Hi All
In this first story you will see that Ontario is going to 'fast track' green power projects throughout Ontario. This is too bad because Ontario already has an outdated and dangerous electrical distribution system. The system is able to take out electricity on the electrical wires but large percentages of 'neutral' electricity has to flow back to substations through houses, through barns, across the country and through private properties. This electrical pollution is already harming people, animals and the environment and new developments are likely to make the situation much worse. Stray voltage is a well known pollution problem that the Ontario Energy Board was ordered to correct.
Ontario and in particular Hydro One, need to mend their faulty system first, before considering expansion and new energy projects.
Martin Weatherall
Province to fast-track wind turbine projects
Feb 21, 2009 04:30 AM
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/591043
Tyler Hamilton
Energy Reporter
Municipalities will lose the power to decide how close wind turbines can be to residential properties and environmentally sensitive areas under proposed green-energy legislation being tabled Monday.
The new rules, a blow to NIMBYism, will also ensure that developers of wind and other renewable-energy projects get construction permits within six months.
It's all part of Premier Dalton McGuinty's plan to streamline approvals for such projects, create certainty for developers and attract more investments that will create green-collar jobs in the province – more than 50,000 jobs over three years, McGuinty has touted.
Energy and Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman, speaking yesterday at the Toronto Board of Trade, said the patchwork of municipal guidelines that has evolved over the years has created a cumbersome process for energy developers. He compared it to the patchwork of municipal rules regarding public smoking before the province created an Ontario-wide standard.
Similarly, the proposed Green Energy Act will create a provincial standard for wind turbine sites and a "one-window, one-permit" approach to approvals.
"I see municipalities grappling, struggling, with how to balance the desire of local wind proponents against the desire of some local residents," Smitherman said in an interview. "A patchwork quilt is not the best way forward."
The setback distance for turbines – that is, how far they must be from a home or environmentally sensitive area – will be determined through consultation with the public and the environment ministry. Possible distances will be discussed next week, Smitherman said.
Other items expected to be in the proposed legislation:
The province's Standard Offer Program, which sets standard pricing for electricity from small renewable energy projects, has been scrapped. It will be replaced by a more ambitious program that accommodates wind, biomass, hydroelectric and solar projects.
Homeowners will soon have access to direct grants and low-interest loans to help pay for technology and appliances that make their homes more energy efficient.
New policies will support co-operatives of farmers, homeowners and businesses that want to invest in renewable-energy projects.
The province will also stimulate development of offshore wind farms on the Ontario side of the Great Lakes with the aim of pursuing power-purchase contracts with developers. Toronto Hydro and Trillium Power are two companies planning such projects. "There are wonderful opportunities for offshore wind ... there are lots and lots of exciting proposals," Smitherman said. "We're making sure we'll move those proposals along."
Beth Harrington, a spokesperson for Wind Concerns Ontario – a coalition of 29 community groups concerned about potential noise and health effects from wind developments – said the idea of a province-wide standard for turbine standards makes sense. "What we'd like to know is how will the government determine those universal minimum setbacks? What research will it be based on? Are they actually going to listen to the testimony of people living near wind turbines in Ontario?" she said.
Harrington wouldn't say what a reasonable setback distance might be, though the coalition's website suggests a minimum of two kilometres. "The ball is in the government's court," she said.
Richard King, an energy lawyer with Ogilvy Renault, which has represented wind-farm developers in Ontario, attended Smitherman's speech. He said the government is heading in the right direction by uploading responsibilities from municipalities to the province.
"The municipal stuff is frustrating, because there are a lot of procedural rights attached to it that can go on and on even for the smallest aspects of a project," he said.
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Green law to restrict location of wind turbines, minister says
Feb 20, 2009 04:30 AM
Rob Ferguson
Queen's Park Bureau
http://www.thestar.com:80/News/Canada/article/590474
There's virtually no health danger posed by wind turbines, although Ontario's new "green energy" law would set province-wide guidelines on how close they can be to populated areas, says Energy Minister George Smitherman.
The law, to be introduced in the Legislature Monday, is aimed at bringing more renewable energy projects onto the grid as well as pushing conservation, including incentives to retrofit buildings to reduce electricity consumption, he told reporters.
Smitherman again took aim at opponents of a proposed Toronto Hydro project to put a string of wind turbines in Lake Ontario two to four kilometres off the Scarborough Bluffs, saying they are far enough away from homes not to be "impactful."
"People are raising questions," he said in a nod to area residents concerned about the impact turbines could have on human health, migratory birds and other natural concerns.
"We have done a lot of work looking at the evidence ... we're always reviewing the literature," Smitherman added, suggesting polluted air from coal-fired electricity plants poses health dangers that outweigh concerns about wind turbines.
Bluffs resident Roger Bywater said he's not convinced the scientific literature on "wind turbine syndrome" is as clear as Smitherman portrays, because of concerns low-frequency sound can aggravate people sensitive to migraines, for example. Bywater previously accused the government of losing its ability to discuss the turbine plan in a "fair and rational" manner.
New Democrat energy critic Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth) suggested the government's recent habit of releasing hints about the green law is designed to distract Ontarians from the fact the government is planning to build a new nuclear plant at the Darlington site.
Answer To Noisy
Several factors are involved with wind turbine noise. Indeed I've stood underneath of one and heard very little noise, but as I stood out in front and off to the side of one(about 300m),it sounded like a jet engine. At night wind dies down at the lower level (below 10m), but the wind above continues to blow getting a wind shear effect intensifying the noise at some people's homes. Watch these videos to hear the testimony of someone suffering the ill-effects of the noise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-sRfgwPgAQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHE9FKOJuDo
Submitted by Grant Church at 10:39 AM Monday, February 23 2009
Uproar over a cluster of cancer cases
The University of California, San Diego (UCSD), campus is in an uproar over a cluster of cancer cases among those working in the university's Literature Building.
Eight women who worked there developed breast cancer between 2000 and 2006, which is significantly more than would have been expected by chance, according to an analysis by Cedric Garland, a UCSD epidemiologist.
Now UCSD has turned to Leeka Kheifets for help.
Kheifets has spent most of her professional career
either directly or indirectly working for the Electric
Power Research Institute (EPRI), an arm of the electric utility industry.
Read the whole story at:
Best,
Louis Slesin
[Please note that our home page is expandable. The story is easier to read when you make the window larger.]
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Louis Slesin, PhD
Editor, Microwave News
A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation
Phone: +1 (212) 517-2800; Fax: +1 (212) 734-0316
E-mail: <mwn@pobox.com>
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Workshop on EMF and Health: Science and Policy « EMF Journal
By Moderator
February 23, 2009 - Posted by Moderator | EMF, EMR, Health, awareness, cell phone, cell tower, electricity, family, mast, microwave, mobile, protect, tower | action, cancer, cell phone, children, EMF, Facts, hazards, Health, mast, ...
EMF Journal - http://emfjournal.wordpress.com/
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- France : Nouveau Jugement contre un pylône d'antennes relais de SFR en Provence Alpes Côtes d'Azur (PACA), dans la région de la création du premier écovillage européen Zone Blanche Zone Santé !!
Le tribunal ordonne la destruction et admet dans le jugement un « risque sanitaire éventuel ».
Edition spéciale en préparation, une équipe d'EHS TV News est sur place pour un reportage.
- Vaucluse Matin la Une : "Le juge ordonne la destruction"
- France: a new Judgement against an SFR mobile phone mast in the region of Provence Alpes Côtes d'Azur (PACA - southeast France), the area where the first European White Zone Health Zone eco-village is sited.
The court has ordered that it be demolished and acknowledges in its judgement "a potential health risk".
Special Edition in preparation, a team from EHS TV News is on the spot to report the full story.
- Vaucluse Matin Front Page :
