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Do you agree with the OFA that no more wind turbines should be built until a number of issues are dealt with?
The OFA has made a call to the Ontario government to suspend industrial wind turbines saying there are too many unanswered questions about its value, and that the debate over turbines is polarizing rural communities.
Read the OFA article - click here.
What are your thoughts? Do you agree that no more wind turbines should be built until a number of issues are dealt with?
Take the POLL: Do you think Ontario should halt wind turbines? - click here
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by OntAG Admin on
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formosafarmer Had a great talk with a farm family that is Pro Wind Turbines. Good perspective. Only thing they are against is people stopping their choice
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modernfarmer Ontario farm group calls for halt to wind power developmenttgam.ca/DQyw via @globeandmail iPhone app
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Permalink Reply by Joann on
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I don't believe this is anything more than political posturing.
Our Premier has, in my personal opinion, shown nothing short of contempt towards farmers for the past 9 years.
Ontario is preparing for a budget. The OFA dealt the first hand.
It will be interesting to see how the government play their cards.
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@OntAg wind turbines are only effective in selected areas
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@NewHamburgIndyNewHamburgIndyOntario Federation of Agriculture supports moratorium on#windturbines. What will it mean for projects like this?newhamburgindependent.ca/news/wilmot-wa…
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On the OFA website article re OFA stance on wind turbines by Mark Wales, President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture:
Wind power versus rural power (2012)
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) is calling on the provincial government to suspend the invasion of rural Ontario with industrial wind turbines.
Earlier this week OFA took a hard look at our own concerns with wind turbines. We have always been concerned with the price paid for wind power and the fact that it is not dispatchable – it is not stored for use during peak demand periods, making it highly inefficient. This was noted by Ontario’s Auditor General in his recent Annual Report in December 2011.
In addition, our technical concerns with regard to setback issues, induced current and noise impacts remain unaddressed.
OFA believes that the amendments to the Planning Act made under the authority of the Green Energy Act are not having the desired effect of providing for good planning. Removal of municipal input into industrial wind turbine projects has alienated the rural population and ignored competing community needs and policies.
All of these issues have been emphasized clearly by our members. Over the past few weeks we have clearly heard OFA members tell us of health concerns, concerns over the loss of farmland, encumbrances on their farm properties and many more issues related to the imposition of wind turbines across our rural landscape.
Most disconcerting of all is the impact wind turbines are having on the relationships across rural communities. When wind developments come to a community neighbours are pitted against neighbours. The issue of industrial wind turbine development is preoccupying the rural agenda.
OFA is telling the Ontario government our members have had enough. Rural Ontario cannot continue to be torn apart by wind turbines. The province needs to immediately suspend any further developments until our farm families and rural residents can be assured their interests are protected.
On behalf of rural Ontario, OFA needs to see the government enable community involvement in wind developments to ensure local planning issues and priorities are addressed. We need wind power to be priced right and made dispatchable so it can be used when we need it, rather than selling it at a loss during the nighttime. We need health and nuisance concerns addressed immediately and we need serious studies done on reasonable setback distances for the newer and larger turbines being planned.
The onus is on our provincial government to ensure the interests of rural Ontarians are protected. Our members are clearly telling us now that they are not. There are very serious concerns with wind energy as it is currently rolling out.
OFA supports green energy – Ontario needs a reliable, affordable source of renewable energy for our future. But we all need to work to ensure that green energy projects will respect concerns for noise, community involvement and price, balanced against the effective provision of that power.
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Yes, I agree! no more turbines and thank OFA for putting forward a fairly clear proposal on what should be done to address the very real problems surrounding Industrial wind turbines and wind energy development. Wind is unreliable, intermittent, inefficient, non-dispatchable, & expensive. It has never been proven to reduce the burning or mining of coal, reduce emissions from fossil fuel plants, provide long term green jobs that does not atrophy jobs in other sectors. It will at best provide 5% of Ontario energy needs & requires fossil fuel backup to compensate for it's intermittency. The cost benefit analysis has not been done, read the AG's report. http://www.auditor.on.ca/en/reports_en/en11/303en11.pdf
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Not everyone's health is affected & stating that you r not affected suggest others r lying. Why would these people lie? Maybe ur lying because u make money!
OntAG Admin said:
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"Most disconcerting of all is the impact wind turbines are having on the relationships across rural communities" As a farmer who was presented with the chance to have a turbine but found some very worrisome issues with the contracts, (first-rights of refusal, postponement of mortgages etc) I can attest to how relationships have been shattered because I took a different stance. Our neighbour wanted the turbines & because of the disagreement over the wind issue resulted in him pulling away from our custom combine services.
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So what is their perspective. This is not just about the property right of the landowners who want turbines, it is also the land rights of those next to the turbines. Because of required setbacks, landowners with no turbines are limited with the future development (eg. barns, outbuildings, even their own energy projects)
OntAG Admin said:formosafarmer Had a great talk with a farm family that is Pro Wind Turbines. Good perspective. Only thing they are against is people stopping their choice
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