LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Ontario parties clash on wind turbines 

Credit:  By Chip Martin, QMI Agency, cnews.canoe.ca 5 June 2011 ~~

Hundreds of wind turbines have popped up in southwestern Ontario over the last four years, transforming its rural landscape.

But the provincial Liberal government’s green-energy push, along with higher consumer electricity rates to pay for them, has also sparked backlash in the region’s farm belt that for two elections has been fertile soil for Dalton McGuinty’s party.

With the Oct. 6 provincial election now just four months away, the question is whether that resistance will change the political landscape in the region the Liberals have dominated since 2003, holding eight of 10 seats.

With their green-energy push and determination to end Ontario’s reliance on coal-fired power by 2014, including the shutdown of the Lambton plant near Sarnia, Ont., the Liberals have heavily promoted wind and solar power projects.

Southwestern Ontario – big, rural and wind-blown in many areas – is home to some of the largest such operations.

But residents near turbines claim health problems, lower property values and negative effects on farm operations.

Wind Concerns Ontario, an umbrella group for more than 50 anti-turbine groups, is sworn to toppling the Liberals.

“If they want to stand by their green energy policies, then they can go down to defeat Oct. 6,” Wind Concerns president John Laforet said. He’s been on a speaking tour denouncing the Liberals and their Green Energy Act.

McGuinty has admitted his government could have done a better job explaining its push for renewable, clean energy.

The Liberal bid to shutter coal-fired power plants – a vow made before, then twice delayed – hasn’t played well in Sarnia-Lambton, home to Ontario Power Generation’s giant Lambton generation station. It’s also one of only two ridings in the region that rejected the Liberals last time, electing Conservative Bob Bailey in 2007.

The McGuinty government recently delayed approvals for offshore wind turbines, another hot issue in southwestern Ontario, but hundreds more will soon rise on land.

PC Leader Tim Hudak has vowed to scrap the government’s $7-billion deal with industrial giant Samsung that, among other things, would create hundreds of jobs and see turbine blades manufactured in Ontario for the first time.

That promise puts veteran Tory MPP Ernie Hardeman in a bit of a tight spot in Oxford, since Siemens Canada is completing a $20-million conversion of a Tillsonburg plant to build turbine blades. The venture, tied to Samsung, is creating 300 new jobs.

Hardeman, However, supports Hudak, saying it doesn’t make sense for the government to pay up to 80 cents a kilowatt-hour of electricity from green projects and then sell it to the consumer for only six cents.

“There were wind turbines built before this deal and there will be in future,” Hardeman said.

The Liberals insist scrapping the deal would hurt Ontario’s business reputation and be costly for taxpayers.

Voters in southwestern Ontario, living in the shadow of wind turbines or not, have also expressed concern at the sharply increased price of power and projections it will skyrocket further.

Hudak and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath would ease that by removing the HST from electricity and home-heating costs.

Hudak said he’d replace the lost revenue by finding government “efficiencies,” while Horwath would scrap Liberal corporate-tax cuts.

Until recently, Hudak had vowed to scrap the HST entirely, but has now opted to keep it.

Paul Nesbitt-Larking,a political science professor at Huron University College in London, says he doubts wind turbines will be a major election issue.

“You never know in an election campaign what’s going to be an issue,” he said. “Turbines could be a local issue. We will have to wait and see.”

Source:  By Chip Martin, QMI Agency, cnews.canoe.ca 5 June 2011

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon