We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

16 Replies to “We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans”

1. Here again, it’s clear that there is no obligation on the wind generator to decommmission facilities at the end of their useful life. The land owner will be stuck with whatever is left behind and abandoned on his or her property.

2. Ontario is a shambles and anyone fool enough to allow wind turbines on their properties or anywhere around them will be adding to the carnage inflicted by the Liberal party of McGuinty being continued under his party chosen successor when he flew the coup like a coward.
   We in Ontario pay the highest rates for power in North America while the government of Ontario sells surplus power at a loss to Quebec and the US. Someone needs to rein these fools in but alas there are only fools who can do it, the NDP of Ontario will continue to support the minority Liberals.

3. So the Green Energy Act doesn’t specify that the turbine owners have to pay up front for the future disposal of their towers when they stop working? Considering that Ontarians have to pay an Enviro tax on tires, paints and home electronics at purchase that’s a pretty huge omission.
   A question. When you’re felling a derelict 400ft windmill what do you shout? Timber does not fit.

4. “When you’re felling a derelict 400ft windmill what do you shout?”
   “don’t-hit-the-barn-don’t-hit-the-barn-don’t-hit-the-barn-… uh oh.”

5. Al, it should in truth be called the Greed Energy Act. These things litter all of southern Alberta now, I had the displeasure of working an entire day amoungst those bat-whackers and the sounds of the constant jet overhead along with the whoosh whoosh is very hard to put up with, I would fight tooth and nail to keep them away from anywhere I live. I would use the phrase (Suzooooookie) when felling them, unlike his dim bulbs he was hawking to little kids a few years back, those bulbs do brighten up over some time, him and Gore never will.

6. No, there’s no requirement for site decommissioning in the GEA. Unless specified in the contract, any owner of any renewable energy project can simply abandon the works at the end of their useful life. Most simply this would be done by folding the company into bankruptcy.
   This was the case decades ago with mines across Canada for example. Mines would simply be abandoned at the end of their useful life. This was ended by decommissioning requirements placed on mines during the permitting and environmental review process. That dealt with new mines, but the old ones are still left. So over the past decade or so, the federal and provincial governments have been launching clean-up programs for old mine sites. In one specific case, when Cameco Corporation was formed, it was given specific liability for old uranium mine sites in NWT that it had inherited from Eldorado. Cameco had its liability fully funded within three years of its creation, but it was not until the Harper government that full funding was available for the federal portion.
   Now the large utilities all have decommissioning requirements on them for nuclear plants, coal-fired or oil fired thermal plants, and I believe hydro dams should one ever be removed. AND, in the case of nuclear, the deommissioning fund must be fully funded. But there are NO statutory decommissioning obligations for any renewable energy project to my knowledge. Indeed, there are no environmental assessment requirements for any renewable energy project in Canada despite their very large land footprint.
   Removing the tower is not the problem, or at least not the expensive problem. The real cost is extracting the concrete base. It has a concrete volume of about five school buses.

7. Very complex stuff.
   Guess that was a good reason for outfits like
   Loblaws, WalMart, etc., to stick with solar to
   screw taxpayers/power customers out of those
   huge and wasteful subsidies for “green” nonsense.

8. I can foresee what will happen when the government subsidies run out or the turbines self-destruct and repair is uneconomical. The numbered companies will simply walk away sticking the landowner with the task of removal. Since this is heavy demolition work it will be expensive. Either the government ponies up more tax dollars or the wrecks stand there for decades as a monument to Ontario voter’s stupidity.

9. So?
   When you are mining the subsidies provided by political activists, to rob the many, enriching the few and politically connected, ethics and due process are not priorities.
   Robbing farmers of their land,land use rights and future, that is no accident, that is a design feature.

10. The people of Ontario, (ie, Liberal voters on Ontario) are a group of complete losers. A bunch of brain dead morons. You people are getting what you deserve. Please don’t come out west looking for work. We don’t want your types out here. Remember we are too REDNECK for you center of the universe Toronto types.

11. Well I just drove by the new staging area on Kerwood road close to where I live, and it seems it doesn’t matter we are giving away power at a cost. Last weekend it was just a cleared area with some gravel on it and material for the new substation and access roads. This week it’s being security fenced, and beginning to fill with rolls of electrical wire etc. People aren’t asking what the trough is filled with they are just feeding from it. This scam is way bigger than it even seems when you see the scale first hand when things get down to being constructed. I know first hand of one family that wishes they never signed (they found native remains of their site before construction and where told by security they shouldn’t be on their own land taking a look at the construction site ), and I’m sure close friends of mine that signed wish the same but I don’t talk to them about it. I feel bad for them as they are really good people.
    Just from I’ve been hearing from guys involved in the different sub trades cost doesn’t seem to matter, and it’s disorganized in a way that money doesn’t seem to matter.
    I know taxpayers are funding this one way or another but I do wonder if the substation and new transmission lines are being installed and paid for by Ontario Hydro as there are new post locations staked every 100 meters or so on the east side of Kerwood Road for around 10 kilometers and who is going pay for the maintenance on the lines once completed over the years?
    I hope the charade is public enough before anyone west of Ontario has to try and fight the insanity.
    Moneys talks way louder than principals and integrity.

12. If disposal of CFL light bulbs require Hazardous Materials special handling, what will the disposal of generators made with rare-earth minerals etc. require? Farmers better be saving their windfalls from ‘energy’ companies…

13. Yes they are being subsidized by ratepayers. By the terms of the GEA, Hydro One (Ontario Hydro was broken up in 1998) is required to connect all of the renewable installations. It recovers cost based on the quantity of electricity transmitted from the generator. Given the small volumes, this will likely not be fully recovered.
    But that’s not the end of it. The most valuable electricity is the lowest cost electricity, and thats hydro and nuclear. However, renewables have first right of way on the transmission system, meaning that water sometimes needs to be spilled and nuclear generated steam vented instead of producing low cost electricity.

14. …Please don’t come out west looking for work. We don’t want your types out here…”
    I rather suspect that all those Albertans who voted for Redford might get along with Trawna Liberals quite well.
    Your supposed red necks aren’t that red at all…more like a tinge of gentle pink. 😉

15. Ex chair of the environmental round table has been spouting off in Washington DC. Calling Canada a rogue state in relation to AGW.
    Don’t we have a black hood squad?

16. I give it 15 years before these so called Energy farms , go the way of telephone booths.
    With Germany, Australia, Russia calling BS on an obviously engineered energy crisis. It won’t take a genius to figure out we compete or collapse.
    Subsidies by the tax payer are so old 20th century.
    There is no more money left to steal from the middle class. Besides people are getting wise to the con & fed up with the wallet thieving by the Political class.
    Push back is coming, slow but immovable.