Green act unfair, turbine foes say – Citizens’ group lacks funds for fight – By Sharon Hill, The Windsor Star,March 16, 2010
The province’s Green Energy Act has hamstrung residents’ ability to fight wind turbine proposals for lakes Erie and St. Clair by putting the financial onus on opponents to prove any harm to human health or the environment.
Municipalities need to do hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of studies to fight 715 wind turbines proposed for the two lakes, Gord Meuser, a member of Citizens Against Lake Erie Wind Turbines, told Leamington council Monday.
“This artificial forest pounded into our bay is just wrong,” Meuser said.
He said the sad part is the odds are stacked against the citizens and municipalities under the new act.
“The onus is now on us.”
Meuser was focused just on 165 offshore turbines proposed for Pigeon Bay south of Leamington and Kingsville in three offshore wind farms of 55 turbines each.
But SouthPoint Wind is proposing a total of 715 turbines for Lake Erie south of Chatham-Kent and Essex County and for Lake St. Clair north of Lakeshore.
The Essex Region Conservation Authority is working with local municipalities to see what studies should be done and how much that could cost.
The conservation authority could know the cost within a few days and will meet with municipal representatives again.
Tracey Pillon-Abbs, manager of planning services for Leamington, told council depending on the number of municipalities involved in the cost sharing, the estimated cost could be $5,000 to $10,000 per municipality.
SouthPoint Wind has not applied to the province for the offshore wind turbines. It has scheduled a series of public meetings for March 27 and has a draft application on its website.
Coun. Rick Atkin said he hoped the thinking that the province is going to ram the offshore wind farms on municipalities is wrong.
Leamington Deputy Mayor Rob Schmidt said adequate studies have not been done and the same concerns that at one time saw the province place a moratorium on offshore wind farms are still valid now.
The ban that had been put in place after reaction to SouthPoint Wind’s proposal for 15 offshore turbines in 2006 was lifted in 2008.
Coun. John Paterson said he hoped municipalities could stop the access to the power grid on land. “It’s our natural resource. We’re a waterfront community. Why would we want this destroyed by a wind farm,” Paterson said.
Council agreed with a motion by Schmidt to ask staff to draft a resolution to send to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario to research other options to control green energy projects since it has no power under the Green Energy Act. Schmidt doesn’t want inappropriate uses and conflicts with neighbours over wind turbines and solar projects.
When talking offshore turbines, Meuser said some people assume the 715 turbines is some sort of joke.
But he said there will be offshore turbines in the lakes if research isn’t done to prove there could be negative impacts.
He urged residents to show up for a March 27 meeting in Leamington at the Princess Centre. SouthPoint Wind is holding public meetings across Essex County that day including one at the Lakeside Park pavilion in Kingsville from noon to 2 p.m.
For more information see www.southpointwind.com.
Other hour-long meetings March 27 include an 8:30 a.m. meeting at the Puce Sports and Leisure Centre, a 6 p.m. meeting at the Harrow arena and a 7:30 p.m. meeting at the Amherstburg Recreation Centre.
The citizens of essex and Kent counties should allpull thier resources and defeat this proposal . We should start by kicking the liberals out of office and the next step would be to boycott any buisiness that the just for porfit Vistas family of lemington and tell them to obtain their italian villa an other way and not through the lake views of the counties citizens.
DOES ANY ONE KNOW WHAT THOSE vistas DO for a living
Also these VISTAS have Hired an American Spokesperson What does he care about Canadian
lake views or our standard of living . The only thing this lawyer is interested in is money and more money and if he is sucessfull he will be long gone from this area . Join me in telling this american lawyer and this Vista curtell to blow away . do you not think that rights as the people of this country and provience are continuing to be supressed and handcuffed by our goverments
The provincial government is abdicating its responsibility to protect the people of Ontario if its policy is that private companies may act in such a way that grievously harms people and the environment – unless the victims can prove beforehand that such harm will occur.
What kind of madness is that?
We don’t only have an environmental holocaust on our hands – we have a complete breakdown in the way government should be operating. Holocaust is a strong word. My dictionary defines it as “wholesale sacrifice”. And that’s what it is! We are witnessing the wholesale sacrifice of the rights, the health, the will of the people and natural creatures who are going to be damaged beyond all recognition by wind turbines.