In our post – CER no longer game to ride with the developers committing REC Fraud – we documented the moment when Green turned a smelly shade of brown for the King of Victorian greentard’s – Greg Barber.
Green Policies: best you don’t inhale.
Barber scored an “own goal” when he had Vic Planning Minister – Matthew Guy – confirm that Spanish wind weasels – Acciona’s Waubra operation – has been operating in breach of the noise conditions of its planning consent since it started driving locals out of their homes almost 4 years ago.
STT has been following the blacksmith from Ballarat for months now as he rips into the greatest economic and financial fraud in Australian history. Here’s Marshall Madigan going in hard last Tuesday in the Senate.
The Senate
18 June 2013
Senator MADIGAN (Victoria) (22:05):
The largescale, wind energy industry is being allowed to do what it likes, where it likes in Australia. Wind energy should be a tale of positive action and change. Instead, the real story is one of regulatory failure, harm to local residents, environmental damage, wrongly issued renewable energy certificates and a discredited RET system. The authors of this disturbing tale are coalition and ALP governments at federal and state levels over the last 15 years.
Late last year, Senator Doug Cameron spoke of the wind energy industry’s importance to the government’s climate change and emission reduction policies. I say now to Senator Cameron, making excuses to ward off proper regulation of this industry by slagging off at me or mocking the experience of affected residents will not protect the government’s policy. These tactics do not even help the industry you are trying to promote.
They will not improve the operating standards of the industry, they will not deliver regulatory stability, and they will not repair the industry’s damaged image.
What will help this industry, and protect the government’s policy, is robust regulation that holds the industry to account and forces it to improve its practices. Legislation is needed right now to reduce and control wind farm noise. Regulators right now need to enforce the requirements of the Renewable Energy Act and the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
I have seen too many rural communities hammered by industrial noise produced by wind energy facilities that may or may not comply with the standard.
Over time the Clean Energy Regulator and state and territory regulators have failed to ensure compliance.
Worse, they have accredited and approved wind energy facilities prior to construction, effectively negating post-construction permit conditions. The Renewable Energy Act is crystal clear. It says that, in order to become eligible for accreditation, wind energy facilities must operate with regard to all local, state, territory and Commonwealth laws. The fraud policy statement of the Clean Energy Regulator is equally crystal clear. It says:
Fraud is a significant threat to the integrity of our schemes … and the credibility of the markets that we operate. Fraud is defined as … dishonestly obtaining a benefit … by deception or other means. Examples … are … providing false or misleading information in an application to the Clean Energy Regulator.
Like other jurisdictions, Victoria has not bothered developing the capacity to check whether wind farm proponents tell the truth in their applications.
Disturbingly, planning Minister Matthew Guy revealed that since Waubra’s turbines started turning four years ago, it has never been signed off for noise compliance.
This wind farm has split the local community, driven people from their homes and seen Acciona buy up seven properties, effectively carving out a buffer zone in the countryside. Meanwhile, Acciona has been allowed to rack up more than $80 million worth of renewable energy certificates that should never have been issued, with the cost loaded onto the bills of Australian electricity consumers.
Minister Matthew Guy, I call on you today: we want a decision on Waubra. Does it comply or not?
Make a decision. If it does comply, well and good.
If it does not, make the call and tell the Clean Energy Regulator. You owe the Waubra residents the courtesy of a decision and you owe Australian energy customers the right not to be ripped off. State, territory and Commonwealth governments and their regulators are all failing to ensure compliance – it is systemic regulatory failure. Federal governments of all persuasions, with the support of the Greens, have also approved wind farms contrary to the requirements of the Commonwealth Environment Protection Act.
My office recently received a letter on behalf of Minister Tony Burke regarding the environmental concerns of local residents about the proposed Mt Gellibrand wind farm. Ministers, their departments and regulators are all failing to regulate the wind energy industry. Self-regulation does not work.
Senator John Madigan
STT puts the poser: is Matthew Guy a man or a mouse?
Not sure why – but I really feel like cheese for lunch again.
Is he ready to man up and call a “stinking, rort-ridden, State-sponsored, criminal racket” when it is jumping up and biting him on the nacelles?
STT knows that Acciona’s own noise data unequivocally shows its wind farm to be non-compliant with the NZ Noise Standard at numerous homes as a matter of FACT – and that Matt Guy has been sitting on a report for over 12 months from Dr Bob Thorne confirming that FACT – based on his own data.
Well Matt? Struggling Danish turbine outfit – Vestas – has been paying greentards to start parroting some line about acting on facts – how about ACTING on these FACTS?
Well Matt? Do you want to be referred to as someone turning a blind eye to criminal conduct and go down in infamy?
Or would you rather tip a bucket on wanton and wholesale theft from the Commonwealth and Australian power consumers?
Noel Dean – victim of the Waubra REC Fraud.
Acciona keeps pulling in $millions in RECs – despite breaching its planning consent and – therefore – the LAW – and causes untold human misery into the bargain. That’s another FACT.
And Matt – take note that the 7 homes at Waubra that used to belong to your constituents – families who were productive members of a once great rural community – and which are now owned by a Spanish wind farm operator – were paid for out of the $80 million in RECs that it should have never received.
So Matt: man or mouse?
Only a greentard would vote for me.
About stopthesethings
STOP THESE THINGS 
A while back Minister Guy seemed to be listening and acknowledging that there were indeed problems for wind factory neighbours at Waubra, and undertaking to ensure compliance. For a moment he seemed to be an honest lad.
It now appears there is more than Danish cheese (a Castello perhaps?) in his feed trough, or is he being lent on by Super Rats up the Liberal food chain? After all, we know the corruption associated with the wind industry crosses political divides and is not monopolised by the ALP or Greens. Look no further than the recent, cynical exercise of a King Island vote where the result was changed by shifting the goalposts! A regular wind scam strategy, so we should not be surprised.
This industry needs the blowtorch of an ICAC to flush out the entrenched corruption and abuse. No less. And watch the Rats desert the sinking ship…
Keep up the good work STT.
Minister Mathew Guy, SHAME, SHAME, SHAME.
You have been put on watch by the people for the people, & you have NOT been doing what you have been entrusted to, JAIL, JAIL, JAIL. You took the oath to do the right thing, AND YOU HAVE NOT.
Julia you have taken the same OATH, you are supposed to be Prime Minister of this Nation of Australia, & you are not worthy of the title. What you have let go on in the wind turbine industry fraud, with the noncompliance for example, REC, exessive noise, & health issues, just to name a few, as there are plenty more in the wind industry that are in the same boat. I won’t get on to boats as I will be here all night.
How about the Labor party, the so called Green Party, Chapman – Flannery & Co & the wind industry, making good to the people that have had their lives destroyed because of the above.
By the way you wind weasels & greentards, you need to learn to count, as there were a lot more concerned people at the rally in Canberra, at Parliament House, on Tuesday June 18. We in the bush know how to count whhere there are gatherings, as we have been counting herds of live stock in paddocks & yards for years, & get it right.
This is massive fraud and those supporting this industry know it very well. Much of the media go hard and hammer those in their own profession who dare to speak out about this fraud, which is not only a financial fraud but also an information fraud. Some sections of the media are so fixed on appearing to be informed, they forget there is another side to the story of BIG WIND. Let’s hope all politicians and all the media remember their duty is to listen, learn and act in the interests of all, not just a few very rich concerns.
Compliance, Accountability & Enforcement – all missing from Federal, State and Local government regulation of the renewable energy industry, due either to blind eye syndrome (Federal/State) or cost constraints (Local). But, in its absence, we are told blatant breaches are occurring. Breaches of the law. Criminally, fines/terms of imprisonment usually follow convictions for such. Civilly, damages usually follow – arising from health impacts, business losses, value diminutions. Thank you Senator Maddigan et al for waking up Federal Parliament to its responsibilities to ensure enforcement of existing legislation occurs (as a minimum) and its responsibilities to the Australian public.
Thank you Senator Madigan for continuing to raise this issue in Parliament. It is a disgrace that this corrupt situation has been allowed to continue. Minister Guy’s inaction is shameful. Is he or his party receiving donations (aka bribes) from industries ill-gotten REC gains? All the more reason for a Royal Commission or ICAC inquiry into this fraud on the Australian public.