Robert Hornung, President of the Canadian Wind Energy Association(CanWEA), and former Policy and Communications Director and Program Change Director at the Pembina Institute, spins the tale that industrial wind turbines are all to do with “climate change.” His interviewin 2010 (published on June 23, 2010) after he left Pembina for CanWEA, supports that belief.
By November of that year, he had reflected on the issue of low frequency noise and submitted his opinionto the Ministry of the Environment as President of the 400-member CanWEA: “…CanWEA submits that the proposed requirement for infrasound or low frequency noise monitoring as a condition of the REA [Renewable Energy Approval] be removed.”
Almost one year later (October 12, 2011) Hornung admitted in a Global-TV interviewthat "wind turbine sound…can have potentially indirect health impacts."
Despite that revelation, Hornung abides by the wishes of his members (his job depends on it) and wrote in January 2012 that he was “extremely disappointed that the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) has called for a suspension of wind energy development.” After the recent announcement by Energy Minister Chiarelli that a review of the Long-Term Energy Plan was to take place, CanWEA released their views: “The Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) will be an active participant in upcoming consultations to review and update Ontario’s long-term energy plan and will advocate for further growth of wind energy* in the province.”
The CEO of a CanWEA member corporation was interviewed on the BNN (Business News Network) September 3, 2013. Capital Power Corporation CEO Brian Vaasjo was asked about the company’s “wind projects”; the host declared in his question that the “skeptics” view them as boondoggles. The CEO's response was direct; he didn't mention either “global warming” or “climate change.” Instead he declared that wind turbine projects do not stand on their own in a merchant market place, but, they provide substantial cash flows for companies like ours. He went on to cite the benefits of “government procurement processes” and to single out the Ontario FIT Programas an example.
Bruce Vaasjo, CEO, Capital Power: wind can't stand on its own
This is exactly what the Ontario Auditor General said in his 2011 report when he noted that the Ontario government had not done a cost/benefit analysis in respect to the implementation of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act. Vaasjo’s frank comment simply proves that if the government hands out “money for nothing” there will be a lineup at the doors of Queens Park and a group to lobby for the largesse!
The time has come to close the vault door at Queens Park-- it is empty, and the taxpayers and ratepayers of this province have no more to give in welfare for huge, well-capitalized corporations.
Parker Gallant
September 4, 2013
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily the policy of Wind Concerns Ontario.
*Editor’s note: wind “energy” is the wind itself; wind “power” is what is produced from it. But “energy” sounds so much nicer than big, noisy, industrial power machines, doesn’t it?
Article any source
No comments:
Post a Comment