Meridian Energy, which claims to support the communities where it generates electricity, is facing attack from the Makara community on the subject of noise from its West Wind windfarm. It's a subject which refuses to go away. Makara residents have been stating their concerns about the windfarm for years, because it's close to their houses. And now that 40 of the 62 turbines have been completed and brought into use, their fears are becoming their reality.

When LCRA announced the plan for its renewable energy transmission line from San Angelo to Comfort, Kimble County residents formed Clear View Alliance, Inc. Clear View's mission is to create a working relationship with LCRA to achieve environmentally responsible routing and construction methods. Let me be clear at this point: Clear View is not making NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) arguments as to the location of the transmission line despite the fact one LCRA representative, Krista Umscheid-Ramirez, wants to frame our mission in this manner.

Local MPP John Gerretsen stated in an interview with the CBC that the new setbacks are needed "to best protect the health and safety of Ontarians," and that where turbines are shown to cause negative health effects, "the towers will be moved." Ministry of Environment officials who attended the public forum on the Green Energy Act held on June 25 in Toronto proposed that 5% of Wolfe Island residents in close proximity to the turbines could experience such negative health effects as dizziness, tinnitus, headaches and sleep disorders due to noise and vibration. There are many islanders who are now quietly coming to terms with the reality ...

We are writing to express concerns about the health effects from the placement of industrial wind turbines adjacent the residential areas on the shoreline of Pigeon Bay in Kingsville, Union and Leamington and requesting the Ontario Ministry of Health conduct epidemiological studies prior to construction.

So people on Manitoulin can't handle change or that we think that turbines are monsters. I would suggest to Martin and Northland Power that people on Manitoulin are not children to be condescended to. We know turbines are not monsters and we would accept change as well as anyone, provided that it is to the benefit of all of residents, adjacent landowners, farm owners who are leasing their land. We want the concerns clearly addressed, not just reassurances that turbines are not monsters and that everything will be fine. Islanders deserve better then that.

In Mr. Waltz's opinion, the task of writing a meaningful noise ordinance that would, in fact, adequately protect Prattsburgh residents is difficult. Mr. Waltz made a number of extremely provocative comments. One, ...wind turbines produce no constant tonality, no universal signature, making the creation of a noise standard challenging. Two, the most critical issue isn't audible noise; ...Three, because the DEC Noise Guidelines measure DBA without any consideration of low frequency noise, those guidelines are not an appropriate standard for a Prattsburgh Noise Ordinance.

The presence of these overwhelming techno-energy giants brings to mind a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. ...It's hard to see anything else. When I look towards the water, I don't see the natural beauty of Kingston's harbour anymore. I don't see Garden Island, Simcoe Island or even Wolfe Island, as my vision is drawn to these massive propellers waiting in rest or whirling away, depending on the breeze. If the daytime view isn't bad enough, the blinking red warning lights on the towers at night light up the sky like a runway at Pearson International Airport.

Before we go any further, let me address something that comes up every time someone asks questions about a green project in this province. It's a favourite tactic of our Liberal government to dismiss concerns of their constituents as being NIMBYism (Not in My Backyard), or those people don't want to help the planet. A word of warning to the province: that kind of dismissal here on the Island just makes Islanders dig in harder. As far as I can tell, the concerns of this citizens group are legitimate and I believe they need to be addressed.

Governor Deval Patrick's goal of 2,000 megawatts of wind power by 2020 will achieve very little at great cost, according to the state's own data. Nonetheless, he is seeking from the Legislature an unprecedented set of special privileges to benefit the wind industry. ...The 5 percent of our state's electricity provided by 710 wind turbines in the Berkshires will not slow the rise of coastal sea levels, but it will mean the irretrievable loss of a globally rare landscape.

To continue developing east of Milton-Freewater ...is putting too much of a burden on one area of the county and the state. Make no mistake in identifying these 300- to 550-foot tall structures - they are industrial energy facilities - and the Umatilla County Planning Commissioners are now charged with sifting through the facts to determine whether this is the right decision to make for the majority of the people they serve.

There is a large wind turbine project called Black Fork Wind Farm that consists of 112 turbines 400 feet tall with three 100-foot blades to be placed in an area bounded by the west edge of Shelby on the east, Hazelbrush Road to the north, Hook Road to the south towards Crestline and extending on the west past Tiro towards New Washington. This is a beautiful rural area including Shelby Airport and a KOA campground that will be transformed into an industrial installation.

It's not yet midnight. The sky is clear, except for a few small clouds moving across the sky. I am standing on my back deck and I am in awe of the ominous, deep rumblings of the closest windmill. It is a kilometre away. This is the sound they told us did not exist. Just like the ones I saw in Loweville, the turbines sound like a jet--too high to be seen, but close enough to hear. The difference is, the jet passes over, and the silence of the night resumes. In the case of the turbines, the noise continues into the night, and then into the day.

Back in the good old days there was a saying - "necessity is the mother of invention" but times are changing and in order to meet these changing times we need a new philosophy; case in point - the St. Joseph Wind Project. In a strange twist of logic, it has been deemed - "invention is the mother of necessity" and the St. Joseph wind project is a perfect example of this new way of thinking.

I have spent years and resources protecting open lands and have served on The Nature Conservancy's Boston board, The Berkshire Natural Resources Council board (still there), Project Native (also still there) and am active on the Green Berkshires board which is the principal advocate for information and facts pertaining to wind . It is a betrayal of our many years of conservation work for preservation of our forest lands to litter our hilltops with turbines for the minuscule difference they can possibly make.

You knew it was going to happen at some point. All those efforts at producing electricity without creating greenhouse gases were going to backfire. ...It would be naive to think that green energy ventures were going to run perfectly. But did scientists and public officials not think this through at all?

There is near-universal agreement that meeting the state's goals for reducing fossil fuels will require major new lines between California's cities and the places where the wind blows strongest and the sun shines steadiest. Is this power line the right project? No, but it won't be the last attempt. ...We might need new lines, but they need to built in the right way, in the right place, with the least impact to residents and our natural environment.

The governor has declared a goal of 2,000 megawatts (MW) of wind power in Massachusetts by the year 2020, and his staff has commissioned a study showing that over half could be located in the Berkshires. ...It's hard to imagine so many 40-story structures on our mountains, but the state has already mapped them, identifying more than 50 places with enough acreage and estimated wind resources to support from five to 53 industrial wind turbines.

I was one of a number of citizens representing 33-plus New York state grass-roots groups that attended the June 16 NYSERDA [New York State Energy Research and Development Authority] environmental stakeholder's meeting on wind power in Albany. The reasons for this unique meeting were to answer citizen's questions on industrial wind power that we have been asking NYSERDA for years now.