Ben Acheson – Wind Energy: Chalk it Up As a Loss

Ben Acheson: STT Champion.

Ben Acheson writes for the Huffington Post. He’s also the Energy and Environment Policy Adviser and Parliamentary Assistant to Struan Stevenson MEP at the European Parliament in Brussels. In addition to his expertise on Energy and Environment issues, he has an in-depth knowledge of regional security in Central Asia, animal welfare within the European Union and EU-aspects of the Scottish independence debate. In his spare time, Ben writes for www.thinkscotland.org and plays semi-professional American Football; in 2012 he was unanimously voted as the National Player of the Year in Belgium.

Ben has started an all out assault on giant fans with this video – “A Different Angle” – Episode 1: Wind Energy: Chalk it Up As a Loss – the first in a series.

In this episode, Ben excoriates wind power and – quite rightly – poses the question as to why the insanity continues?

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Here’s the Transcript:

Wind energy is the clean, green energy of the future – or is it an expensive con? Whatever your view it’s hard to deny the polarizing nature of the wind a bit. Rarely a day goes by without a news story slamming wind farms.

But just two years ago anyone who spoke out against wind turbines was publicly ostracised – they were branded a social pariah. But today just as it was once  popular to support wind energy it is almost, almost, become fashionable to oppose it.

We’ve seen how wind farms have blighted our precious landscapes and treasure towns. We’ve heard about planning departments ignoring planning guidelines and causing property values to plummet. Hundreds upon hundreds of anti-wind groups have sprung up across the nation and they’ve told us things like the health impacts which for the first time have been confirmed by a peer-reviewed science-based report.

We’ve seen turbines explode and come crashing to the ground in high winds. We’ve heard about offshore wind farms and how they will destroy our valuable undersea carbon stores, affect aquatic life and close important fishing grounds. The tourist industry will be impacted. The golfing industry will take a hit. Sailing routes will be closed and even Britain’s strategic nuclear deterrent and radar systems will be hampered.

Consumers foot the bill when these turbines have to be shut down in high winds.  There’s been a minimal contribution to the UK energy supply but sky-rocketing bills have caused more people to be thrust into fuel poverty – crippling fuel poverty – where they have to choose between food and fuel. We’ve seen noise abatement orders. We’ve seen communities torn apart by wind farm proposals or handed huge amounts of cash in return for their silence.

Developers and landowners have reaped vast profits from the subsidy regime. Even arguments about green jobs have been debunked and refuted. School children have been used as pro-wind propaganda tools and even the UN has ruled that the UK is in breach of international law over wind farms.

Yet the spread of these massive industrial turbines continues unabated. Isn’t it about time that we looked at all the evidence cumulatively. Isn’t it about time that we chalked it up as a loss and tried something else?
Ben Acheson
15 February 2014

Already chalked up as a bunch of costly losers.