Posts Tagged ‘OSEA’
Wind Welfare Warriors Just Don’t Get It (But Thank God They’re Losing)
I would be lying if I said I was surprised the Ontario Liberals and their paid for lackeys at the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association and Environmental Defense had conniption fits and went to the Twitter-verse to vent their spleens about how awful/ignorant/evil/cruel anyone who would dare get in the way of their access to our wallets must be.
That said, the number of folks who were tweeting for their jobs over the last two days, hammering Tim Hudak for standing up for those of us who don’t support giving these guys and their special interest partners the farm - has been a small but spirited bunch. Their utter lies and misrepresentations are frustrating to read. But it’s a good thing no one is listening to them anymore. Folks using the hashtag #comeclean are the equivelent of a handful of people standing in a circle screaming obsenities at the top of their lungs about someone who isn’t present and won’t hear them in front of an audience made up entirely of other participants standing in the same circle who hold the same view and are saying ‘I know, right?’.
Claiming that Samsung is investing $7 billion in Ontario for a mere $500 million in incentives is just plain untrue. No business would ever do that and considering wind energy is 100% subsidized by the taxpayer it will surely be costing us far more than $7 billion (this is a whole article itself). Suggesting their are thousands of jobs on the line isn’t true either. The jobs just don’t actually exist. Industry and government both admitted that today. Announcing employment does not a job make. Claiming we aren’t paying more for wind, but more for new energy is cute, but misleading. Wind is new energy and we are paying more for wind then we are for other new energy.
It was interesting to see however is how the media has handled this.
These same folks who are spinning away on Twitter all day and their organizations aren’t being quoted in any of the papers around Ontario. Why? Because Environmental Defense, the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, Canadian Wind Energy Association and the other ‘Wind Welfare’ recipients who formed the ‘save wind welfare’ orgy of special interests – comeclean.ca are no longer relevant to the conversation. They have no credibility left, because their claims aren’t believable. They are now a parody of themselves. Fodder for laughter. Walking, talking lampoons.
(If you’d like to force these folks to find honest employment please visit http://endwindwelfare.ca and tell party leaders to stop funding their lies and hysterics.)
The special interests that brought you the Green Energy Act and have used it as a weapon to attack and tear apart the fabric of local communities have lost their place in the public debate. For the most part so have the industrial wind developers who benefit from the very programs Hudak is promising to end. This is a battle we’ve been waiting for, and fighting for the right to fight and are both ready and motivated to win. By coming out with a citizen focused, easy to understand pledge, Hudak has signaled to tens of thousands of concerned Ontarians that campaigning for the blue guy will mean change the Liberals won’t offer.
That’s good news for us, and Hudak, but not Dalton McGuinty or his whiney wind welfare brigade.
Ontario is still a democracy, and there is nothing Dalton McGuinty, dirty money or wind pimps can do about that.
The same folks whose voices no longer matter are the folks who were behind a $300,000 public relations fiasco put on by Sussex Strategy to ‘confuse’ the public, media and politicians to stop talking about the cost of electricity and renewables.
Remember how that went?
Well first – we all got to read the document (smooth move folks).
And since that $300,000 campaign of misinformation was leaked, Wind Concerns Ontario has won an offshore moratorium that has effectively ended any chance of offshore wind development in Ontario’s Great Lakes, and now has a clear commitment from Tim Hudak that should he become Premier there won’t be any more financial incentives for industrial wind developers.
There are 145 days until Ontario’s election, and these folks ought to be scared because we’re just getting started and as many have noticed – this current announcement that has seen these groups sidelined doesn’t even involve their sacred cow – the Green Energy Act. We are still advocating for and waiting to hear specifics on that file as well.
I was proud to see that this debate is largely being waged between the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals with Wind Concerns Ontario and our local groups playing a key role in providing citizen response to the announcement. Especially our groups in Liberal held ridings. Seeing that an end to Samsung’s deal and FIT get implemented into law is something we will fight tooth and nail for and can do in ways buying another botched strategy from Sussex Strategy simply can’t even begin to compete with.
Wind Concerns Ontario has been clear on that as well, and will continue to be during the ‘Truth about Turbines Tour’ that will be travelling six thousand kilometres to over thirty five communities in sixteen Liberal held ridings, eight PC ridings and one NDP riding. We are more committed than ever to winning this ‘winner take all’ fight that was forced upon us by the Wind Industry and it’s ‘wind welfare warriors”
If these wind welfare warriors continue to conduct themselves in such a blatantly partisan and dishonest fashion – our campaign to cut all public funds to these organizations will take on a new seriousness because I and others I am sure will be damned if we are to be beaten with our own money but a bunch of dishonest swines at the trough.
Folks like http://energyonthestreet.ca (Pearl Street Communications) can talk about ‘changing the channel’ and engaging communities better – but it’s beyond spending more time talking – it’s about being credible and telling the truth, something the wind industry just doesn’t fundamentally believe in doing.
1 Comment »Is the Air Out of the Industrial Wind Lobby Sails in Ontario?
The announcement that the Ontario Liberal Government recognized the merits of the position Wind Concerns Ontario and its member groups from Lake Superior to Lake Ontario, on Lake Huron, the Georgian Bay, Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair had been advancing is good news. It vindicated our arguments and recognized the flaws in the government position.
By agreeing with our position, the government recognized all these ‘wind welfare’ special interests and industry representatives the government either funds or that receive money from special interests tied to the wind industry, just aren’t credible and can’t be relied on for reasonable, responsible advice. Simply put, the Government of Ontario acknowledged by backing down that all of those who irresponsibly convinced them they didn’t need to do science in the first place were wrong and not credible for setting policy going forward.
Is it any wonder then that groups like Environmental Defence found out about the announcement from a reporter – not the government? Frankly, if I were the Minister of Energy and had been receiving such bad, self interested, incomplete advice from an orgy of special interests who came together to become the “Green Energy Act Alliance” I wouldn’t want to talk to them either as I cleaned up their mess.
The fight on land continues and will be won there as well, because these same special interests who were anti science, anti democracy and pro corporate welfare offshore hold the same views on land and offered even worse bad advice there. We will continue to fight for those who are being harmed on land, to restore local democracy and end the bizarre notions put out by pro industrial wind special interests.
Wind energy isn’t green, it isn’t reliable and it shouldn’t be considered a genuine form of power production because it can’t stand on its own and virtually every form of power production in the grid today besides wind and large scale solar can and don’t need subsidies to do it.
Electric generation from wind dates back to 1887 and scientists have been saying since 1865, that wind is an admirable form of energy production and favourable to coal, but the matter of storage (reliability) needs to be sorted out if it is to be a viable alternative. This is a problem that has been worked on and studied for the last one hundred and forty years with no meaningful improvement. Instead, the game plan is to pay for the power even when we don’t need it at multiples of what it’s worth, to back up 100% of wind energy’s capacity with fossil fuels to make up for the dips and surges and build them dangerously close to people because it’s convenient. The jobs arguments are just lies. The economic impact of wind energy is absolutely negative because of the harm it does to real, private sector, unsubsidized honest work.
In short, instead of becoming a viable form of energy production, industrial wind is an expensive PR statement government’s make, that has nothing to do with generating clean energy – because wind turbines can’t on their own without fossil fuels burning in the background. The negative effects on people, the environment and economy are unconscionable and cannot be allowed to stand.
Those who push industrial wind can’t honestly claim they care about the environment. They support fossil fuel expansion, oppose environmental assessments, local democracy and refuse independent science on the impacts and benefits of the technology. They are mere puppets for someone’s profit – incidentally those who often fund their misinformation campaigns.
This has become a losing battle for the industrial wind industry and its special interest groups. It’s a battle we need to continue to fight, if our province is to have a bright future and citizens, not special interests and corporate welfare seekers are to control the destiny of our province.
1 Comment »Winds of Protest Blow Through Rural Ontario
Democracy is on the march throughout Ontario and Wind Concerns Ontario members are leading the charge! Join Wind Concerns member organized protests in Blenheim (November 22nd) or Orangeville (November 27th)
I continue to be proud of and amazed by the strength and dedication residents around Ontario are showing in standing up in defiance to the anti democratic nature of the Green Energy Act. Thousands of Ontarians from around our province have come out, stood up and said no at debates, rallies and information meetings in their community. We’re getting ready and gearing up for the next provincial election, a promise we made in April 2010 on the steps of Queen’s Park when I declared on behalf of Wind Concerns Ontario that the Liberals would have ‘a hell of a problem at the ballot box’ in 2011.
Dalton McGuinty – Here we come, we’re bigger, we’re stronger, we’re louder and we’re ready to fire your caucus and restore our rights at Queen’s Park. A stingy ten percent vote buying rebate intended to confuse Ontarians into thinking there is some benefit to building industrial wind turbines won’t stop us. Restoring local planning control, creating setbacks from turbines based on science, ending the multi billion dollar corporate welfare payouts to the wind industry and providing a plan to address the issues existing turbines are causing nearby residents is what we expect from our next government, no matter who is in power.
Wind industry players might kickback tens of thousands of dollars in donations each to the Ontario Liberal Party while receiving contracts from the Province, but we all know unethical donations don’t vote. The people do and we can’t be bought with their money or our own. What’s clear from the “Ontario Clean Energy Benefit” is that even a $5.5 billion dollar attempt to buy votes can’t cap this fury.
This is a fight for the future of rural Ontario and it’s not a fight we’re going to give up. We’re working hard to reclaim our voice and ensure our next batch of representatives stand with us, stand for us and protect us from the insanity of this current government’s half baked Green Energy Act.
I’m proud to be spending much of December and part of January on the road, travelling from community to community across Ontario to spread the word that this government, and MPPs who don’t stand with us, need to be defeated if we are to re-claim our democracy from the vested moneyed interests of the foreign owned wind industry players that are wreaking havoc on our province and our communities. If you’d like to help organize a rally in your town please do contact me and we’ll set it up.
Wind Concerns Ontario has fifty three groups in over thirty counties across this province. I’m looking forward to visiting every region of Ontario over the coming weeks and continuing to work with our supporters on the ground to use democratic tools to dramatically alter the landscape of this debate, and shut out the MPPs who voted to shut us out of the debate.
If you’d like to get involved in standing up for rural Ontario. Please send me a note.
Below is a video I was happy to come across on the WCO website from the Wind Concerns Ontario Queen’s Park rally in April 2010. The second one is beautiful black and white photos from our march down University Avenue to the Ontario Power Authority that same afternoon.
No Comments »
