Reader "shocked and disappointed" over OFA stance against turbines

The Kincardine News

January 31, 2012, Page:7

Dennis Threndyle

Dear Editor,

I am shocked and disappointed by the OFA stance against windturbine development on farm land in the province.

Several years ago the farmers and landowners along the Bruce to Milton electrical corridor asked the OFA to undertake action to study the impact of these power lines on farm land values.

We were not against the new corridor but our land was being expropriated so that Bruce Power could get electricity to the market. We simply wanted fair value for hosting one of the world's largest electrical corridors and a fair study as to the economic impact of this new line on our existing land.

The OFA sat on its hands and did nothing, except to tell us what we already knew to hire a lawyer. The only person who offered any help was the lady who runs the Hanover office of the OFA.

Why is the OFA suddenly so concerned about windturbines? Their comments about electrical costs make no sense when they did absolutely nothing about the 180km power line with over 400 towers that cost taxpayers over $700 million.

Everyone wants to point a finger at somebody else, but as long as we all use electricity, we are going to have to figure out how to generate cleaner electricity. Farmers know best the impact of hot weather and low rainfall when we see crops fail and a lack of snow cover dry out the land.

Coal generation has to go because our climate is changing. Hydro electric dams create huge watershed issues including the flooding of farmlands. Nuclear powered electricity reduces carbon emissions but now we have to find a storage place for all that spent fuel and that will cost a lot of money

In an idyllic make believe world, the electricity that runs our homes, businesses and lights would happen without any impact to the air, land or water. We don't live in that world.

We all live on the same planet and to do nothing about global warming or acid rain is just pushing a problem to our children and their children. I propose that we hold a moratorium on windturbine talk for five years and then revisit and measure the economic and environmental benefits.

Why five years?

Well that was about the same amount of time that it took for my parents generation to fight WWII -imagine the world we would live in if that generation had decided that saving the free world wasn't worth their time or sacrifice.

Dennis Threndyle Elmwood