Residents, landowners, politicians and interested professionals turned up at the Lucknow Community Centre March 9, to have their say in a proposed wind project from Capital Power. While information was provided as to the environmental approval of the project, there was still notable concern from the public about the unknown. "We have (turbines) all around us," said Rita Tigert. "I've read a lot about health problems and concerns."

If a proposed East Garafraxa wind farm goes ahead, people will lose faith in politics and move away from the area, Judith Llewellyn said last week, outside an open house hosted by Invenergy Wind Canada. "People are extremely upset about the undemocratic nature that is revealing," the 12th Line resident said of Ontario's new Green Energy Act, which removes planning authority for renewable energy projects from municipalities.

Turbines spinning in the breeze out in the lake could become a reality, if a massive offshore project moves ahead. ...If approved, the 1,400-megawatt project would be constructed on submerged Crown lands in Lake Erie, more than two kilometres from the shores of such communities as Leamington, Kingsville, Wheatley and Cedar Springs.

The province's Green Energy Act has hamstrung residents ability to fight wind turbine proposals for lakes Erie and St. Clair by putting the financial onus on opponents to prove any harm to human health or the environment. Municipalities need to do hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of studies to fight 715 wind turbines proposed for the two lake, Gord Meuser, a member of Citizens Against Lake Erie Wind Turbines, told Leamington council Monday.

With the growth of the wind energy industry in Southern Alberta, the development of protocol to protect the province's migratory bat population is now underway. Lisa Wilkinson, a species at risk biologist with Alberta Fish and Wildlife and head of the Alberta Bat Action Team (ABAT), said Alberta was a North American pioneer in establishing pre-construction guidelines for wind farm operators.

Fryer originally put forth a notice of motion Feb. 22 stating that "local municipalities should have a voice in matters that affect local watershed planning" and that "we all are concerned about the potential impact that offshore wind turbines might have on water quality, human health along with animal and plant life." The motion called for all other municipalities in Essex County and Windsor to endorse it as well and that these concerns be forwarded to the area's MPs and MPPs.

A Leamington-based company that is proposing to put 700 wind turbines in lakes Erie and St. Clair has hired a high-profile Michigan public relations strategist and former spokesman for the mayor of Detroit. Daniel Cherrin, who was chief communications officer under former Detroit mayor Ken Cockrel Jr., said Thursday he was hired last week by SouthPoint Wind to speak on its behalf about the controversial project.

On March 8, council discussed a petition from 20 area residents. Some are neighboring property owners, while others are residents of Arthur. The petition was about concerns about a project on Lots 2 and 3 on Line 2. "We submit that the location of this project, less than a kilometer from in excess of 2,000 people, is very poorly thought out.

Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Rick Johnson has written City of Kawartha Lakes council in the aftermath of local school concerns over wind turbines. The Trillium Lakelands District School Board has officially given its backing to the Manvers Gone With The Wind group, which is looking for the Ontario government to produce an independent study on the health effects of wind turbines.

A petition signed by neighbours and adjacent landowners expressing "serious concerns" about the wind farm being built on Lots 2 and 3, Line 2, Wellington North was presented to council Monday evening. Those signing the petition said the project, "less than a kilometer from an excess of 2000 people, is very poorly thought out.

In the discussion of the proposed underground energy corridor between New Brunswick and Maine, there are two major misunderstandings. Some Mainers believe that Canadian power is so cheap that we should do almost anything to get it. Some Canadian suppliers believe there is an unquenchable thirst in New England for power from Canada, especially green power.

An overflow crowd said to be close to 1,500 converged on the community hall in Belwood Tuesday night to attend an open house for the proposed Belwood Wind Energy Centre. For the most part, they were not a happy lot. A similar open house was scheduled for Wednesday night at the community hall in Marsville.

Area municipalities and the Essex Region Conservation Authority should develop a regional response to the 700 offshore turbines proposed for lakes Erie and St. Clair, Kingsville council agreed Monday. "It appears to me the whole thing is stacked against municipalities and citizens," Coun. Tamara Stomp said of the new Green Energy Act.

Two years after hundreds of local residents and the township's council vehemently opposed a large wind farm, plans are moving forward to start construction. Officials with the Sydenham Wind Energy Centre say they will start building their $160-million farm in 2011 if Ontario Power Authority (OPA) approval comes through and once an environmental assessment is complete.

A March 6 meeting, outlining the downside of wind turbines, drew close to 200 people to Creemore's Station on the Green. Only six or eight people would have shown up 18 months ago, said one speaker, concluding that the groundswell of opposition to wind turbines is gaining momentum.

He said the swooshing, "cyclical humming" sound of the massive turbines disturbed his family's sleep and caused his young children to wake up in the night. A red beacon light atop the turbines flashes all night, he said, creating a "disco" effect. Schaut said he now fears the rural Meaford landscape will soon become similarly overrun with industrial wind turbines.

Landlord Bill Sioulas thought he'd be paying less for hydro after cutting his consumption by almost 20 per cent. ...Expecting big savings, Mr. Sioulas says he was shocked to open his hydro bill and find a skyrocketing provincial fee had eroded the payoff of his conservation efforts.

Glen Estill is one of a small group of entrepreneurs across the country trudging along a narrow green path. After seeing this week's federal budget, which effectively ended a popular subsidy program to encourage renewable energy producers, the president of Sky Generation Inc., a small wind energy firm in Lion's Head, north of Owen Sound, Ont., says he may have to cool his heels.

The Nova Scotia government is sinking $60 million into a joint venture to produce wind turbine components in a move critics say exposes a province with a long history of failed business subsidies to another risk. NDP Premier Darrell Dexter announced the revitalization of the TrentonWorks plant Friday, saying the partnership with manufacturing heavyweight Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Ltd. will create hundreds of jobs in the "green economy."

The com­mu­nity hall here might not be big enough to hold all the citi­zens concerned about a pro­posed wind farm that is plan­ned for the area. Citizens have started a peti­tion against the proposal and one of them, James Virgin, of Belwood, took out a half-page advertisement in this week's Advertiser to inform residents of the concerns there are for the wind farm proposal.