Tag Archives: Green Energy Act

06.26.09
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Ottawa Council expected to defeat push for provincial moratorium

A councillor’s push to have the provincial government halt any new wind farms for 18 months until potential health problems caused by the renewable energy projects can be studied is expected to die next month at city council.

Rideau-Goulbourn Councillor Glenn Brooks is pushing for the moratorium because Prowind Canada is working on getting a wind farm approved in his ward, near North Gower. Some area residents aren’t happy with it, including those who claim turbines make people sick.

Brooks says he thinks the application and approval process for wind farms should continue, but none should be built until the study is done.

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06.23.09
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Ottawa area Councillor urges study of wind farms for health risks

ripley-industrial-wind-turbines

Ontario officials aren’t receptive to a councillor’s call for the province to halt new wind farms for 18 months until a study can assess whether the green-energy installations pose health risks.

Rideau-Goulbourn Councillor Glenn Brooks was going to ask council to direct the city’s chief medical officer of health to do the study, but the officer says it would be too expensive and time-consuming for his office. So, instead, Brooks says he plans to ask council at next week’s meeting of the rural-affairs committee to call on the province to act.

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06.11.09
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Stirring the pot on wind energy projects

The winds of dissent are blowing across southern Ontario, buffeting the dreams of entrepreneurs hoping to cash in on elevated support for renewable energy.
“There’s a lot of controversy about it coming out now,” said Simcoe County Federation of Agriculture president Dave Riddell in a recent edition of the Alliston Herald newspaper, when asked to comment about prospective wind energy projects.
Increasingly well-organized groups of residents around places like Ripley and St. Columban might suggest Riddell’s comment is an understatement. But, in the interview, he pinpointed the problem.
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06.06.09
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Brian Hollywood shoots from the hip

city_scope_logo-cmyk
Brian Hollywood describes himself as a “shoot-from-the-hip kind of guy,” and in the past that has placed the president and CEO of St. Thomas Holdings Inc. squarely in the sites of City Scope.
“I’m passionate about what I do,” Hollywood stressed halfway through a frank conversation with this corner a week ago.
“After 40 years in the business I don’t have to be here. But we’re creating something here.”
Hollywood agreed to an invitation to sit across the table in his office to candidly discuss his tenure at the utility, his vision for the future and the strategic plan that has led to a couple of key acquisitions, including the most recent, Tal Trees Inc. in Belleville, Ont.
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06.04.09
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Towns should fight against province imposing itself

Some 2,500 years ago, fable author Aesop opined that, “Persuasion is often more effectual than force.” It is an idea the current provincial government has decided holds no place, at least when it comes to matters it feels are important.

The list of areas where the government has chosen to exert the force of law over the persuasion of education is becoming legion, including but not limited to smoking, cellphone usage and, most importantly, wind power.

Ontario Energy and Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman reinforced the position Monday.

“We passed a law, and the law does not create an opportunity for municipalities to resist these projects just because they may have a concern,” he said.

On the surface, Smitherman’s comment makes sense; after all we can’t have people just running around breaking laws they don’t agree with. Otherwise you will start having black people riding in the front of buses, women voting and native people asking for land back that our forefathers stole from them.
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06.03.09
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Resistance to wind farms not an option: George Smitherman

Ontario could become a North American environmental leader, but municipalities can’t stand in the way of wind power.

That was the message Tuesday (June 2) from Ontario Energy and Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman as he toured a hydroelectric plant here.

Smitherman, also Ontario’s deputy premier, praised Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. for its operation of the eight-megawatt plant.

“We are very, very proud that a lot of the investment that is occurring is taking place in the private sector,” Smitherman said. “We have many more opportunities here to create energy from what Mother Nature gives us from the wind and the sun and the water.”
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04.18.09
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Speaking Truth to Wind Power

Erie Shores Wind Farm

Erie Shores Wind Farm


by Michael Trebilcock
ScienceAndPublicPolicy.org

The Green Energy Act (Bill 150), now before the Ontario Legislature, is designed to expedite this process by taking planning responsibilities away from local municipalities like ours and remitting key decisions to subsequent ministerial regulations, leaving local residents no say in matters that will dramatically impact their lives and future generations. While we are obviously personally affected by this legislation, the following comments reflect a professional career studying economic regulation, including a year as Research Director of the Ontario Government’s Electricity Market Design Committee (1998). I have four major objections to the legislation.
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04.04.09
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Wind farm helps end coal use: Smitherman

The Enbridge wind turbine project near Underwood is a step toward eliminating coal-fired electricity generation, Ontario Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure George Smitherman said Friday at the project’s official opening.

It also provides economic stimulus for farmers, increases the tax base and provides employment, he said.

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03.29.09
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Heavy subsidies sustain Spain’s wind power

Erie Shores Wind Farm

Erie Shores Wind Farm


March 2009

Posted by Ian:
An extensive wind farm dominates the landscape in East Elgin. Wind power is a key component of Dalton McGuinty’s Green Energy Act for Ontario. Are they sustainable without heavy government subsidies?

By Dr. Stephen Murgatroyd
Columnist
Troy Media Corporation

Spain has a great many wind farms. In fact, by 2010, Spain will have 20,000 megawatts of installed capacity. At the peak of the winds this past February, it was able to generate 11,800 megawatts, or 29% of its energy requirements on a particular day (meaning that the turbines were working at 69% of their capacity).

Spain ranks third in the world for wind power, behind only Germany, at nearly 24,000 megawatts of capacity, and the United States, at No. 1, with over 25,000 megawatts.

But there’s a cost. Wind power has grown in Spain only because of the size of the subsidies involved. The case is the same for solar power.
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