Minister Revokes Approval for Nation Rise wind power project
Controversial wind power project will cause irreversible harm to wildlife minister says in revoking approval; decision made in context that the power isn’t needed
December 9, 2019 OTTAWA:
Jeff Yurek, Ontario Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks issued a decision revoking the Renewable Energy Approval for the Nation Rise wind power project under construction in North Stormont, near Ottawa.
The Minister’s decision was in response to an appeal filed by community group Concerned Citizens of North Stormont of a quasi-judicial decision supporting the project approval.
In his decision, the Minister concluded that the wind turbines would cause serious and irreversible harm to endangered bat populations in the area. The potential for harm to wildlife was considered in the context of the contribution to Ontario’s electricity supply in Ontario, which would be minimal; the Minister concluded that it was in the public interest and a precaution to protect the environment to revoke approval for the power project.
Margaret Benke, representing the Concerned Citizens of North Stormont (CCNS) welcomed the Minister’s decision. The group had raised many concerns about the environment in its appeal. “Now,” she says, “the environment, wildlife and human health will be protected from the harmful effects of wind turbines.”
Benke thanked the many people who supported the Concerned Citizens group financially and with submissions of information for the original appeal before the Environmental Review Tribunal and subsequent appeal to the Minister.
“This power project has been very divisive for our community; now North Stormont can again be a good place to grow.”
The Nation Rise project consisted of up to 33 turbines located near Finch, Berwick and Crysler in Eastern Ontario. The project was planned to generate up to 100 MW of electricity under a 20-year, $400-million contract awarded by the IESO.
CCNS is a community group member of the Wind Concerns Ontario coalition.
CONTACT: Wind Concerns Ontario at contact@windconcernsontario.ca or president@windconcernsontario.ca
Concerned Citizens of North Stormont: macbenke@aol.com
Letter from Minister Jeff Yurek: Nation Rise – Minister’s Decision wrt the Appeal
12 Comments
Doug Corner
As I write this comment, wind turbines are generating 3100MW of power, all in excess of demand. No doubt, this is being sold at a loss to Ontario consumers.
This is a good decision by the Ontario government.
Richard Mann
Great news. Now can we turn off all Industrial Wind Turbine in Ontario?
It is well past time to turn off Turbines due to known and documented health harm. Please ask anyone who denies health harm of Industrial Wind Turbines to watch this presentation. University of Waterloo, Waterloo Ontario Canada.
Title: “Infrasound and Low Frequency Noise: Physics & Cells, History & Health”
Speaker: Dr Mariana Alves-Pereira
Location: University of Waterloo
Date: September 12, 2019
Video archive of presentation:
livestream.com/itmsstudio/events/8781285
Dr. Alves-Pereira’s research profile is at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mariana_Alves-pereira
Note; there is approx 2 mins of dead air at the beginning. The talk is ~50 minutes, followed by a long Q&A
Richard Mann
Video archive of presentation:
https://livestream.com/itmsstudio/events/8781285
Sommer
As much as one must see this as good news for the community of North Stormont because their bats will be spared, it leaves the residents in other communities who are being harmed by acoustic radiation wondering when they will get the same protection from the Ministry of the Environment that the bats of North Stormont have been granted.
Acoustic pressure waves bombarding bodies of residents living within recklessly sited turbine clusters are causing cumulative harm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVU8QIMrX88
Barbara
It appears that the money for IWT investments has been freed-up? So it may be a cold day in ‘ell when infrasound studies take place?
Barbara
UNEP
Topic: Renewable energy barriers.
Article
https://www.unenvironment.org/explore-topics/energy/what-we-do/renewable-energy
Barbara
UN
Meetings Coverage And Press Releases
Articles
https://www.un.org/press/en/search/content/renewable+energy+barriers
Barbara
UN
Meetings Coverage And Press Releases
Articles
https://www.un.org/press/en/search/content/wind%2520energy%2520barriers
Sommer
Considering that there were no studies done to prove that residents whose homes would be surrounded by arrays of turbines would be safe on their properties and in their homes from acoustic trespassing of emissions of audible and inaudible noise, this incursion must be considered an experiment. The logical and legal conclusion is that residents who have been and are being harmed have had their rights violated. The Nuremberg Code was established to protect them.
The first statement of the Nuremberg Code addresses the key issue that must be considered in order to end the ethical crisis we’re facing in Ontario regarding harm to health from industrial wind turbines as a result of this experiment.
#1The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.
Residents did not consent to being harmed.
Residents were not told about the risks of being exposed to audible and inaudible(LFN modulations and infrasound radiation) noise which would be emitted by industrial wind turbines in such close proximity.
When residents reported harm, the MoECC’s responses were inadequate to protect them and prevent further harm.
Residents consistently reported that the wind industry’s compliance standards for audible noise were obviously wrong because they were repeatedly experiencing the annoyance response.
Finally, after four years of enduring the harm and reporting the harm, more than half of Ontario’s largest wind turbine project was derated because the tonal noise was finally properly tested and the results showed non-compliance.
Despite the derating, the tonal noise continues along with the swooshing and whomping noise which is ruining the environment of residents.
After repeatedly asking the Federal Minister of Health to enforce the Radiation Emitting Devices Act, absolutely nothing has ever been done to protect and prevent harm from LFN modulations and infrasound radiation.
Residents have gone to their medical doctors, reporting the symptoms of this harm and instead of doctors interceding on their behalf and going to the government to ask that the turbines be turned off, in fear of the ramifications for doing that, doctors have prescribed pharmaceutical medications to prevent the symptoms from recurring!
The relationship of trust between doctors and patients has been lost.
Also within the Nuremberg Code, in statement #7 it says that this code was established to protect the experimental subject against even the remote possibility of injury, disability or death.
This does not say that there has to be medical or scientific certainty in order to inform that there is a risk. So why is it that this government insists on having medical or scientific evidence of harm, after the harm has been done in this experiment?
Residents were not told about the risk of harm of having clusters of turbines surrounding their homes. This is the violation. These residents were told there would be no harmful acoustic emissions and yet as soon as the turbines were turned on, there were noticeable changes in health and residents started reporting them because they truly believed they would be protected. No residents consented to being harmed. Who in their right mind would ever consent to being harmed?
In closing, please consider the profundity of this violation in light of this statement from the New England Journal of Medicine, written by Evelyn Shuster, PhD, Nov. 1997-
-FROM HIPPOCRATES TO NUREMBERG-
Informed consent, the core of the Nuremberg Code, has rightly been viewed as the protection of subjects’ rights. The key contribution of Nurembergers was to merge Hippocratic ethics and the protection of human rights into a single code.
Stan Thayer
Hey, idiot Liberal voters, you are lucky people, you can kiss my ass and I can’t.
Stan the power man
Sommer
Please take time to try to fully understand the information in this article:
http://en.friends-against-wind.org/justice/human-rights-and-wind-energy-projects
Send it to key politicians.