The Alliance Party of Scotland will be 2 weeks old this Thursday.

Mrs Pat Wells joined us live to give us an update on APS and we discussed today’s announcement of the new wild lands mapping from SNH, the new planning framework and much more.

 We also aired our conversation with Richard Crawford the leader of the ASP.  We discussed his background, the goals of the APS, and the party’s official position on the independence referendum.

David and Harley spoke about wind development in Maine.

Karen Bessey Pease was our special co-host.

Karen, or as her friends know her ‘Kaz’, is a native of the State of Maine.  Wife and mother of three, she lives on a 70 acre homestead in rural Lexington Township. She is a regular newspaper columnist and a published author and is an active member of her community.  For more that 3 1/2 years, Kaz has been involved in the effort to change policies regarding industrial-scale wind, in the hopes of bringing science, economics and ethics back to the table in regards to this issue.

We also heard from Maine State Representative Terry M. Hayes and Tony Barrett a member of the Executive Committee of the Maine Appalachian Trail Club.

We discussed important legislation moving through the Maine State Legislature:

An Act To Protect Maine’s Scenic Character LD 1147

An Act Regarding Wind Power Siting in the Unorganized Territory LD 1323

Representative Hayes was the sponsor of these two bills and Mr. Barrett had a hand in drafting LD 1147.

Is the Tide Turning in Massachusetts?

An update from Falmouth, Hoosac,  Scituate, Kingston, and Fairhaven

Special guest host Virginia Irvine of Wind Wise Massachusetts.

Neil Anderson, Mark Cool, Mike Firneny, Doreen Reilly and Louise Barteau joined us!

From Falmouth to Florida folks in Massachusetts are struggling with the impacts of industrial scale wind turbines in their neighborhoods.

This week a WWR news roundup to discuss some of the important stories of the week along with an update on the demonstration in Inverness with Lyndsey Ward

Please dial in to join our discussion — 213-943-3683

David, Harley and guests will talk about:

Maine’s Passadumkeag decision:

Maine Department of Environmental Protection say a decision today by a state board to overturn its denial of a proposed wind farm on Passadumkeag Mountain threatens the state’s scenic character.
http://www.maine.gov/dep/news/news.html?id=516061
http://bangordailynews.com/2013/03/21/politics/citizen-board-overturns-dep-rejection-of-wind-power-project/

Vermont’s S.30 bill:
http://www.vnews.com/home/5251103-95/vermont-bill-energy-wolfe

A push for a New Hampshire moratorium:
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/03/24/renewed-push-at-state-house-for-a-moratorium-on-wind-farms/

Wayne Gulden’s REBUTTAL to Chapman’s nocebo fantasy:
https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/chapmans-nocebo-study/

Mike Bond

Best-selling author, energy expert, and petition signer #73 — Mike Bond will be our special guest — on LIVE to talk about the recent victory on Molokai and the Ten Ways to Kill Big Wind –How a Little Island Stopped a Huge Industrial Wind Project

Also a short interview with Dr. John Constable, the Director of the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF)

The Renewable Energy Foundation, an independent UK charity that publishes data and analysis on the energy sector .

Dr Constable was educated in the humanities, reading English at Magdalene College, Cambridge, subsequently taking his PhD there in 1993. He has since taught at both Kyoto University, Japan, and at Cambridge, where, until 2005, he was a Leverhulme Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow of Magdalene. In that field he is best known as the leading authority on the twentieth-century philosopher of language and aesthetics, I. A. Richards/ He is also the co-discoverer, with his colleague the Japanese particle physicist and economist Professor Hideaki Aoyama, of the mathematical distinction between verse and prose in English.

Dr Constable has been working in energy policy since 2004 and is known for his data-grounded view that current policy targets for renewables are infeasible, unaffordable, and almost certainly counterproductive. In 2011 Civitas published his book The Green Mirage: Why the low carbon economy may be further off than we think.

We will hear more about the debate surrounding the REF’s study that showed turbine performance deteriorating much more quickly with age than that claimed by the wind industry.  The study was authored by Dr. Gordon Hughes.

Dr Gordon Hughes is a Professor of Economics at the University of Edinburgh where he teaches courses in the Economics of Natural Resources and Public Economics. He was a senior adviser on energy and environmental policy at the World Bank until 2001. He has advised governments on the design and implementation of environmental policies and was responsible for some of the World Bank’s most important environmental guidelines.

Naturally the wind industry is not taking this news well… For example, Windpower Monthly printed  ”No big drop in performance as turbines get older” by David Milborrow,

David Milborrow makes money as a technical adviser to the journal WindPower Monthly and to the British Wind Energy Association and has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from City University GB.

Tune in tonight for an update from Ireland with Mike de Jong of CREWE about the efforts to stop the Midlands of Ireland from becoming England’s wind ghetto.  Two companies are targeting five counties in the Midlands for a total of 1,150 turbines — just as a start.  Click here for the video from PrimeTime’s documentary that aired on 12 February 2013.

Chairing Natural Resources & Energy Committee. Discussion on language in S.30 concerning industrial wind projects and climate change. 2/26/13.

Also, we are pleased to have Vermont State Senator, Bob Hartwell on the program.  Senator Hartwell is the chair of the Natural Resources & Energy Committee which passed S.30 this past week.

S.30 calls for wind developments to be judged under the criteria of Act 250. The moratorium portion of the bill was removed at the last minute.

Read the bill here.

Our interview with Dr. Nicholas Kouwen, P.Eng, Distinguished Professor Emeritus University of Waterloo.

Dr. Kouwen’s groundbreaking work over the past year has revealed that the Ontario Ministry of Environment’s noise limits are being exceeded a majority of the time near industrial wind turbines (IWT’s) at locations in Grey Highlands, ON, Canada. Furthermore it appears the MOE model is flawed and “substantially underestimates” wind turbine noise. We spoke with Dr. Kouwen about his methodology and ongoing work.

Dr. Kouwen’s full report can be found here.

The flawed Ministry of Environment Guidelines here.

Part of our discussion during the interview uses this graph (figure 13.) to illustrate the report’s findings (click to enlarge):

Also, an update on the situation in the Shetland Islands from Sustainable Shetland’s James Mackenzie.

Project Facts:

• The windfarm will consist of 103 turbines and be up to 457MW capacity.
• Turbine size: tower 90m, turbine blade diameter 110m, total height base to tip up to 145m
• Location: most of north Central Mainland Shetland
• Maximum site dimensions: 12 km north-south and 11 km east-west
• Site area: up to 12,800 hectares (32,000) acres
• 62 miles of new roads through moorland and bog
• built through deep peat and blanket bog
• Up to 12 new quarries will be required to supply aggregate for the project. 3 of the quarries will be over 2 hectares (200 x 100m) in size. Most of the others are over 1 hectare each.
• Total area of quarries: at least 1.7 km2
• Total aggregate to be extracted: 1.47 million m3
• A converter station to convert AC current to DC current is required before electricity can be transmitted to the Scottish Mainland via an interconnector cable.
• 25 year life span
• original EIA gave carbon payback of 48 years (fossil fuel offset). That’s 69 years as grid mix!
• Developers later claimed a carbon payback of less than 1 year
• Grid connection needs 320km cable to mainland and 2 very large converter stations!
• A local petition to Shetland councillors in June 2009 raised over 3474 signatures.
• Council organised community planning hearings averaged out at 75% opposition
• Official planning objections to ECU: 2736
• Expressions of support: 1114
• Over 85% of all respondents gave a Shetland address.
• 71% of all respondents objected to the Viking Windfarm

Help with the legal fees for the judicial review:

Direct bank payments – Sustainable Shetland – Sort Code 83-24-22 – Account No. 00601662
Cheques – Make payable to Sustainable Shetland. Send to our Treasurer:
Mrs E. Jamieson, 34 West Baila, Lerwick, Shetland ZE1 0SG.
Tel. 01595 695117 for more information.

The Prince Edward Field Naturalists are involved in a struggle to save an globally important habitat at Ostrander Point. We are honored to have the opportunity to speak with two leaders in that effort Myrna Wood and Cheryl Anderson.

Myrna is a founding member of the Prince Edward County Field Naturalists and is currently serving as President. Her commitment to environmental sustainability has been demonstrated through several campaigns most notably the successful struggle to stop the use of Dombind as a dust inhibitor on County roads. Myrna was a founding member of Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory and the Prince Edward County South Shore Important Bird Area. She remains committed to saving the critical migratory habitat of Prince Edward County at Ostrander Point.

Cheryl has lived in Prince Edward County for 10 years. She has served as President of the Prince Edward County Field Naturalists and currently is the President of the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory. Previously she was actively involved with environmental issues in Guelph Ontario; specifically, in the volunteer- led preparation of a Green Plan for the City of Guelph. Cheryl is committed to saving Ostrander Point because of its important natural habitat and place in the migratory path of millions of birds.

Visit http://www.saveostranderpoint.org/ to learn more

The horror that is Ocotillo Express — a massive taking of public BLM lands in California by wind development — heated up this week with the arrest of the construction manager for the project for allegedly violent threats and actions.  We will learn much more when we talk to two of the people on the front lines — Jim Pelley and Parke Ewing.

Jim Pelley is a long-time desert denizen having built his first dune buggy at the age of 16.  A full-time resident of Ocotillo, Jim and his family’s lives have been turned upside down by this massive wind development that encircles his home on three sides.

By profession, Jim is an aerospace engineer.  Prior to the project buildout, Jim wrote:

After living in Ocotillo for 7 years we received this letter in the mail indicating that there was a large scale wind project slated for this area and it could affect our property value. At first I did not think much of it until I looked into it and realized the magnitude of this project, how close it was going to be to our house and the fact that it was going to surround our entire house. We were devastated and could not believe it. The lady I bought my place from told me that I would never have to worry about anything being built around my house because it was all BLM land and they could not build on BLM land. I have attended every meeting and every event related to the project and it has completely changed my life for the worse. It has affected my personal life in many ways. I have stopped working on my house even though it is almost done, I don’t have time any more, my spare time is completely consumed with fighting this project. My family life has been affected in a very negative way and it is really taking a toll on my life, my wife’s life and my entire family. I don’t have time to go to family events because I’m stuck in my office fighting this project. My Family members are very worried about me because they see how it is affecting me they tell me that I have changed and that they are very concerned for my well being.

If this project goes in it will totally change my life even more, I don’t think I will be able to live next to (112) Industrial Scale Wind Turbines as close as ½ mile from my house, this is beyond belief. It seems that every reason I moved out to Ocotillo will now be taken away from me. Sitting on my front porch looking at the stars with absolutely no sound at all will now be filled with red flashing lights and the thumping sound of wind turbines churning across the desert floor.

Parke Ewing has a total of 23 years in Ocotillo — living there full-time for the past 12 years. His hobbies are include exploring the Southern California Deserts and taking photographs of its beauty. He now finds the beauty he so loved has been disrupted by the wind turbines, so his photography and videotaping now include the travesty of the destruction of something once so amazingly full of history and culture.

Most recently, Parke was “allegedly” threatened and assaulted by the construction manager for the Ocotillo Project with the incident caught on video and the construction manager arrested.

Parke began opposing the Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility project at the time knowledge of the project became public.  He writes:

It is now apparent that this project was approved in backroom discussions long before the public became aware of the project. When the project came to light, never in my wildest dreams would I have ever believed that it would become a reality. But, today 94 turbines that equal the height of a 40 story building, are complete and 18 more are under construction for a total of 112. I, Jim Pelley, and others have been documenting the construction activity since the project began in mid May of 2012. 

I am the author and administrator of the Facebook page, Ocotillo Wind Turbine Destruction, that documents and records the construction activities of this project, including the widespread destruction of the desert I live in and that surrounds me. I moved here because I loved the view and serenity of this desert and bought land and built a home because this desert was protected by BLM, in a “Limited Use Area”, which to me, meant the vast cultural and historical resources would be protected forever – not turned into an industrial debacle.

Mike Bond

Our guest was Mike Bond, the author of Saving Paradise.

Mike is a bestselling author and has been an advisor to the US and foreign governments, human rights and war correspondent, award-winning poet and international energy expert.  Mike has lived and worked in over thirty countries on six continents.

Mike was a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate in Montana in 1982, and served in Al Gore’s 2000 Presidential campaign as head of Colorado Business Leaders for Gore and as a spokesman in several western states (Colorado, Utah, and Oregon) for Gore environmental positions.

Mike was a correspondent for The Financial Times newsletters in Paris from 1990 to 1998, and has reported for many newspapers including The Dallas Morning News (12/26/1983), The San Francisco Chronicle (4/26/1999), The Denver Post (9/13/2001), and The Oregonian (12/08/1983. He was also the co-anchor of the PBS news program European Journal in 1987, produced by Deutsche Welle in Cologne, Germany.

His works have been widely praised. The BBC has referred to him as the “master of the existential thriller” and Publishers Weekly praised him as a writer of “deft thrillers”. Bond bases his works on his own experiences in war zones, revolutions, and dangerous regions in many foreign countries during his years as a journalist.

Mike’s latest novel is Saving Paradise.

The “slimy symbiosis” between industrial wind companies and politicians is the setting of  SAVING PARADISE which is already being called the environmental novel of the decade. Bond, a best-selling novelist, international energy expert and long-time foe of the wind industry, brings his deep experience of the energy and investment business to bear in this fast-selling eco-thriller.

Set in Hawaii, where wind companies and conniving politicians are now attempting to cover huge parts of the State’s two most beautiful islands with a $16 billion scam called Big Wind and the Interisland Cable, SAVING PARADISE is changing people’s minds about industrial windpower.

It tells the story of Pono Hawkins, a well-known surfer and former Special Forces Afghanistan veteran who gets caught up in the murder a beautiful Honolulu reporter. Trying to track down her killers, he finds himself facing death or life in prison as a cabal of powerful wind companies, foreign killers and crooked politicians turns the blame on him.

With detailed descriptions of how turbines slaughter birds and bats, impact human health and destroy communities and wildlands, SAVING PARADISE shows how the “wind Nazis” try to divide people, bribe opponents and lie about the benefits of wind projects. Explaining why wind projects don’t lower CO2 or fossil fuel use, it reveals industrial wind’s egregious subsidy scams, national debt costs, and catastrophic environmental and social impacts.

Alive with the sights, sounds and history of Hawaii, Saving Paradise is also a rich portrait of what Pono calls “the seamy side of paradise”, and a relentless thriller of politics, lies, manhunts and remorseless murder.

Saving Paradise is Available online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes.

“Driving by a wind farm, looking at the rural houses, it’s easy to be skeptical about the talk of wind turbines making people sick. We’re told that wind turbines are good and green. So how could those people living by them have an issue?

But there is a problem—and it’s there because some governments and wind companies didn’t do their homework before installing megawatt after megawatt of huge industrial machines. And as a result there are people living among the turbines who are suffering.

In the new documentary film WIND RUSH, produced for CBC Doc Zone by Toronto’s 90th Parallel Productions, the battleground for the pro and anti wind forces is southern Ontario. The government there pledged to wean the province off coal fired generation plants and replace them with green wind energy.

But as soon as the turbines went up in places like Wolf Island, Amaranth and Bruce County, people realized they could hear them. Sometimes it was like a whisper, but other times it sounded more like a jet taking off.

And then it got worse.”

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Here is the CBC page with a trailer and description.

We will also air our interview Robert Rand of Rand Acoustics about his perspective on the Shirley Study.

He writes, “I am a resident caught in the middle of a wind development. Not only do these ruin our lives, but they ruin every thing in nature we hold sacred. Wildlife, Scenery, and the Value of Quiet Places for generations to come. Put an end to this madness. Turbines cannot even create enough energy to pay for themselves. Stop development now.”

Cary is trying to sell his home nestled between 56 turbines.

Graham Lang and Lyndsey Ward spoke about the brand new national alliance — Scotland Against Spin

Click here for the replay of the Lang and Ward segment.

Jane Wilson of Wind Concerns Ontario told us about the winners of the 2nd Annual Golden Pinwheel awards.

We aired a very special interview with Pat Swords and Christine Metcalfe on their efforts to force EU and UK compliance with the Aarhus Convention — information, participation, and justice.

Clive Hambler from Oxford spoke with us about wildlife and wind facilities.  He has been stirring things up with his recently published opinion piece in the Spectator.

“I’m a lecturer in biological and human sciences at Oxford university. I trained as a zoologist, I’ve worked as an environmental consultant — conducting impact assessments on projects like the Folkestone-to-London rail link — and I now teach ecology and conservation. Though I started out neutral on renewable energy, I’ve since seen the havoc wreaked on wildlife by wind power, hydro power, biofuels and tidal barrages. The environmentalists who support such projects do so for ideological reasons. What few of them have in their heads, though, is the consolation of science.

My speciality is species extinction. When I was a child, my father used to tell me about all the animals he’d seen growing up in Kent — the grass snakes, the lime hawk moths — and what shocked me when we went looking for them was how few there were left. Species extinction is a serious issue: around the world we’re losing up to 40 a day. Yet environmentalists are urging us to adopt technologies that are hastening this process. Among the most destructive of these is wind power.”

Rick James E-coutics Solutions

Rick will speak about his experience as a noise control engineer and acoustician and the recently released results of the Wisconsin study authorized by the Public Service Commission centering on the Shirley wind farm in the town of Glenmore. It was conducted by Clean Wisconsin, a clean energy advocacy group, and four independent firms. The groups monitored the wind farm for four days in early December.

Please stay tuned for additional details.

WWR’s Turbine-Free Holiday show.

Lisa, David and Harley with the Windswept news, a dramatic reading, and their predictions for 2013.

Lyndsey Ward

Lyndsey Ward, who lives in Beauly near Inverness, Scotland, was our very special guest. She campaigns against wind development and has been heavily involved most recently in the public inquiry on Druim Ba.

I am an independent anti wind farm campaigner. I began campaigning when a local friend and neighbour mentioned to residents she was intending to build a wind farm on her land. I decided to research the subject and that has lead me to be a national campaigner.To date this wind farm has not proceeded. I am against industrial development across the UK and particularly in Scotland as I live here and can witness the devastation first hand. I am against the pollution construction causes, damage to the environment and wildlife, the adverse affect on people’s lives, the cost to us all through our energy bills (domestic and industry), the inefficiency, the unreliability, the lies and the scam. I would like to see a moratorium on wind farm development and the facts tobe examined by independent experts. I believe once this is done wind farm development will cease in the UK and our precious, irreplaceable landscapes will be saved and people in rural communities can again live in peace without being targeted by predatory wind farm developers desperate for the excessive subsidies on offer- but we need to do it now before it is too late.  – Lyndsey Ward, http://epaw.org/documents/LW_press_release.pdf

The Nightmare of Turbines 2012 by Mike and Laura Jackson

’Twas the first night of summer, when all through the forest
Not a human was stirring, not even a tourist.
Mosquitoes were buzzing my tent everywhere
Tree frogs were calling in the cool evening air.

The wood rats were yawning while leaving their beds,
While visions of acorns danced in their heads.
And bats by the thousands flew all through the sky,
Catching the skeeters without batting an eye.

When out in the woods there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the tent flap I flew like a flash
Ripped open the zipper and made a mad dash.

The moon on the bark of the new-fallen trees
Produced such a glare that I fell to my knees.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But giant wind turbines – I trembled with fear.

Three blades were a-twirling, so lively, and quick
I knew in a moment it must be a trick.
The forest was gone, as the dozers rolled by
Steel towers appeared with blades high in the sky.

Gamesa, Iberdrola, Florida Power and Light
Wind Companies that sneak in, even at night!
“To the top of the ridge! To the top of the hill!
Now cut away, blast away, never stand still!”

As red bats that before the wind turbines fly
When they meet with a blade, fall out of the sky.
It’s bats when it’s dark, but by day, eagles flew
With a smack from the blade, and they fell dead, too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard a loud thump
That shattered my musings, and so I did jump.
As I recovered my senses, and gazed all around
I saw even more turbines shadowing the ground.

Where forests once stood there were roads everywhere,
Frogs, snakes, birds, and bat, these turbines did scare.
A bundle of cables that snaked underground
Connected each turbine, as they spun round and round.

The sun started rising – the blades how they flickered!
“But this rarely happens,” the wind companies snickered.
I watched as the shadows spun round and round,
It made me so dizzy that I fell to the ground.

The towers loomed over me – 400 feet high,
The noise of those turbines brought a tear to my eye.
The thumping and grinding replaced every bird song,
Wind turbines in forests – this has to be wrong!

But wait, don’t we need all this wind energy,
To power our houses, and a big screen TV?
Wind turbines don’t deliver reliable power
‘Cuz they just shut off at any old hour.

“But it’s free – wind is free,” wind companies keep saying,
“No pollution – no mining – no more delaying.
We want the job done – to get subsidy
We’ll stop global warming – we don’t need that tree!”

But trees are important – they absorb CO2
They make habitats and lower temperatures, too.
To save other forests we plan to file suit,
Let the courts take the cases, and lawyers refute

All the wind propaganda, the global warming claim
Is really a ruse – it’s a big money game.
We’ll speak for the wildlife, for the life-giving forests,
It’s like the dilemma that featured the Lorax.

Wind isn’t the answer
to our energy crisis
Let’s conserve all we can.
Forests are priceless.

(The end music is  Carol of the Bells (for 12 cellos) – ThePianoGuys)

Tomorrow’s WWR broadcast will include Dave, Lisa, and Harley with the Windswept News.

Richard James

We will have Richard James of E-coustics Solutions on to talk about his experiences with turbine noise and infrasound.

Rick is the Owner and Principal Consultant for E-Coustic Solutions and a has been a practicing acoustical engineer for 40 years.  He has been
actively involved with the Institute of Noise Control Engineers (INCE) since the early 1970s and has full Member status. Specific to wind turbine noise, Rich has worked for clients in over 60 different communities and has provided written and oral testimony in approximately 30 of those cases.

Rick has authored or co-authored four papers covering topics from how to set criteria to protect public health, demonstrating that wind turbine sound emissions are predominantly comprised of infra and low frequency sound, and conducted a historical review of other types of noise sources with similar sound emission characteristics, such as noise induced Sick Building Syndrome, that have known adverse health effects on people exposed to their sound.

His work with local communities and citizens groups around the U.S. and Ontario, Canada has focused on the question of how to integrate industrial wind turbines into rural communities.

Senator John Madigan

We will also air our complete interview with Australian Senator John Madigan. Please tune in.