Contact
Have a question about a wind farm proposal in your area?
In order to cut down on spam please cut and paste the email below.
tomcat@tnt21.com
or call me at
519-396-1958
or Skype me
Have a question about wind farms or the Canadian election- Skype me at ron.stephens7
If you don’t have Skype download it here.
Thank You
Ron
Death of Canada 
March 4, 2007 at 6:56 pm |
Hi, Thank you for your site. We’d like to link your site to ours and hope you’ll agree to do the same. Our organization in the US is Industrial Wind Action (IWA) Group at http://www.windaction.org. Hope to hear from you.
March 15, 2007 at 9:31 pm |
Hi Ron:I have a proposed wind farm coming to my area
They are FPL Energy.We got to go to their first
meeting March 7/07.How can I keep them from talking
my municipality into excepting them.Help!
Anne-Marie
April 2, 2007 at 5:31 pm |
We need help! Wolfe Island in the Thousand Islands is about to be paved over with 86 300ft turbines. Where do we go for help? The company has been paying landowners for years, including two of the Councillors who voted on the re-zoning deal one week prior to municipal elections last year. Our MPP refuses to speak to us. Please, someone, help us!!
April 3, 2007 at 12:32 pm |
Ann-Marie and Leslie,
We are in the same position down here in Essex County. If all 15 projects go through, there will be more turbines in our little area than the entire province of Alberta. After hundreds of letters and contacts, we have been stonewalled by all levels of government.
There is no real easy answer to fighting this and there is no “organization” to turn to for help either. Put out flyers, form a citizen’s group, get public awareness. Learn all you can and put together a presentation to show people. There are videos you can download at http://www.wind-watch.org. Keep up to date with what’s happening in Ontario. http://www.windaction.org
Read this page: http://www.wind-watch.org/whattodo.php
When it all comes down to it, a lawyer or planner will most likely need to be hired so funds will have to be raised.
Good Luck!!!
May 29, 2007 at 5:44 pm |
Hi Ron:
Hey I feel for you and your good neighbours…
Suggestions…
What’s that movie with Julia Roberts…Erin Brokovitch I think
Gather info on people…who reside in the area…any health issues…, (sleep disturbances, get in touch with real estage boards.. study real estate price trends…. go to your municipality where you are able to get info free on charge on what property value assesments are and trends…
measure sound level with decibel meters…
Form a not for profit organization…to give a name for what you are trying to do…you are not in it for financial gain but for the gain of the community…Get in touch with your local ornithological societies, birdwatching groups…, flaps, f.l.a.p. see if you can get any data on bird migration , any accipiterrs in the area birds of pray thrive in ridges and like to fly along ridges…any kills due to propeller blades…you have to go big,
get data on neighbours…on other communities that have been affected…do you see trends… quantifiable trends…
I know it sounds like I’m saying do, do, do…my hands are tied. I can only suggest options…why…because my focus is different I’m looking at it from the outside and some things you mentioned are evident…A lady on the phone told me she was moving out of her place because the noise of the wind turbine was driving her nuts….Use the freedom of informationa and privacy act…I think you’ve got it in you to make your community and by extension the rest of Canada a better place…A place where people are respected…where their inalienable rights are respected… keep in mind that after wind power and along with it will come solar power…look at spain where they’ve got towers surrounded my mirrors which reflect sunlight for power….
By the by where do you think the power is going to…not to Canada…who sucks up that power..and plans on consuming more…?
If you form a non profit organization you’ll have standing if you got a case you can take it tho the UN.
By the by it’s not nice…but have you approached any other parties that could back you…You’ve got to look at the demographic, cultural, environmental, health, economic aspects. Man you are not too far from Walkerton…
By the by please don’t call me I am not supposed to have an opinion…another thing what you are doing is lofty…you might encounter a lot of opposition…also have you been stopped while driving been issued any speeding tickets…
man you shouldn’t have to walk on eggshells, but when you start talking billions of dollars…man you alone don’t stand a chance…you need others who think like you…and one more thing don’t show your cards and get consensus…
June 6, 2007 at 5:33 pm |
nville NY…My town is in the process of getting 68 industrial turbines.What legal rights do we have.I know the lease holders right now are the wind company’s assets but after the deal is done where will they be . We have heard reports of other towns not even being paid.Its amazing that a price can be put on our quality of life.
July 5, 2007 at 12:22 am |
I gather from your website that you do not see wind farms as a viable source of energy. My concern is that we are running out of resources and time to find alternative energy sources. Wind, hydro, solar, bio-mass (waste products)seem to be a start. Peak oil production is approaching, if not already here. We must find an alternative to “cheap” oil and natural gas before the reserve is either depleted or production cannot meet demand. We must do this now, while we have the lights on continuously and while we can still produce the apparatus needed using current technology (running on oil). If you or anyone else has a solution please, please, for the love of mankind share it. NOW!!
August 11, 2007 at 5:05 pm |
I’ve been right up to and inside a 65 m turbine in the UK (Ecotech Center at Swaffham, Norfolkk) — and it was virtually silent. I do mean silent. I climbed the 305 steps up to a viewing platform directly below the pod. So what is all the fuss about? We need energy independent of fossil fuels — asap. I’m with Rex. So please take this pointless site down and do something useful with your time and money.
August 11, 2007 at 5:27 pm |
Here is a video of the Swaffham turbine (I just found this).
August 11, 2007 at 5:56 pm |
Mark
You are the type of person that buys swampland.
Do a little research.
The wind industry is nothing more than a investment scheme.
The corporations are on the farmers deed and they have first right of refusal. Before a farmer can sell his property to his family the corporation has first shot at the land. Farmers are finding it more difficult to secure loans because they don’t have clear title to their land. I personally know many people who have be forced from their homes after the wind farm arrived.
Find me some documentation that backs up the claims of the wind industry. You can’t because it doesn’t exist.
Anyway if you don’t already work for the wind industry I’m sure they are hiring. Give them a call.
Atomcat
August 11, 2007 at 8:29 pm |
Atomcat: You must be psychic — how else would you know what kind of person I am (or how much swampland I own)? Some farmers are benefitting farrming the wind. And, no, I don’t have anything to do with the wind energy industry. You are right that I know nothing about farmers’ deeds to land in Canada — but that is a separate issue from the viability and need for renewable energy from wind. I am curious as to how the corporations got on the farmers’ deeds in the first place — can you elucidate?
August 11, 2007 at 9:10 pm |
Mark
Let me try this. I just checked the energy output numbers for the province of Ontario. At 10am today the 400 MW of wind in Ont. were producing 4MW or 1% of their plated capacity. If you think wind is going to power Ontario or anywhere else you are dreaming. Most wind farms are to backed up by natural gas plants. Expensive and great emitters of ground level ozone which in fact is more dangerous than the emissions from the coal plants.
Maybe this will help you understand.
France is powered by 80% nukes 10% fossil fuel and 10% hydro. France is slated for 5000 windmills. You can’t use nukes to back up wind and they only have 10% hydro power. Wind has to have a back up of at least 80%. In order to do this the only option is to add more fossil fuels. So in order for France to use wind they must in fact add to the pollution levels not decrease them.
I have been a greenie since I was a young man and I studied wind and solar in the 70’s. Wind and solar have their applications but trying to power the grid is not one of them.
I have enjoyed this but I must get back to work.
Thanks for your interest.
PS. I had a long talk with the senior policy advisor for the Ministry of Energy in Ont.
He agrees with me not you.
He also agrees that this is about politics and greed.
Check out the E7 papers and the AIAI
Ron
August 11, 2007 at 10:33 pm |
Ron: No, wind will most likely not power the grid but as Rex said, together with other renewables it’s a good start.
Just watch the videos I linked to. I had a look at some of the pages on the site e.g., the Cohocton Wind Watch Vibroacoustic Disease (VAD) article. To get any VAD effect at all, the sound level would have to be 110 dB: that’s about equivalent to a power saw (see this loudness comparison chart). The 110 dB figure is from this page. Most of the other google references to the disease were from anti-wind power sites (hmmmm). In my first post I related that I have recently gotten right up close and personal with a large turbine and it was almost silent, so you’ll excuse my skepticism when confronted with the Alves-Pereira & Branco study (their study has a sample size of two, i.e., N=2? That makes it merely anecdotal. Their study is not AFAIK peer-reviewed — OTOH, I guess there is really no need to build turbines within 500 m of a residential building). Again, if wind turbines and cows do not mix, how come I have seen cows grazing close to towers? So: how do you feel about offshore wind farms? Say, 7 miles offshore?
September 12, 2007 at 7:10 pm |
I was reading your postings and thinking ‘here’s someone else with a point of view’ and that’s OK, until I saw your headline ‘Green Party of Canada Opposes Industrial Wind Farms’. NO IT DOESN’T! one person in the Green Party expressed an opinion! that isn’t the same thing. Why do you seize on one comment and use it to claim something that isn’t true? is it that everything else you say is also untrue, or distortions of the facts?
September 12, 2007 at 8:46 pm |
Hi Myrtle
Thanks for your comment. The first thing I would like to say is that the Green Party did not do themselves any favors when they removed that story from their web site. They did the right thing when they put it back. The other thing I would like to say is that Elizabeth May now understands that the wind farms are being placed too close to homes and is saying so. For that I have gained respect for her. Unfortunately the wind industry is not about green energy cutting emissions or saving the planet. It is about putting your money in their pockets. This is what I will do for you. I will change the title of that article. It will now read. Green Party of Canada Opposes Placing Industrial Wind Farms too Close to Homes.
Again I thank you for your comment.
Ron
October 20, 2007 at 6:23 pm |
Hi,,this is the first time I have seen this site. My site is http://www.weopposewindfarms.org, I would like to link to eachother’s site. Please let me know. The more the merrier, we all need to stick together and entertain the idea of a world-wide coalition.
December 18, 2007 at 8:30 pm |
Hi,
Thanks for the common sense. Feeling an economic shortage of that commodity is the State of Wisconsin as
of late. I wrote a “book” about the subject.
http://www.pr.com/press-release/63571
This is not a solicitation to sell my wares.
I hope my book is a financial failure!
Otherwise someone could think I go through all this bother for profit.
March 7, 2008 at 8:26 am |
Can you find UK govt estimate of net CO” saved by windfarms
when I asked I was referred to Devon windfarms who wont reply
March 7, 2008 at 8:28 am |
grateful contact
March 7, 2008 at 11:56 am |
tomcat@tnt21.com
Do you know of any measure of co2 saved by Windfarms-
best Alimac
March 27, 2008 at 2:41 pm |
[…] Contact […]
April 14, 2008 at 10:53 am |
I want all to understand one thing and that is that no amount of wind, solar, bio-fuel can replace the amount of energy we are consuming as fossil fuels. The only thing that is of any good what so ever is reduction in consumption. Even if we did not grow food and use all the farm land on the planet to grow biofuels we would at best be able to replace 15% of the fossil fuel energy we consume. And that is if we don’t grow food.
So a hit of reality is needed here. Wind, Solar, Biofuels are limited just like fossil fuels are limited. Ergo, non of these finite energy supplies can fuel our infinite economy. Our economy requires growth to be successful. If our economy does not grow it is considered in recession and people loose their jobs and corporate profits go down. And if our economy shrinks it is considered to be in depression and people loose not just their jobs but their homes too. Having and infinite economy that requires grow to work means we need an infinite energy supply and wind, solar, biofuel, and tidal are all finite energy sources and cannot fuel our infinite economy.
Governments know we have hit peak oil which will manifest its self as a series of recessions to start. However, it will lead to total financial collapse and food shortages.
It really is this simple. You cannot fuel and infinite economy with a limited energy supply. Currently we are fueling the growth of our economy with fossil fuels. However the math tells us that you cannot fuel an infinite economy with finite energy supplies. Does any one the the mathematical problem here and please don’t try to argue unless you do?
May 29, 2008 at 9:39 pm |
Mark,
Why does this energy development have to be located on the most productive farmland in all of Ontario?
Pave the good farmland with concrete and
steel? This isn’t the answer!
June 12, 2008 at 10:54 pm |
I don’t know about Canada but in the US any lawyer who makes you believe he can get around rural land owners’ property rights to build anything they want on their property is a windmill chaser looking to profit from emotionally distraut people. A land owner can build anything they want on their rural land. Dale Rankin lost this very type of law suit in Texas. If you could sue the neighbor because he block your view of HIS land then you could prevent him from building any structure on HIS property that obstructs your view, including HIS house. Ultimately, rural lands value is related to their taxing values, agricultural productive use.
June 21, 2008 at 10:20 pm |
I have just learned that 5 2mw turbines are proposed within 1000 m of my home. Gunn’s Hill Windfarm, Norwich On. How do we get the true facts? WHat do I and my neighbours need to know?
The notice was just published in the newspaper.
thanks
John
October 21, 2008 at 10:36 am |
I’m a mycologist and in January this year published an academic paper outlining a newly identified serious threat posed by even individual wind turbines to the environment, taxpayer and business interests which is uninsurable
I emailed a copy with supporting information to the three email conacts here but two of them were returned as unknown addresses
This issue is known to MEP Struan Stevenson whom I have asked to inform EPAW
Please let me know if my comment is received and the information of interest
Thank you and best regards
dixie dean (Prof. Em.)
March 28, 2009 at 8:31 pm |
I did my part by turning on every light, radio, PC, and TV inside and outside of my house for earth hour. I then spent the hour sending emails to various contacts and hopefully still good friends pointing them to some websites to educate themselves on the threat we all face from the UN.
I vote NO!