Passion & Power: Clever Communities Hate Industrial Wind Power And They Fight Back

Rural communities are fighting back hard against the great wind power fraud, wherever the wind industry seeks to ply its subsidy-soaked trade.

Wherever wind farms have appeared – or have been threatened – big numbers of locals take a set against the monsters being speared into their previously peaceful – and often idyllic – rural communities.

Their anger extends to the goons that lied their way to development approval – and the bent officials that rubber-stamped their applications and who, thereafter, help the operators ride roughshod over locals’ rights to live in and enjoy the peace and comfort of their own homes and properties (see our post here).

As wind turbines are incapable of generating power on demand and wouldn’t last a second without massive subsidies, there is no ‘right’ place for them. Any power generation source that can’t deliver electricity on demand is pointless, so talk about appropriate siting is pure nonsense. Why bother?

Rent seekers and crony capitalists are still pushing hard to jam these things in any backyard they can find, but in the grand prairie Province of Alberta, hard-working rural communities are fighting back.

Albertans Say NO to Wind Project
Wind Concerns
Press Release
28 March 2023

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Elk Point rural residents are fighting back against Vancouver-based Elemental Energy’s proposed industrial wind turbine project on the North Saskatchewan River Valley
  • Citizens have organized themselves under the group “Wind Concerns” launching a website and mass information campaign
  • Wind Concerns cites hundreds of studies and data that now show massive wind turbines are linked to serious animal and human health effects, and these have been recognized by courts of law
  • Wind Concerns points out that the proposed project is in an official “Wildlife Sensitivity Zone” and directly in the migratory path of the endangered Whooping Crane
  • Alberta’s Environment and Protected Areas has been silent on the project

“There is nothing ‘environmentally friendly’ about industrial wind turbines,” says Wind Concerns Editor in Chief, Mark Mallett. “We call them “green” and “clean”, but the truth is that they are incredibly destructive, not only to agricultural land and habitats, but they are definitively proven to show harm to animal and human health.”

Wind Concerns was launched early in March 2023 in response to the sudden news that the picturesque valley around Elk Point, Alberta could potentially be changed forever by industrial wind farms. “I had just moved my family here less than a year ago. We couldn’t believe it,” said Mallett, who formed the citizen group when he learned that 15 turbines reaching 120m (394ft) above the horizon in the Northern Valley were planned for his “backyard”, as well as a second project just north of Elk Point by Northland Power. That one was slated to begin with 35 turbines, however, it was abruptly cancelled after some 50 families stood up against the project. The company cited “a lack of wind” as well as other environmental factors that made the project unviable. But the Elemental Energy program is still in the works.

“We have learned a lot from our neighbors in Ontario in their experience with massive wind turbine farms,” says Mallett. “The mad dash to replace traditional energy sources ran absolutely roughshod over people, basic rights, common sense, and the environment. It wasted billions of dollars — and is still not a reliable source of energy. And with today’s announcement that the Federal Government plans to spend hundreds of billions of tax dollars we don’t have to continue this mad transformation to a ‘green economy’, the citizens of Elk Point are saying no, absolutely not — not at the expense of our health, the environment, wildlife, and the beauty of the Lakeland region.”

Mallett cites over 480 studies showing the harm to human health of those living near turbines. “They want to build these among acreages and farmhouses. We heard what it did to people in Ontario. It’s just insane. It’s unethical.” A French court recently ruled in favour of a Belgium couple who suffered from “Wind Turbine Syndrome” caused, in part, by the infrasonic or inaudible spectrum of noise generated by these massive turbines. A Norwegian court awarded damages to herdsmen whose animals were adversely effected by the massive wind farms there. “The public is waking up,” said Mallett “to the scope of destruction these wind turbines are causing. The general public doesn’t know, so that’s what we’re trying to do — educate fast. We’re not against clean energy. We’re against energy corporations ignoring human rights and, in the end, doing more harm than good to the environment.”

Mallett’s comments come on the heels of an eminent Oxford scientist who is criticizing the “bluster of windfarm politics.” Emeritus Professor Wade Allison says the scientific evidence and basic math show that wind farms cannot deliver consistent energy. “Wind power fails on every count,” he said.

In a phone call with Mallett, Elemental Energy’s Development Manager, Liam Wolfe, claimed that the project slated for south of Elk Point in the Northern Valley doesn’t have “any key sensitive wildlife features” in the area. “That’s simply false,” said Mallett. “Not only is this a migratory path of the endangered Whooping Crane, which has been spotted in the area, but it’s designated by Alberta Fish and Wildlife as a ‘Wildlife Sensitivity Zone.’

In other words, these wind corporations have no business attempting to put an industrial wind farm in the middle of such a sensitive ecological area, much less in the backyards of people’s quiet farms and acreages.” He says this should essentially stop the project dead in its tracks. While Wind Concerns has reached out to Alberta’s Environment and Protected Areas office and its minister, Hon. Minister Sonya Savage, there has been no reply. “If ever there were a time for the government to protect this beautiful province, not to mention its people, it’s now,” says Mallett.

Wind Concerns sent out several thousand flyers throughout the county warning citizens of the project. “It’s amazing how quietly these wind projects are being done. Most people don’t even know — but they’re starting to.” A public meeting is planned for April 4, 2023 at the Seniors Recreation Centre in Elk Point where Wind Concerns will address the situation, educate citizens, and continue their mobilization to stop the project from advancing. “People are shaking my hand and thanking me for organizing this,” says Mallett. “But it’s not about me, though my family is directly affected. It’s really about our country heading down a path that is doing far more harm than good.”
Wind Concerns

3 thoughts on “Passion & Power: Clever Communities Hate Industrial Wind Power And They Fight Back

  1. Wind turbines are like money lenders / protection rackets. Once you let them into your area, that’s the whole place knackered!

    Sadly it only takes one muppet to sign up and you’re a goner, and the wind mafia knows this. If you’re going to fight these anti human, anti nature ‘bullies’ it’s all or nothing! These developers are the lowest of the low. Let them in and you’ve only got yourselves to blame, and there is more than enough evidence now in the public domain to witness how they have destroyed communities. Look at the Macarthur wind farm in Victoria, Australia for example. It is a toxic environment. A no go zone. I know the families that have had their lives turned upside down, and the hosts who have signed up, but cannot live there anymore. It is like an industrial wasteland. And this has been caused in part by the fact the developer bought up certain properties and flattened them with bulldozers!

    These are evil bastards you are dealing with here. Don’t give them an inch!

  2. “We have learned a lot from our neighbors in Ontario in their experience with massive wind turbine farms,” says Mallett. “The mad dash to replace traditional energy sources ran absolutely roughshod over people, basic rights, common sense, and the environment. It wasted billions of dollars — and is still not a reliable source of energy.”
    Thank you STT for this article.

    As a rural resident in Ontario, being reminded of the battle that took place here is painful. The disruption was/is destructive on so many levels.
    The Green Energy Act allowed for regulatory capture to take place very quickly, such that our democratic rights were removed. Our elected Municipal ‘leaders’ claimed they were “powerless”, instead of pushing back to protect their residents. They became part of the wind industries cheering squad and took the bribe money, claiming that they were encouraging business development.
    These wind turbines were sold to the people of Ontario by the Liberal government, who, with the support of the media, claimed it was our way to “save the planet”. Many people, even then, knew that the alarmist climate change rationale was a deception. but this subject was not up for debate in Canada.

    The 2,000 federally funded media outlets in Canada consistently controlled the narrative about climate change alarmism, such that urban residents were willing to allow rural residents to be harmed for the duration of 20 year contracts….collateral damage for a necessary common cause.

    That Liberal government was eventually decimated. They lost their party status. A Conservative government was elected on the promise that they would protect rural residents from the wind industry, but, to this day, they still have failed to do so.

    Residents being harmed by both audible noise and inaudible pulsations/infrasound radiation and shadow flicker because the turbines were sited in arrays/clusters too close to, and in some cases surrounding their homes, reported in explicit detail the harm to all who were responsible……to no avail. They were further abused in the process.
    After 4 years of cumulative impact, 4 residents agreed to allow Minister Christine Elliot to see their medical records to prove to her that they were being harmed. She chose not to respond.
    Some residents painfully endured the added stress of participating in legal hearings. They told their truth about the disruptions they had experienced, only to be faced with a judicial response that was biased toward the state and the wind industry. This was further abuse, that left them scarred with the realization that our common law values in Canada had been lost.

    The turbines continue to run. Some people try to spend as little time in their homes as possible to prevent cumulative harm. some have abandoned their homes. Some still have never connected the dots between the trespassing impacts of the turbines and their declining mental and physical health.
    For those who lost faith in the government, ‘learned helplessness’ has set in. They have been foresaken.

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