News from Maine

From Maine:

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/08/26/protesters-target-shumlin-during-lowell-mountain-rally/

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/08/26/protest-opposes-maine-wind-projects/

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/08/26/wind-activists-protest-roxbury-project/

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/08/26/wind-power-protesters-tackle-montpelier/

and Cambridgeshire

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/08/26/end-of-plan-for-wind-farms-on-council-land/

Matthew Sinclair

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/266771?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TPA+Bulletin+260818

Two quotes from the article:

"The renewables obligation requires energy companies to source a certain share of electricity from wind turbines, solar panels and other renewables. As they are more expensive than coal and gas it means higher prices. It cost £1.1billion in 2009-10 and is rising. Over this decade analysts at Citigroup have found that Britain needs to invest more than Germany, France and Spain put together to meet environmental targets and that paying for this investment will mean dual fuel bills rising more than 50 per cent above inflation."


"The poor and elderly will be particularly hard hit as they spend a bigger share of their money on fuel. David Cameron said he wouldn’t balance the Budget on the backs of the poorest people in the world but he is making some of the poorest people in Britain pay for a climate policy that will not save the planet."

Map of North and Mid Devon

View North and Mid Devon Wind Turbine Sites in a larger map

Here is a link to a pdf produced by rwe-npower renewables showing the exact route of the Atlantic Array cable from landfall to sub-station. This is a pdf, and the map is on Page 3. Page 2 shows the location of the windfarm in the sea - it will be visible from Mynydd y Gwair (Swansea) and Ilfracombe, Lundy, and much of the North Devon Coast. A point worth making is the fact that the 22 Fullabrook turbines are visible from Dartmoor: the Atlantic Array could have anything between 188 and 417 turbines, and will be visible for many miles.



Just to give you an idea of what is happening to Devon... on the map above use arrows to zoom out, this view is focused on the Alverdiscott area (see below for links to more news about sub-station and Atlantic Array)

Other news:
A single turbine has just been approved near Bishops Nympton (not yet on this map)... so many turbines are coming it is hard to keep track of them.

The Atlantic Array

Some links:

http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/Windfarm-sea-cost-pound-4-5-billion/story-13155357-detail/story.html

http://www.alverdiscott-huntshaw-parish.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=6949

http://projectmindwake.blogspot.com/2011/08/giant-cables-to-link-sub-station-to.html

more to come

More about George West

Yesterday's link concerning George West was an old one: here is a link to his updated page on our website, with a couple of examples of George's paintings, and a photograph of George himself.

There is also a link on his page to the 2009 Nant y Moch protest. It was George who designed the poster for it ( seen being held by Angela Kelly in our previous posting, below.)

Sadly the turbines at Crimp, near Morwenstow (the subject of one of his paintings) in North Cornwall are now up and running, and as usually happens, there are proposals for more turbines in that area.

This is a link to a map of the North Cornwall and North West Devon area, showing proposed and operational wind farms.

The Sunday Telegraph today

Chairman of Country Guardian, and artist on our website, Angela Kelly at the 2009 Nant y Moch protest, holding a poster designed by another of our artists, George West.
Angela is mentioned in this article by Robert Mendick and Edward Melnick in today's Sunday Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/8713199/Duke-of-Northumberland-an-unlikely-hero-in-the-fight-against-wind-farms.html

We hear this is a two page article, so don't forget to buy the Sunday Telegraph, after you have looked at this online. There is also another excellent article by Christopher Booker: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/8713093/The-BBC-steadfastly-avoids-the-facts-about-the-wind-farm-scam.html.

Matthew Sinclair

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2011/08/how-do-the-conservatives-lose-out-politically-by-embracing-radical-climate-change-policy.html

None of the mainstream political leaders seem to understand that being Green isn't about wasting taxpayers money: it should be about caring for the environment, not making money out of it at the expense of poorer people.

Devon's landscape and tranquility under even greater threat

Now that the Fullabrook turbines in North Devon are up, and visible from as far afield as Yes Tor on Dartmoor, news here of a flood of applications for smaller turbines, as well as some larger ones too.

As noted earlier in June, a couple living near the newly operational turbines at Great Torrington say they will have to move because of noise disturbance, and more recently there is already concern about the level of noise that the Fullabrook turbines are making during their testing period.

Devon's greatest asset was its landscape and its areas of peace of tranquility: they are both being destroyed at alarming pace.

http://www.thisisnorthdevon.co.uk/planners-inundated-wind-solar-farm-applications/story-13069647-detail/story.html


http://www.dartmoorpreservation.com/news-a-publications/archive-news/planning-archive/122-renewed-turbine-threat.html

The Green Mirage

http://astore.amazon.co.uk/civitas-21/detail/1906837309

"The Green Mirage: Why a Low-carbon Economy May be Further Off Than We Think"

By John Constable


Here is a quote from their Press Release:

"Constable concludes that, far from re-energising Britain's economy, the 'green economy' will drain investment from other sectors, making Britons pay more for electricity indefinitely and live less productive lives with access to fewer jobs"


See also:

http://www.ref.org.uk/

They're picking on the wrong charities

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenpolitics/planning/8686085/Ministers-go-to-war-with-green-charities-over-planning-shake-up-smears.html

Anrew Orlowski in The Register

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/03/windfarm_health_experts_awol/

Here is a quote from the article:

"Industrial wind installations produce audible and non-audible noise, and optical flicker. But campaigners are fragmented, and face a daunting alliance of big eco-business and government. The academic establishment, which is quick to leap upon public health issues, is strangely inert."

Why is the the academic establishment so slow to pick up on this issue? Can it possibly be because academics are not in fact independent, and need funding from government sources?

Denmark again

http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/news/2011/the-courage-and-necessity-of-we-the-people-denmark/

This article begins:

"I have long argued that Big Wind must be stopped by civil disobedience. Not lawsuits (they don’t work), not public hearings (they’re a farce), not invoking empirical scientific, clinical, or economic evidence (it’s routinely ignored and trivialized).

By civil disobedience I don’t mean violence. Violence is never acceptable. Violence is absurd (I speak as a professional historian)."

Please read it all - there are photographs from Denmark as well.