Having just returned from the Mayor’s Spring Breakfast for Business here in Haldimand County, Ontario (where Gallon Environment Letter is published), we unfortunately have to report that opposition to “industrial wind turbines” has taken over this municipality, even leading to the municipal council asking for a moratorium in installation of new turbines.  The Mayor won loud applause from the business audience when he stated that the Council would have banned wind turbines from the municipality of it had the power to do so.

Gallon Letter’s perception of the problems:

a) under its Green Energy Act, the Ontario Government took away the right of municipalities to have any control over the siting of large wind turbines. Had the municipality had a say as to their location, GL believes that people who have come to agree that some locations would be tolerable.

b) haste. By seeking to get turbines installed very quickly, the Province is seen as “ramming turbines down people’s throats”. If a more normal planning process had been followed, many people would have come round to the idea that turbines are better than the current very large coal-fired power plant that is located in Haldimand County.

c) turbine locations are slated for just about every part of the municipality. While this spreads the economic benefits somewhat, a more concentrated wind farm might have been easier to sell to a populace that for the most part does not want its quiet country life disturbed.