Posts Tagged ‘Wind Turbines’
Syncrude Fined For Duck Deaths, Now What about TransAlta Wind for Bats?
The Governments of Canada and Alberta have fined Syncrude for it’s role in the death of five hundred ducks who landed in it’s highly toxic tar sands waste near Fort McMurray. They face up to $800 000 in joint fines from both levels of government. There is however a two year investigation period even though Syncrude doesn’t deny it failed to put in place the necessary features to keep migratory birds away.
When I read this, I felt it was totally acceptable that Syncrude should be fined for their role in the death of five hundred ducks, but I wondered about TransAlta Wind, the owners of the Summerview Wind Farm in Pincher Creek Alberta. Their wind farm kills seven hundred bats per year and it seems they get off by funding a bit of research into why that is happening so future project locations can be picked better.
What is the difference? Consider this. Tar sands companies are ‘big oil’ and therefore bad. Ducks are cute and therefore good. Wind companies are ‘green’ and therefore good. Bats are scary and therefore bad.
I would suggest it is fair to say that everyone basically cares about the environment, but like all things in life – folks use balance to set priorities. For Big Oil and Big Wind money supercedes the environment. The folks at TransAlta Wind are more interested in making money then they are in preserving the local ecosystem in which bats play a big role. Just like the folks of big oil care more about money then they do about the impact their industry has on Fort McMurray’s wild life.
To me it just seems bizarre that the guys who build and operate wind turbines apparently don’t need to follow the rules and don’t need to worry about the environmental impact of their projects. Everyone else however, God help you if you step out of line or disagree with them. It appears Ontario is poised to choose ‘green’ projects over a basic tenet of democracy. It appears Alberta and the government of Canada choose politics over fairness when it comes to responding to those whose poor business practices result in the death of flying mammals. Call me crazy, call me a NIMBY – but you will never be able to convince me two energy companies, both harming the local environment are any different because of motives. Folks build wind farms for the same reason folks process tar sands – energy is a commodity regardless of how it is found.
If I worked at Snycrude, I wouldn’t lay down and take this quietly, I would point out there is a selective enforcement of legislation, unless the folks at TransAlta Wind are also facing up to $800 000 worth of fines. Considering Snycrude fixed their error and TransAlta Wind is still operating their bat killing project, the case can be made that it is who and how flying mammals are killed that determines government response.
4 Comments »A Reasoned Explanation of Industrial Wind Farm’s Impacts on a Community
This video is put together by a resident in rural Australia. In it he explores some of the impacts wind turbines have on communities. He is very even handed and appears in favour of wind power in principle, but like many of us, he is concerned about the human impact.
He’ll take you through a story where a dream to buy land and build a home was touched by the proposed wind farm, and he and his wife opted to go ahead after attending the meetings and listening to experts. He’ll explore the real impacts of wind turbines on neighbouring property owners like himself and also discuss some of the remedies for these issues.
Everything is says appears more than reasonable and is extremely fair to wind turbine developers and the land owners they work with, even though he isn’t one of them. What I found quite interesting was his commentary on planning. Australia and Canada appear to be playing a similar game of ‘catch up’ and not using as strict of regulations surrounding wind turbine development as virtually all of Europe has been.
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