Posts Tagged ‘Wind Energy’
Caveat investor: Wind may let you down – My Piece for Thomson Reuters
I was pleased to have the opportunity to write a piece for the Thomson Reuters Environment Forum on the reality of risk and investing in wind developments in Ontario and worldwide. Called ‘Caveat investor: Wind may let you down’ points out several ‘inconvenient truths’ investors, industry, their lobbyists and governments can choose to either address or not.
It serves as a great opportunity to get our message out to a far larger audience (Thomson Reuters is the world’s largest news service) and I hope will spark some healthy international debate on the merits of this industry and technology in light of the clear process and due diligence failures worldwide.
No Comments »On the Conservative Payroll? NIMBY? Nuclear Lobbyist? Unemployed and Without a Life? No, Not Me.
All things above have been mused about me since my interview for the Toronto Star’s “McGuinty vows to stop wind-farm NIMBY’s”. I have since completed media interviews with Radio Canada, CBC French Television, and CBC Radio’s ‘Here and Now’ this afternoon. Unlike those who take shots at me, I have the courage to stand by what I say and have nothing to gain or lose by sharing them. For me it is principle, not principal.
To clear up each of the suggestions made about me in comments on the article or youtube videos of mine relating to the project, I will address each of these in order.
On Conservative Ties:
I am not and have never been on a Conservative Party Payroll. I’ve never voted Conservative, or supported a Conservative Candidate for public office. I have been on the Provincial Government payroll as a political staffer to a Liberal MPP and the little known Liberal Caucus Services Bureau. I have also been the President of a Federal Liberal Riding Association.
On NIMBY:
I am not a “not in my backyard” type. I don’t consider my backyard to be anywhere near 2-4 kilometres offshore. My friends in Guildwood aren’t NIMBY types either. It’s a nice label to throw around when you don’t have a response to valid environmental concern, I guess. Can anyone actually answer why Wind Turbines are allowed to do untold damage to the environment during the construction and operation phase without any government oversight?
The Nuke Lobby:
I’m also not a Nuclear Lobbyist. Probably not qualified – certainly not interested. I don’t even own a microwave. That being said, senior Liberal Party officials do have uncomfortably close ties to the wind industry and the political masters who set government policy. What’s more, they do business together. One helps elect a Liberal government and builds turbines in their spare time, the other shovels money out the door to pay for turbines without any oversight.
On Being Unemployed:
First. To suggest one’s employment status has any correlation to their right to participate in the political process is disgusting. We are far from the time when one had to own property to vote. With so many Ontarian’s losing their jobs this comment is particularly insensitive to those hardworking people out of work due to no fault of their own. Shame on you. Second. I’m not unemployed. My employment has no conflict of interest with the political positions I take. Franz Hartmann and Joyce McLean (two strong proponents of this project) both have questionable affiliations that compromise their ability to act in the best interest of Ontarians. Both of these individual’s incomes are tied to work they do advancing the cause of wind power. At least one senior Liberal has a conflict so bad, both the Opposition Leader and the Leader of the NDP have publicly challenged the government on it in the Legislature.
Not Having a Life:
As for not having a life – that is in the eye of the beholder I guess. I feel it is pretty well rounded, and certainly not something I will take advice from a guy who won’t name himself and seems unable to use proper punctuation. My friends can spell, save the occasional text message or blackberry error. They also sign communications they send my way.
My Community or My Party?:
As someone who has traditionally been a Liberal both in the card carrying sense and the ideological sense, being pitted between my community and party is not a comfortable position to be in. I joined the Liberal Party when I was 14. I came home from the hospital to Guildwood. Choosing between the two was not difficult. It was principled.
Some Other Thoughts:
If this the best the wind lobby can come up with, keep it coming. Your lack of courage is representative of the folks at Toronto Hydro Energy Services who read each of my posts but will not reply to my charges. I guess they are only comfortable lying in person. Incidentally, it appears my good friend Anne Mometer found some time in her busy day at Gartner Lee – an AECOM company and Toronto Hydro Energy Services environmental partner, to visit today.
For the record: I do not oppose renewable energy in principle. I do oppose bad public policy. I oppose attacks on our democratic principles. I believe there is merit to following well established international standards and don’t think we can forget key facts. I know the wind folks and government types don’t like facts because they don’t agree with their position, but they are what they are.
This is a bad bill. Premier McGuinty needs to withdraw the legislation and apologize to Ontario residents like me who have valid concerns that he has chosen to label “NIMBY” even though, my stance is identical to the Ontario Power Authority’s position on offshore wind and the Canada Wind Atlas agrees with me (or me with it) that there just isn’t the wind out there for this to make sense. It is highly irresponsible for Premier McGuinty to support anything that will stir heavy metals and PCBs into Toronto’s drinking water without an environmental assessment to give us a sense what that will do to human health. This is the same man who was responsible when it came to making sure Ontarion’s knew what happened at Walkerton, but appears not to have appreciated the message that water quality is critically important to human health. He knows better. It is irresponsible for him to allow for untold damage to be done to an area of the lake that has seen millions spent to restore fish habitat and preserve erosion. Seriously, what harm would doing an environmental assessment cause?
This is a bad idea. The bill is undemocratic. The community needs to stand firm and the opposition parties need to step up where our government has failed. Liberal MPPs with communities facing wind projects they oppose need to recognize the impact this could have on their careers and stand up in caucus and tell the Premier he needs to blink.
I wonder if who is working on the economic crisis in Ontario if the Premier is running around smacking the grassroots activists throughout this province? Perhaps this is a bit deflection for a guy who just isn’t sure what to do on that front?
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