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Ministry misleads on wind turbines
Credit: www.windsorstar.com 22 August 2011 ~~
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When it comes to industrial wind turbines, officials of the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) and their spokespeople just don’t get it.
They cannot continue to mislead the public of Ontario with impunity, and until they learn to discern truth from fiction, we will continue to provide clarity to their comments.
Yesterday, in response to an internal Ministry report, clearly at odds with the MOE’S ineffectual guidelines for turbine development, Ministry spokesperson Jonathan Rose made a number of misleading statements, seemingly designed to discredit report author and senior environmental officer Cameron Hall.
Mr. Rose has misquoted World Health Organization (WHO) references for community noise, completely unrelated to industrial wind turbines, in an attempt to undermine Mr. Hall’s expert recommendations based on field work onsite in an existing industrial wind development near Shelburne, Ont.
In fact, Mr. Rose and ministry officials would do well to read Hall’s report, which carefully explains some of the reasons these very same WHO recommendations do not apply to wind turbine noise.
Rose also misrepresented the findings of a recent Environmental Review Tribunal, claiming that the Tribunal “ruled Wind Farms in Ontario are safe,” when in fact, the Tribunal said, “However, the evidence shows that there are some risks and uncertainties associated with wind turbines that merit further research. In that regard, the Tribunal hopes that further debate focuses on the most appropriate standards rather than ‘yes or no’ arguments about whether turbines can cause harm.”
It is not that difficult to actually read the Tribunal’s decision – I would highly recommend the minister do that before misquoting the findings again.
It is clear this ministry has a great deal of difficulty finding or reporting the truth on matters concerning industrial wind.
IAN HANNA,
chair, Wind Concerns Ontario, Scarborough, Ont.
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