nights, anxiety and migraines being experienced by others around the province. Who cares? Certainly not CAW president Ken Lewenza, who has secured a seat on the province’s wind gravy train. When I recently suggested to a colleague who works on a documentary radio show in Toronto that the problems with turbines were worth a story, she responded: “I think they (wind turbines) are beautiful.” And that was that. Read the rest of this entry
“Cease & Desist” for NexTerror Energy? No thanks.
March 22, 2013
Awanish Sinha, McCarthy Tetrault LLP
PO Box 48, Suite 5300, Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower, Toronto, ON M5K 1E6
Dear Mr. Sinha,
Re: CEASE & DESIST DEMAND ON BEHALF OF NEXTERA ENERGY CANADA, ULC (“NextEra”)
Thank you for the letter dated March 20, 2013 that was dropped between my doors the other day.
The reason I (and “we” the communities in rural Ontario) are referring to your client Nextera as “Nexterror”, is that we feel it is “fair comment” considering this companies actions and behaviour in the past and present in our communities.
We believe that Nextera creates “errors” and “terrors” in our community, and that these facts are well known to the public and therefore these facts are notorious.
At the same time, we have published these facts on our website: Ontario Wind Resistance. They include:
Terror:
Eagle Nest/ Wildlife destruction
-The “First Video” clearly shows the destruction of an eagles nest.
-The “Second Video” shows Tom Bird of Nextera saying, “The authorization we got from the ministry of natural resources was to destroy this nest”.
Clearly this is terrorizing the community when 18 men with chainsaws and bulldozers descend on, and proceed to cut down an active eagles nest. Even those in favour of turbines are horrified by this despicable action.
You have no right to ask that these movies be removed, and in fact you did not give a single reason as to why you thought the “Second Video” should be removed, as “Nexterror” does not appear on it anywhere. It seems that Nextera would just like to bury this incident and remove the evidence from Youtube.
Below are some of the numerous reports published on Nextera’s destruction of the eagle nest and other wildlife and their habitats:
- Video: Nextera workers remove Bald Eagle nest to put up wind turbines http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/01/08/video-nextera-workers-remove-bald-eagle-nest-to-put-up-wind-turbines/
- Video: Nextera Energy in damage control mode on Eagle Nest removal http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/01/11/video-nextera-energy-in-damage-control-mode-on-eagle-nest-removal/
- Nextera turbine within 100m of active bald eagle nest in Haldimand County http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2012/11/27/nextera-turbine-within-100m-of-active-bald-eagle-nest-in-haldimand-county/
- Wind turbine company Nextera & MNR destroy Bald Eagle Nest & habitat http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/01/08/wind-turbine-company-nextera-mnr-destroy-bald-eagle-nest-habitat/
- Nextera California Wind Project Kills Eagle One Month After Startup http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/02/20/nextera-california-wind-project-kills-eagle-one-month-after-startup/
- Six Nations shocked NextEra takes eagles nest cuts down tree http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/01/10/six-nations-shocked-nextera-takes-eagles-nest-cuts-down-tree/
- One option only: be proactive & remove NextEra/Summerhaven Wind LP from Ontario http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/01/09/one-option-only-be-proactive-remove-nexterasummerhaven-wind-lp-from-ontario/
- Nextera ordered to pay $2.5 million and replace turbines to reduce raptor deaths http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2010/12/08/nextera-ordered-to-pay-2-5-million-and-replace-turbines-to-reduce-raptor-deaths/
- Energy company removes bald eagle nest to make way for wind turbine in Haldimand County http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/01/07/energy-company-removes-bald-eagle-nest-to-make-way-for-wind-turbine-in-haldimand-county/
- Wind turbine no-fly zone http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/03/15/wind-turbine-no-fly-zone/
- Southern Ontario Tundra Swan Spring Migration through wind projects http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/03/02/southern-ontarios-spring-migration-of-the-tundra-swans-through-the-wind-projects-has-begun/
- McGuinty’s legacy is a green nightmare http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/02/02/mcguintys-legacy-is-a-green-nightmare/
- HDI concerned with removal of eagle’s nest, no notification http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/01/17/hdi-concerned-with-removal-of-eagles-nest-no-notification/
- Bureaucrats ignored advice from biologist to leave eagle’s nest and move wind turbine in Haldimand County http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/01/13/bureaucrats-ignored-advice-from-biologist-to-leave-eagles-nest-and-move-wind-turbine-in-haldimand-county/
- PoV: No room for eagles in Green Energy Act? http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/01/11/pov-no-room-for-eagles-in-green-energy-act/
- Bald eagles versus industrial wind turbines http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/01/11/bald-eagles-versus-industrial-wind-turbines/
- “People have a lot of questions, and so do I” : Bird Studies Canada, Jody Allair http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/01/07/people-have-a-lot-of-questions-and-so-do-i-bird-studies-canada-jody-allair/
- Outrage in Haldimand over bald eagle nest removal http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/01/07/outrage-in-haldimand-over-bald-eagle-nest-removal/
- MNR authorizes removal of Bald Eagle nest in Haldimand Wind Development!!! http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/01/04/mnr-authorizes-removal-of-bald-eagle-nest-in-haldimand-wind-development/
- Justifying deaths of birds and bats from wind projects – sends chills down spine http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2012/12/10/justifying-deaths-of-birds-and-bats-from-wind-projects-sends-chills-down-spine/
- Are birds and turbines on collision course? http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2012/10/10/are-birds-and-turbines-on-collision-course/
- Please Comment on NextEra Permit re Bobolink in Haldimand County http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2012/02/26/please-comment-on-nextera-permit-re-bobolink-in-haldimand-county/
Dear Kathleen, welcome home to Wind Turbine Watford
Dear Kathleen,
It just hit me- tonight is the final public meeting for the Suncor Cedar Point Wind Project in Watford. You know where Watford is – it’s where your rural roots are (right?). You always say it’s where your dad spent his summers, so you have inherited those, ah, ‘roots’… I guess. Or maybe just the boots.
In any case I thought I should at least tell you, you have missed almost all the community consultations for many a wind project in your dad’s old stomping grounds – I know, the notification sucks, that’s why most of us don’t know about the projects until they are practically built, so if you are unable to attend, I completely understand. You can always write the wind developer and complain that you weren’t properly notified. It wouldn’t change anything, but at least you can FEEL you’ve been part of the ‘process’, of being ignored.
Since you haven’t been to one of these meetings, and probably won’t get to the one tonight, I’ll tell you what it’s like. Actually, come to think of it, the meetings aren’t much different than the meetings we have had with you. Read the rest of this entry
Turbine opponents donate to town’s legal fight
Paul Morden, London Free Press
They’ve begun taking out their wallets and cheque books to help the town defend its wind turbine bylaws in court. About $3,000 in donations were collected by the group We’re Against Industrial Turbines – Plympton-Wyoming (WAIT-PW) when it held its own event Tuesday at a Suncor Energy Products public open house in Camlachie.
Suncor is seeking provincial approval to build as many as 46 wind turbines as part of its Cedar Point Wind Power project in Plympton-Wyoming, Lambton Shores and Warwick Township. At the same time, Suncor is suing Plympton-Wyoming over several of its bylaws, including a requirement that turbines be built at least 2 kilometres away from neighbouring homes. Ontario’s rules only require a 550-metre setback. Read article
Nexterror Energy sent me a ‘cease and desist demand’. What would you do?
“Offending” material:
Video: Wind turbine company Nextera & MNR destroy Bald Eagle Nest & Habitat in Haldimand Cty, ON
Video: Nextera Energy in damage control mode on Eagle Nest removal
Suncor risks reputation in fight for green
Chris Cooke, First Monday
Suncor Energy can tell us “renewable is part of its integrated energy strategy”. But the real strategy is to make money. And there is a lot of green in green. And that’s the only reason the energy giant is picking a fight with the residents and municipality of Plympton Wyoming.
Michael Southern, Suncor’s communications manager and general talking head can push the right buttons and say what seem like the right words, but the reality is it’s all about the money. When Suncor can sell wind power into the Ontario grid at twenty times coal – fired energy you know company executives are doing a happy dance all the way to the bank.
How lucrative is it? Lucrative enough that Suncor is prepared to put its local reputation at risk. Lucrative enough that the company is prepared to put giant wind turbines within sight of million dollar homes along Lake Huron. And Mr. Talking Head can tell those of us interested enough to ask a few questions that its all about renewable energy, being green and dutifully following the Green Energy Act. However, the reality is it is all about the money. Read article
Suncor picks fight over wind turbines in Plympton Wyoming
Chris Cooke, First Monday
Michael Southern says it is “rare step” for Suncor Energy to challenge a municipal bylaw but that’s exactly what the giant energy company is doing in Plympton Wyoming. Suncor wants to proceed with 46 huge wind turbines along the lakeshore east of Camlachie within sight of expensive homes and residential areas. Southern, manager, communications and stakeholder relations for Suncor says the company has listened to the concerns of residents and downsized the Cedar Point Wind Farm from 62 turbines to 46. “We are committed to working within valid bylaws and laws of the Province of Ontario” says Southern but in the case of Plympton Wyoming and Cedar Point admits “we may require discretion be provided by the courts”.
The turbines will be 99.5 metres high and have blades 56.5 metres long. Residents impacted by the project are enraged. However, they have an ally in Plympton Wyoming, which is challenging Cedar Point, and requiring industrial turbines be at least two kilometres from neighbouring homes. Read article
Autistic children cannot live near wind turbine projects
Lambton County, ON, North American Platform Against Wind Power
Today on World Autism Awareness Day, Sarah is worried. She is the mother of three autistic children. But Sarah’s concerns have been increased tenfold by the fact that applications have been filed for two industrial wind projects totaling over 130 turbines near her 36 acre farm in Lambton County. “It’s a haven of peace for my kids. My neighbours know them and look out for them if they stray,” says Sarah. “But I have researched the effects of wind turbines on autistic children and I am devastated. Who will look out for them now?”
Recently a survey by Davis and Steigler (2010) of over 17,000 children who have Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) shows that over 40% were “hypersensitive to sounds” and that “noise sensitivity is a particular problem” for children with ASD.
Stansfeld and Matheson (2003) note, “It is likely that children represent a group which is particularly vulnerable to the non-auditory health effects of noise … In view of the fact that children are still developing both physically and cognitively, there is a possible risk that exposure to an environmental stressor such as noise may have irreversible negative consequences for this group.”
It is acknowledged that noise emissions both auditory and non-auditory from wind turbines have particular characteristics which contribute to chronic sleep disturbance, stress, nausea and impaired cognition. Read the rest of this entry
Wind turbine fire near Goderich
CTV News
There will be one less wind turbine in Ontario. An overnight fire has destroyed the top portion of a wind turbine at the Kingsbridge Wind Farm near Goderich, Ont. The fire in the seven-year-old turbine began around 1 a.m. on Tuesday and had burned itself out about two hours later.
Dan Hayden of Kingsbridge Wind Farm Operations says “It has burnt itself out through the night and we have a team of specialists coming to do a root-cause analysis.” Neighbours speculate it was a mechanical or electrical problem because the blaze started where all the gears and electronics in the turbine are located. Hayden says while nothing can be ruled out, it’s unlikely a lightning strike or any kind of sabotage started the fire.
Dan Morgan lives near the turbine and witnessed the fire. He says he “saw an orange fireball a couple of miles from the front yard, so I thought I better investigate this,” before driving over to get a closer look. Read article
Farmers may offer Wynne their own boot
By Greg Van Moorsel, The London Free Press
Buying a hockey jersey with No. 99 on the back doesn’t make you Wayne Gretzky. Any couch potato will tell you. Wearing a Spider-Man mask and red-and-blue tights doesn’t confer Spidey’s powers on you. Even kids know better.
How, then, does slipping on a pair of bright red Wellington boots and walking around in barnyard muck make one an agriculture minister? The truth is, it doesn’t. It’s about time someone told Ontario’s rookie premier just that.
Two months ago, when she was sworn in as premier, Kathleen Wynne decided she’d do double duty — but only for a year — as the minister in charge of the province’s largest industry. Other premiers before have moonlighted, usually as intergovernmental affairs minister.
Wynne, however, would be different in the farm beat. While clinging to office by her fingernails, learning to be a premier and trying to hold a fragile minority government together, Dalton McGuinty’s successor would — what, on her lunch breaks? — also tend to a complicated industry that employs more than 700,000. Read article
Battle over turbines heating up this week
Paul Morden, Sarnia Observer
Keith Douglas and Elizabeth Bellavance call themselves “very private people” who didn’t expect to become anti-industrial wind turbine activists. They both grew up in rural Lambton, became veterinarians and eventually moved in 1997 to a farm on Plympton-Wyoming’s Aberarder Line. They were attracted by a view that rolls down to a creek and up a tree-covered hill. The farm’s workable acres are share-cropped but Douglas has also planted thousands of trees. Not far behind the house, the fence of a horse pasture stretches out from the barn and down the hill.
Mixed in with papers on a coffee table inside is an architect’s rendition of a new home the couple planned to build to take advantage of the view. “We let go of that plan last summer,” Bellavance said. About seven years before, a fellow came up their lane way looking for farmland to lease for a wind farm project.
Suncor Energy Projects has a Feed-In Tariff contract to sell energy from its up to 46-turbine Cedar Point Wind Power project. The company is now in the late stages of working through provincial approval to build the wind farm that will stretch across Plympton-Wyoming, Lambton Shores and into Warwick Township. “We didn’t just brush him off,” Bellavance said about the man who came offering a wind lease. “We had a look.” Read article
Sign petition to Wynne: Stop destruction of Tundra Swan migration habitat by wind turbines
Petition from the Friends of Tundra Swans – Please Sign Now!
The Honourable Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario
The Honourable Jim Bradley, Minister of the Environment, Province of Ontario
Tom Mitchell, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ontario Power Generation
Please stop the multiple wind turbine projects that will spell the destruction of the Tundra Swan migration habitat on the Thedford Bog near Grand Bend on Lake Huron.
March 24 2013- Thedford Bog, Lambton Shores – Nextera Jericho and Goshen Projects (92+64 turbines) will surround the bog.
As you know, every March 10,000-15,000 Tundra Swans migrate from the eastern USA seaboard to the Arctic tundra of Canada and Alaska. On their epic 6,500-kilometer migration the swans stop to rest and feed on the Thedford Bog flats and environs near Grand Bend on Lake Huron. The Thedford Bog area is a unique habitat ideally suited specifically for the migrating Tundra Swans, with its wide expanse of flat fields that feature large areas of ice, water and snow in March, providing safety and undisturbed quiet for resting, and food in the surrounding agricultural corn stubble fields for building strength. Tourists, photographers, bird watchers and outdoor enthusiasts flock to marvel at the spectacle of this annual migration every year. Read and SIGN Petition
Wind Turbine Info meeting in Ilderton – April 9
Ilderton meeting flyer
Date: April 9
Time: 7:30pm
Place: Ilderton Legion: 13152 Ilderton Rd, Ilderton MAP
Speakers:
Doug Pedlar is a Broker of Record for RE/MAX Bluewater Realty in the Grand Bend Area. Doug has many years as a respected Realtor within the community, and will speak on the effects that Industrial Wind Turbines currently have on property values, and how the Industrialization of the local community will impact its residents’ property values. Doug recently won the prestigious 2012 Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) Volunteer Leader Award for his work in educating real estate associations and the public on the potential negative impacts of wind turbines on human and animal health and on property values.
David Colling, a dairy farmer for 30 years in Ripley, ON, who has also been a dealer for Bio-Ag Consultants and Distributors since 1991. David studied Electrical Engineering at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, and currently uses his vast knowledge, throughout Ontario, to assess electrical pollution in homes, farms and businesses that are presently in the vicinity of Industrial Wind Turbines.
