Letter to the Editor:
Recent Submission to the ODT:
The lack of planning or social responsibility in this ongoing wind-farm insanity has been simply disgusting, and the highest levels of Government should be held accountable. The public has been misled as to the economic merits and environmental impact of the Otago wind farms, communities have been ripped apart, and the stress placed on those opposing these juggernauts has been immense, not least because of a cruel hearing overlap which no Minister ever sought to correct.
Unless these proposals can be blocked in Court, a highly stressful and costly undertaking, our power bills will skyrocket. As Transpower suggests, consumers will ultimately foot the bill for new transmission, wind-farm construction, and potentially the firming generation required when the wind is unsuitable for generation. Moreover, heritage Otago landscapes may soon be butchered. One wonders if Articles 5, 12 and 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have not in fact been violated when a State-Owned Enterprise is free to erect giant industrial infrastructure on the doorstep of dissenting households that formerly enjoyed views, privacy and solitude. Even the proposed carbon savings are farcical in light of the industry required to build and erect the turbines, and the fact that agriculture, which is 52 percent of New Zealand's greenhouse-gas emissions, accounts for a significant increase in national energy demand.
The lack of planning or social responsibility in this ongoing wind-farm insanity has been simply disgusting, and the highest levels of Government should be held accountable. The public has been misled as to the economic merits and environmental impact of the Otago wind farms, communities have been ripped apart, and the stress placed on those opposing these juggernauts has been immense, not least because of a cruel hearing overlap which no Minister ever sought to correct.
Unless these proposals can be blocked in Court, a highly stressful and costly undertaking, our power bills will skyrocket. As Transpower suggests, consumers will ultimately foot the bill for new transmission, wind-farm construction, and potentially the firming generation required when the wind is unsuitable for generation. Moreover, heritage Otago landscapes may soon be butchered. One wonders if Articles 5, 12 and 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have not in fact been violated when a State-Owned Enterprise is free to erect giant industrial infrastructure on the doorstep of dissenting households that formerly enjoyed views, privacy and solitude. Even the proposed carbon savings are farcical in light of the industry required to build and erect the turbines, and the fact that agriculture, which is 52 percent of New Zealand's greenhouse-gas emissions, accounts for a significant increase in national energy demand.
Meanwhile, the Dunedin-based Minister for Energy, David Parker, has refused to comment on the recent Meridian-Comalco deal (572 MW of continuous supply for eighteen years) as anything other than a commercial arrangement between two parties. Mr Parker has also commented repeatedly that wind farms 'should not be built on some landscapes', by which he presumably means Mt Cook and Mitre Peak? Contact Energy's appeal on Mahinerangi Wind Farm confirms that there is already 'a surplus of electricity generation capacity, relative to local demand'; yet Otago-Southland has once more been dragged onto the slab to feed populations elsewhere.
(Dr) Richard Reeve
posted by donttrustpower at 10:12 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Home