Building Connections re:wind farms opposition

To: john.laforet@laforet.ca

Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 11:32 AM
Subject: Re: Re: Digby Turbine Proposal


John,

Dan Mills from here has been in communication with Maureen Anderson of WCO...and some of our stuff (SkyPower obituary and photos of our roadside signs) has been posted on their website.

Right now, Nova Scotia is relying on municipal governments to specifically regulate wind power projects through land use by-laws. However, many of our rural municipalities do not have comprehensive land use by-laws in place. This means that new uses (such as industrial wind generating facilities) are not automatically prohibited until addressed through new regulations. Some municipalities have enacted by-laws to specifically address this one use. Our municipality (Municipality of the District of Digby) worked on this last year and recently Council voted NOT to adopt it under pressure from SkyPower and Scotian.

Other than municipal regulation, projects over 2 MW have to go through provincial Environmental Assessment to comply with the NS Environment Act. "Our" project did that this summer and just got their approval. The province has published guidelines for proponents in applying for the provincial permits (Proponent's Guide to Wind Power Projects updated September 2008).

At some point, the proponent has to go through a federal CEAA screening because it seems that all these projects have asked for federal funding (1 cent per kwh) through NRCan.

Unfortunately for us, it seems that approvals are all politically enabled (though not scientifically justified) because of the Renewable Energy Standards legislated through the NS Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act (2007) http://www.gov.ns.ca/legislature/legc/bills/60th_1st/3rd_read/b146.htm Six wind farms were accepted by our province-wide utility, Nova Scotia Power Inc (NSPI) in the first months of 2008 to be in service by the end of 2009 in time for a January 1, 2010 deadline.

We are in contact with Kristen and Susan Overmyer of the Eco-Awareness Society in Pictou County where Shear Wind is proposing to build the Glen Dhu wind farm. Kristen's email is ko@ezfzx.com and he as a mechanical engineer (originally from Michigan) is very knowledgeable on the science of noise.

Also, we keep Lisa Betts of the Pugwash area informed. She has a blog http://pugwashwindfarm.blogspot.com/ I understand "their" project was withdrawn before it even really got going, after Anne Murray got involved in the opposition a couple of years ago. Lisa's email is ljbetts@seaside.ns.ca. Lisa is in contact with a group in the Amherst NS area on the NB border where another of these six ill-conceived (and hopefully ill-fated) wind farms is proposed. With the approval of the Digby Wind Power Project (aka Digby Wind Park), all six proposals are now approved by NS dept of Environment (NSE). Only one (RMSenergy's Dalhousie Mountain project) is being built on schedule.

Hope this helps. We do benefit from what you're doing in Ontario, at least in terms of the public's perception of wind farms and the downsides. We're still waiting for the government to catch up.


Judith Peach
Waterford, Digby Neck