Marion Fraser is one of the prime movers behind Ontario’s Green Energy Act.  Recently she ventured onto Wind Concerns Ontario’s web site and put in a defense of her support of the Act.  I have to give her credit for gutsy.

I prepared a response to her posting but it ran 5 pages, too long for a blog entry.  So I have created it here.  The bold print is her posting, in its entirety.  The regular print is my response.  I have to mention that I do not represent WCO, and these responses are my own.  In the interest of timeliness, I wrote this from memory in about an hour, so please if you see where I’ve misstated something let me know.

From my last paragraph:

So you see, Ms. Fraser, we all know words are cheap and in spite of your words the
process of destroying rural Ontario continues unabated, including homes, communities
and natural habitats. We suspect that this is being done to enrich the friends of the
government at the expense of ratepayers, homeowners and taxpayers. We suspect that
was the intent all along – it has happened too quickly and too completely to be accidental.
We see confirmation for this suspicion in the funds that get directed among the
government, the government-controlled electric power industry, the environmental
NGO’s, the lobbyists and the wind energy developers.
We’d certainly appreciate having any words that can dispel our suspicions, but please be
aware that this scheme has gone on so long and with such reckless devotion it will take
some very persuasive words from someone to disabuse us of our suspicions.

I don’t often post letters to the editors here unless they are unusually well written.  Robert Budd of Goderich, Ontario wrote such a letter that was posted by the Goderich Signal-Star on about February 23, 2011.   It is well worth the read.

Backup Link.

Wind energy proponents often talk up the benefits to the local communities of their projects.  Usually cited are the lease payments to landowners, increased tax revenues and increased tourist revenue.  What you generally don’t hear is any word from the locals themselves.  Many times the landowners have signed gag orders as part of their leases and cannot speak out to the detriment of the developers.  So when someone reports on an unfiltered discussion with the locals, it is worth paying attention to.  This letter to the editor, published in the Goderich Signal-Star, is well worth reading.

Backup Link.

In the September 7 2010 issue of the Globe and Mail, Adam Radwanski wrote a column titled “An Ill Wind on Lake Erie“.  The column was quite critical of Ontario’s Prime Minister, Dalton McGuinty, and the way his Ontario government has sought to implement green and renewable energy.  The column focused on Point Pelee, which is by any measure one of the most ecologically sensitive spots in North America, and how wind turbines were very nearly built all around the Point – and still might be, for all I know.  Radwinski mentioned that the neighbors were quite vocal in their condemnation of the project.  This was a surprise, as the area hadn’t been previously known as a hotbed of Nimbyism, unlike – say – Prince Edward County.  Almost needless to say, the residents of PEC took great exception to this slur, and one of them wrote quite a letter to the paper.  I can quibble with parts of the letter, but in general it is well-written.

In the comments there was one that pointed to my amherstislandwindinfo.com web site, and another written by Greg Latiak, who lives on Amherst Island.  It deserves a full reprint here.

“I don’t understand the fascination among the wind turbine crowd for targetting bird migration routes as the place for their construction. Wolfe Island is an excellent example. Guess the only benefit of putting them in the lake is that the bird/bat kills will float away. These people may resent the existence of everything other than themselves, but birds and bats, besides looking and sounding beautiful, have a role in the natural balance of the world. But if we are sufficiently dedicated I am sure we can kill them all — after all, we made the passenger pigeon extinct. And how the government can plow ahead with these projects that violate international treaties about the protection of migratory birds is just incomprehensible. Guess at some level the fix was in and rationality has nothing to do with it.”

Back in June 2010 the Ontario government released a discussion paper that proposed some rules for offshore wind turbine projects, mainly in the Great Lakes, and solicited public reaction.  The most important of these rules was a setback of 5,000 meters from the shoreline.  You can imagine the reaction of those neighbors who had turbines 550 meters from their homes.

This is not the first time Ontario has solicited public input.  Before the Green Energy Act was passed they held a series of meetings and accepted input.  Almost needless to say, they ignored all that input and continued with the same rules they had proposed earlier.  In spite of the high probability of wasting my time, I went ahead and submitted some comments of my own.

Sean Holt lives in Ontario and has been studying (obsessing over?) the electrical system for several decades.  Almost needless to say, he has been studying the latest “green” trends for several years and has come to some of the same conclusions as I have.

Sean Holt, original link to Wind Concerns Ontario.

Keith Stelling lives in Ontario and periodically releases well-researched papers on various aspects of wind energy, mostly in Ontario.  This 58-page paper reviews why Ontario’s Green Energy Act, passed in May 2009, will not accomplish its stated goals.  It is replete with references and serves as a good summary of the different issues surrounding the Act.

What Went Wrong, the original link at Wind Concerns Ontario.

A backup copy.