Archive for April, 2010
Video Footage of Wind Concerns Ontario Rally at Queen’s Park
Below is a video put together by www.mykawartha.com from footage shot at the very successful Wind Concerns Ontario rally held on the front lawn on Queen’s Park on April 28th 2010. I’ve never been so proud to be part with such an amazing citizen action group.
This second video is an excellent photo montage from after the speeches and music wrapped up and hundreds of members of Wind Concerns Ontario and I marched down University Avenue to my appointment with the Ontario Power Authority Board of Directors. We were 25 minutes late, were met with a wall of security and folks who wouldn’t even answer a phone call asking them to come downstairs to talk.
No Comments »CP: McGuinty rejects call to delay wind power projects
CP: McGuinty rejects call to delay wind power projects
The Canadian Press
TORONTO — There’s no evidence of negative health impacts from industrial wind turbines used to generate electricity, so there’s no need for a moratorium on wind projects in Ontario, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday.
About 250 people from across the province rallied outside the legislature to ask the province to impose a moratorium on new projects until possible impacts on human health have been studied. They warned McGuinty that the Liberals will pay a political price for not listening.
“This government has ignored our concerns far too long,” said John Laforet of Wind Concerns Ontario.
“We’re growing, getting bigger every day, and they (will) have one hell of a problem at the ballot box in two years.”
Wind turbines have been used for decades to generate electricity without any serious health implications, so Ontario won’t postpone or delay new projects, said McGuinty.
“It’s not reasonable in the circumstances,” he said.
“We’re going to have to make some new electricity, and I think one of the best ways we can do that — as long as we do it responsibly — is by harnessing the power of the wind.”
The province must rely more on renewable forms of energy so it can completely eliminate the use of coal to generate electricity by 2014, added McGuinty.
The protesters were upset the province was overriding the concerns of local councils across Ontario after dozens of communities passed resolutions calling for a moratorium on the wind projects.
“We know what’s happening in this province is wrong. We know the Green Energy Act took away our rights,” Laforet said to cheers from the crowd.
“We know this industry is threatening the health of many, that there are many who are harmed and have no recourse, and we’re here to say that has to stop.”
It’s not so much the fact the government is bringing in wind turbines, it’s the way they’re bringing them in, said Barry Williams of Toronto.
“It’s just ramroded through with absolutely no consideration for the surrounding environment,” said Williams. “It’s just nasty.”
The Progressive Conservatives vowed to fight on behalf of those opposed to the wind projects, and said the Liberal government should not override the wishes of local councils who don’t want the giant turbines in their communities.
“We were shocked the government would go to that extent to force their agenda onto people,” said opposition critic John Yakabuski.
“It is a shame what is being done in the name — they say — of green energy. Quite frankly, it is in the name of a Liberal political agenda and it is wrong.”
Ontario has “the most rigorous standards in North America and some of the toughest in the world” for wind turbines,” said McGuinty.
Energy Minister Brad Duguid and Environment Minister John Gerretsen also dismissed the concerns of the protesters and said there was no scientific evidence to suggest wind turbines cause health problems.
With Ontario’s requirement of a 500-metre setback from the nearest homes, noise from the turbines isn’t an issue either, said Gerretsen, who can see about 60 of them off shore from his Kingston home.
“If you live next to the 400 series highways in Ontario, you will be subjected to a lot more kinds of noise than you ever will from wind turbines, from my own personal perception and from the studies that we’ve done,” sad Gerretsen.
The protesters said this wasn’t just an Ontario issue but a global one, and noted new groups opposing industrial wind turbines were forming almost daily in places as far away as Japan and Germany.
No Comments »Toronto Sun: Premier suggests wind turbine foes full of hot air
Toronto Sun: Premier suggests wind turbine foes full of hot air
By ANTONELLA ARTUSO, QUEEN’S PARK BUREAU CHIEF
About 250 opponents of wind turbines blasted the Dalton McGuinty government over its decision to override municipalities in locating the electricity generators.
The protest Wednesday outside Queen’s Park coincided with a Conservative MPP’s motion in the Ontario Legislature for a moratorium on wind turbines until possible health effects are studied.
Premier Dalton McGuinty said he doesn’t believe it’s reasonable to delay the implementation of the green energy source.
“Wind turbines have been up and running for decades in dozens if not hundreds of other jurisdictions,” he said. “We’re relatively late coming to electricity generation by means of wind power.”
McGuinty said Ontario’s standards for turbines, including setbacks from residential homes, are the most rigorous in North America and among the toughest in the world.
Wind power is needed if the government is to proceed with its plan to phase out coal-fired electricity generation, he said.
Tory MPP John Yakabuski, author of the moratorium motion, asked the government to give municipalities planning authority over industrial wind projects.
“We were shocked that the government would go to that kind of extent to force their agenda on to people,” he said.
John Laforet, president of Wind Concerns Ontario and a municipal election candidate in Scarborough, told protesters the provincial Green Energy Act took away the democratic rights of citizens.
“If 435 municipalities in Ontario can be trusted to plan virtually everything but wind power we have to ask why that is — what makes this industry so special that they don’t need to be governed by the rule of law?” he said.
Laforet said the anti-wind turbine movement is gaining traction in Ontario and around the world and is bound to have political repercussions for the McGuinty government at the next provincial election.
“They have one hell of a problem at the ballot box in two years,” Laforet said.
No Comments »
