A Worthy Opponent, for the Wind-Pushers!

January 30, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

SA Wind Farm War: AFL CEO – Gillon McLachlan – Launches Litigation Against NZ’s Trustpower

January 31, 2016 by stopthesethings

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New Zealand’s Trustpower love throwing their weight around – provided the targets of their violence and thuggery are 79 Year Old Pensioners and Disabled Farmers.

Now, these delightful characters have a real fight on their hands.

Gillon McLachlan is as well-heeled as he is passionate about his beloved property, Rosebank – the magnificent range of Hills in which it nestles, and the thriving communities that surround and support it.

Back in December, Gillon pitched in with a well-delivered plea to the Mid-Murray DAP to knock back Trustpower’s ludicrous proposal to carpet 114 of these things all over the Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges:

AFL’s CEO – Gillon McLachlan Hammers the ‘Desecration of his Country’ & the ‘Extreme Community Division’ Caused by Wind Farms

With the stinky little DAP predictably rubber-stamping the application, Gillon has now thrown his considerable resources into the battle, along with a hundred or so others, with an Appeal launched in South Australia’s planning appeal court, the Environment, Resources & Development Court. Here’s SA’s local Sunday rag’s take on the unfolding war against the threatened destruction of SA’s iconic Mount Lofty Ranges and the dozen of communities that those fertile hills sustain.

AFL boss’s bid to ban wind turbines near his farm
Sunday Mail
Ben Hyde
31 January 2016

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has launched court action over the approval of a massive wind farm on the doorstep of his family’s historic Rosebank property, near Mt Pleasant.

Mr McLachlan has appealed against the approval of the $700 million wind farm, to feature 114 turbines standing up to 165m high dotted along the ranges between Palmer, Tungkillo and Sanderston.

The appeal is listed against wind farm developers Trustpower, the Mid Murray Council, Environment Protection Agency, the Planning Department and the Environment Minister.

A preliminary conference is scheduled to be heard in the Environment, Resources and Development Court by Commissioner Lolita Mohyla at 3.30pm tomorrow.

Mr McLachlan’s is one of four appeals filed against the wind farm, which was approved by the Mid Murray Council’s development assessment panel on December 18. He yesterday declined to comment about the appeal.

In December, he submitted a video message to the development assessment panel opposing the wind farm being built.

“Even if it were to be conclusively established wind farms do not produce health problems, it’s annoying and affects quality of life,” he said.

“I was frankly heartbroken that this land will be forever marred by enormous man-made structures.”

Mr McLachlan also said any wind farm would cause significant damage to the land, would hinder potential tourism opportunities and “cause extreme division in the community”.

Rosebank, a prominent and historic sheep station east of Mt Pleasant, was pioneered in 1843 by Scottish-born landowner George Melrose, whose descendants include the McLachlan family.

The Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges Landscape Guardians, on behalf of up to 90 residents in the region, have also appealed against the development. They are scheduled for a preliminary conference in the ERD Court in mid-February.

During an ERD Court preliminary conference, the parties discuss how they would like the court proceedings to occur. This could include through continued negotiations, mediation or by trial or hearing.

Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges Landscape Guardians chair Tony Walker said opponents felt the approval process was unjust. “We believe that the whole process failed to give any weight to the objectors,” he said. “There is a lot of opposition — from the little man on the ground and from people with more resources.”

Numerous people living near wind farms have claimed they cause health problems, including severe headaches and disrupted sleep patterns.

However, the National Health and Medical Research Council issued a report last year that found there was “currently no consistent evidence that wind farms cause adverse health effects in humans” — but said there was a need for more in-depth research.

Mr Walker said those opposed to the development were prepared for a fight. “We’ve been fighting for almost five years (and) it’s a fight that could go on for years, depending on who blinks first,” he said. “(But) it’s worth fighting for.”
Sunday Mail

If Ben Hyde truly believes there’s nothing to complaints about living with incessant turbine generated low-frequency noise and infrasound, he should get out more.

Starting with a look at the Federal Senate Inquiry Report, that excoriatedthe corruption and bias of the NHMRC- an outfit peopled by wind industry plants, that ignores almost every relevant piece of wind turbine acoustic research and, instead, relies on the musings of a former tobacco advertising guru, who claims noise induced sleep deprivation suffered by wind farm neighbours is all in their heads:

NHMRC Fails Science 101 in Continued Wind Farm Health Cover Up

Ben might also jump in a set of wheels and head for Jamestown, where he can meet with Clive and Trina Gare, cattle graziers in SA’s Mid-North.

Since October 2010, the Gares have played host to 19, 2.1MW Suzlon S88 turbines, which sit on a range of hills to the West of their stately homestead. Under their contract with AGL they receive around $200,000 a year; and have pocketed over $1 million since the deal began.

In a remarkable move, the Gares gave evidence to the Senate Inquiry into the great wind power fraud during its Adelaide hearing, in June 2015. Any journalist worth their salt would start by taking a look at what they told a Federal Senate Committee about ‘the worst decision of their lives’:

SA Farmers Paid $1 Million to Host 19 Turbines Tell Senate they “Would Never Do it Again” due to “Unbearable” Sleep-Destroying Noise

When farmers being paid $200,000 a year to host these things complain bitterly about sleep deprivation as a regular event, then STT is pretty much satisfied that the noise and vibration generated by turbines is causing what the World Health Organisation has considered to be an adverse health effect in and of itself (for over 60 years).

What Gillon McLachlan is about to tackle is willful ignorance and institutional corruption – of precisely the kind that resulted in the decision to approve the construction of 114 of these things, shoe-horned into hundreds of backyards, all over the prettiest and most productive part of the Adelaide Hills.

What makes the DAP’s decision all the more ridiculous is that South Australians are already paying the highest power prices in Australia (if not the World on a purchasing power parity basis) with a grid on the brink of collapse.

It’s been almost a decade since SA’s Labor Party shackled itself to wind power: a wholly weather dependent power source; that’s intermittent and unreliable, requiring 100% of it’s capacity to be backed-up 100% of the time by conventional power generators; that, accordingly, has NO commercial value (save the massive power consumer and/or taxpayer subsidies it attracts); kills millions of birds and bats; and, with the incessant low-frequency noise and infrasound it generates, drives people mad in their homes, or drives them out of them altogether.

It takes a certain kind of fool to believe that SA’s energy disaster can be improved by backing more of the same. But SA’s public institutions are drenched in deluded Labor (green/left) ideology; and peopled by lunatics who wouldn’t know the first thing about power generation (or much else, really).

Gillon McLachlan and his compatriots are about to hit them with a solid dose of common sense and a mountain of facts. The Battle has begun.

Vermonters Stand Up Against the Windpushers!

January 30, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

Vermonters in Full-Scale Open Rebellion Against Planned Wind Turbine Roll-Out

January 30, 2016 by stopthesethings 1 Comment

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Vermont is the place where dreams of peace and tranquility come true. Rolling waves of verdant hills, interspersed with fertile valleys and filled with a tenacious band that endure bitter winters and short bursts of what those in America’s North-East think passes for ‘Summer’: that’s Vermont.

But the element that’s brewed to the surface in the Green Mountain State– and that’s now reached boiling point – is unbridled anger.

Vermonters are set upon by the same cowardly, callous and criminal chancers found all around the Globe – that appear from nowhere – like flesh-craving zombies – slobbering at the thought of massive and (seemingly) endless subsidies.

While their so-called political betters dance to their back-handing benefactors’ tune, the communities set upon have risen to the point of a full-scale, open rebellion. The following pieces tell the story of a mass movement of Vermonters venting fury and of a few politicians gifted with grace (rather than beguiled by wind industry ‘grease’) who’ve decided to put a halt to the most ludicrous energy ‘policy’ ever imagined.

Vermont’s energy siting struggle hits crescendo
Michael Bielawski and Bruce Parker
Vermont Watchdog
21 January 2016

MONTPELIER, Vt. — What started as a letter from Rutland regarding a lack of local control over renewable energy siting has culminated in an 86-town strong “Vermont energy rebellion.”

On Wednesday, more than 100 protesters gathered at the Statehouse to demand local control for energy siting.

Leading the demonstration were state Sen. John Rodgers, D-Essex/Orleans; Karen Horn, policy director for the Vermont League of Cities and Towns; and Don Chioffi, a member of the Rutland Selectboard. Together they argued the energy project siting process as it now stands oversteps the will of ratepayers.

“I would like to acknowledge those here today whose homes and lives have been sacrificed by our state’s energy policy, those of you who have been encroached upon and bullied by energy developers, and those of you who have lost not only property values but the health of your families to industrial wind plants. The process that we use to site energy in Vermont is broken and it’s long past time to fix it,” Rodgers said, opening the event.

According to Rodgers, renewable energy developers, with rubber-stamp support from the Public Service Board, have been given unrestrained power over land use in Vermont to the detriment of cities, towns and the environment, adding that the process had become “anti-environmental and anti-democratic.”

His two-part solution was also the largest applause line of the day: “First, I propose that we ban the development of industrial wind in Vermont. … Second, I propose that we require land use decisions related to energy generation to go through Act 250.”

To that end, Rodgers is sponsoring S210 and a slew of of other bills to ban industrial wind and subject the Public Service Board’s energy development certification process to stipulations found in Vermont’s strict land use and development law.

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Other community leaders, including Chioffi, offered comments about the problem.

“You may as well throw selectboards and planning boards out the window if you are going to operate the state this way. They are being treated as if they are nonexistent and useless,” Choiffi told Vermont Watchdog. “… There has never been a solar projected rejected by this Public Service Board — there’s the proof in the pudding.”

Mark Whitworth, board member of Energize Vermont, a pro-renewable energy group, attended the event to protest the manner in which renewable energy projects are being implemented.

“They’re industrializing wildlife habitat, they are fragmenting forests,” Whitworth said. “They are developing our ridgelines, which is going to result in a loss of flood resiliency, and they’re converting farm land for meager energy production — so we are jeopardizing our food security. We think that these guys are just worsening the very problems that they claim they are helping us to avoid.”

Vermonters from across the state traveled to the Statehouse to have their voices heard as well.

“There aren’t any constraints on where they put them up or how big they are,” said Rachael Carr, of St. Albans. “If they don’t get some legislation to put some restrictions on these projects, it’s going to be too late.”

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Her young son, Alex Carr, added an imaginative twist on the problem: “I’m here to protect the state from these huge monsters,” he said. “People think they are good, but they are not.”

Giselle Chevallay, a Newark resident dressed up as a displaced Vermont bear, said, “We want to help make sure we are more careful about our siting choices, whether it’s solar, wind, nuclear, hydro or anything.”

Given such urgency and backing by 86 towns, Rutland’s 2014 letter seems almost prophetic: “We are attempting, through this resolution, to form a coalition of Vermont communities which will support reasonable legislation to restore local community input to the regulatory process when addressing the issue of solar citing in our state.”

Whitworth explained what it means for a town to be part of the rebellion.

“These towns have either signed onto the Rutland resolution or they’ve adopted town plans which have explicit language regarding energy citing or certain energy technology,” Whitworth said, adding that his town of Newark has a town plan that says industrial wind turbines are inappropriate.

Currently, energy projects are exempt from Act 250 requirements. These requirements include adhering to regional municipal plans not unlike those of Newark. Rodgers’ bills attempt to make energy development subject to the same requirements other commercial developers face.

The plan is certain to hit resistance, largely because of the money involved. Chioffi said public money, including federal subsidies of 30 percent and state subsidies of about 8 percent, is what drives these projects. He argues that a 40 percent up-front return is also fueling the green energy rush.

“The best kept secret in the world is that these are really, really big cash cows,” he said. “There’s a lot of money to be made in these things. I’ve always been told if you ever want to get to the bottom of any argument on this kind of stuff, follow the money.”

Whitworth said the state’s renewable portfolio standards — which require every municipality to periodically increase its percentage of renewable energy sources — is another driving force. “It really lit a fire under this,” Whitworth said.

He added that while there are no current calls to freeze or repeal Vermont’s RPS, he thinks if legislators don’t respond to the pushback from communities, that will change. At least four of 29 states with such standards have halted or repealed them.

When asked about the status of Vermont’s RPS, Rodgers expressed concern about the economics of renewable energy. “There are a huge number of manufacture and installation jobs with solar today — I think it’s like 16,000 jobs,” he said. “The problem is, after the construction, we have basically set up a pipeline of our cash out of state because most of the owners of the big installations are out-of-state people or corporations.

“So it’s basically taking the tax credits out of state and the ratepayer money out of state. If we were building more on Vermonter’s homes and businesses, the tax credits and savings would stay more in Vermont” Rodgers said.
Vermont Watchdog

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Energy Critics Make Strongest Statehouse Push
Terri Hallenbeck
Seven Days
20 January 2016

The makeshift wind turbine erected in front of the Statehouse, emblazoned with the governor’s last name, was the first hint. Then there were the sign-bearing protesters flanking the Statehouse doors.

Inside, in the halls of the Statehouse, the cafeteria and committee rooms, scores more were dressed in bright green vests to highlight their presence and emphasize the danger they feel.

Wednesday brought the biggest show of force yet by Vermonters upset with the state’s siting process for energy projects. What has in recent years been a relatively small group of wind opponents has grown into a legion of people worried about wind and solar, including town leaders from across the state.

“Now, it’s being taken more seriously,” LuAnn Therrien said of the opposition. Therrien has spent years speaking against the Sheffield wind project, which she said drove her family out of town.

The proliferation of solar projects around Vermont has changed the volume of the opposition, said Mark Whitworth, who is with the organization Energize Vermont. The group has long opposed decisions about the siting of wind projects, and it now finds new friends opposed to suggested solar sites. “That is what really has lit a fire under this energy rebellion. When it was wind in the Kingdom, it was pretty easy for people in other parts of the state to ignore it,” Whitworth said.

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Wind and solar siting opponents filled the Senate chamber. Now, many town officials are also fired up. The Vermont League of Cities and Towns, not exactly a rebellious organization, joined in Wednesday’s event. Nearly a dozen local officials testified to legislative committees about how their towns have spent thousands of dollars and still feel powerless during the process to determine renewable energy sites.

“We’ve been inundated with solar,” Russ Hodgkins, Westminster town manager, told the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee on Wednesday. He said his town supports renewable energy, but the locations chosen so far are taking prime agriculture and industrial sites out of the economy. “There’s not one of them that’s in a great location.”

Whether this growing throng of rebels will get their way is another matter. While they are railing against what they consider poorly sited projects, Gov. Peter Shumlin has been touting the growth of renewable energy and the jobs it brings.

Wednesday’s events — hours of meetings with the Senate and House Natural Resources and Energy committees and a noontime press conference and rally — were organized by Sen. John Rodgers (D-Essex/Orleans), author of a bill calling for a ban on industrial wind projects.

“In 1968, Vermont passed a landmark anti-billboard law,” Rodgers told those gathered for the press conference. The “billboard ban is what inspired me to do what I’ve known to be right for years, and that is introduce S. 210, to ban industrial wind from Vermont.”

Prospects for a ban seem as weak this year as in previous years, however. “We’ll listen, but I think the problem with that proposal is we have an orderly development process,” said Sen. Chris Bray (D-Addison), chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee.

Bray insists, though, that he’s working on changes that will help, at least on the solar front. “That is the most urgent need we are responding to,” Bray said.

His committee is putting together a bill — S.230 — that he hopes will offer incentives to build solar projects in specific locations and direct the Public Service Board to consider town plans in approving projects. Changes coming to the state’s net metering regulations will also likely slow down the proliferation of solar projects, he said.

Bray’s House counterpart, Rep. Tony Klein (D-East Montpelier), said he’ll await the Senate’s bill, but he agreed changes to energy-project siting should be made this year, even if there is not yet agreement on what those should be. He said, “There’s a pretty clear message that towns do not think they’re being heard.”
Seven Days

This video pulls together reports on the uprising from Burlington Free Press and NewsChannel 5.

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Vermonters rally at Statehouse for new rules governing wind projects – Sen. Rodgers sponsors bill to ban more industrial-scale turbines
Stewart Ledbetter
WPTZ-News Channel 5
21 January 2016

MONTPELIER, Vt. — More than 100 Vermonters turned out Wednesday at the Statehouse to demand changes in the law governing the siting of industrial-scale energy projects.

At noon, the noisy crowd jammed into the Statehouse gallery to cheer Sen. John Rodgers, the Essex-Orleans Democrat who has introduced Senate Bill 210.

“This rebellion has spread to dozens of towns across Vermont and I believe it will continue to spread,” Rodgers told the crowd. “We won’t achieve our energy goals in the face of this rebellion. And I offer a solution. First, I propose we ban industrial wind in Vermont.”

The crowd erupted in applause.

Rodgers said Vermonters resent a system which allows wind developers who stand to earn millions from turbines to hire lawyers to argue their case before the Vermont Public Service Board — while citizens most impacted and the towns that host the projects have little voice and no veto power.

S. 210 would make a second key change, shifting permitting for renewable energy projects from the PSB to district environmental commissions and the development review process known as ACT 250. Supporters think Act 250 would provide citizens a far better shake.

Anthony Iarrapino, spokesman for Swanton Wind, a proposed turbine project in Franklin County, said the criticism was unfounded.

“If you look at the polls and the success of the projects we have (in Vermont) the majority of Vermonters understand how important wind is to our economy and getting us to clean energy goals,” he said.

Paul Burns, executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, said the state’s goal of securing 90 percent of its energy from renewable sources will mean Vermonters have to get used to seeing turbines on mountaintops and large solar arrays in farm fields.

S. 210 has been referred to the Senate Natural Resources Committee for consideration.
WPTZ.com

Funny about all that!

That Vermonters are furious about the destruction of their thriving and healthy communities in ‘exchange’ for a wholly weather dependent power source; that’s intermittent and unreliable, requiring 100% of it’s capacity to be backed-up 100% of the time by conventional power generators; that, accordingly, has NO commercial value (save the massive power consumer and/or taxpayer subsidies it attracts); kills millions of birds and bats; and, with the incessant low-frequency noise and infrasound it generates, drives people mad in their homes, or drives them out of them altogether, is hardly a surprise.

What the wind industry hates most are facts. And anyone with the temerity to present them is targeted in a style and with a zeal that would have made the East German Stasi proud. Here’s just another example of the wind industry’s standard tactics.

AG’S Office investigating complaints against Annette Smith, anti-wind advocate
Mike Polhamus
VT Digger.org
23 January 2016

The state attorney general’s office has opened an investigation into criminal complaints against a prominent champion of Vermonters who are adversely affected by renewable development.

The attorney general’s office is investigating whether Annette Smith, executive director of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, has practiced law without a license — a charge with penalties left entirely to the court’s discretion.

Smith says the complaints that prompted the AG’s investigation are politically motivated.

Attorneys who have argued against Smith’s clients say she gives bad advice, unconstrained by the sanctions licensed attorneys would incur for similar behavior.

Smith says the AG’s investigation “is very intimidating.”

“I don’t know what to do. I think our work’s being shut down,” Smith said. “I believe this has the potential to shut down my organization of 16 years. It clearly falls under the definition of harassment.”

Residents who live near planned and existing renewable projects have claimed she’s their only advocate.

Smith said she represents people who too frequently have nowhere else to turn. Renewable energy developers hire talented attorneys against whom landowners near project sites have no other way of successfully representing themselves.

Many of these cases involve people who can’t afford a lawyer, and who didn’t want to become involved in legal proceedings to protect their interests, she said. Lawyers know it’s impossible to fight renewable energy developers, Smith said, and won’t take on affected landowners’ cases anyway.

“Anybody who does this with a lawyer has wasted tens of thousands of dollars,” she said. “The reason I’m doing this is so people have a voice without bankrupting themselves.”

The attorney general’s office would not offer comment on the case.

“There is a matter under investigation by the criminal division, and we can’t comment on it further, and we never comment on ongoing criminal investigation,” said John Treadwell, Chief of the Criminal Division at the AG’s office.

Practicing law without a license is a charge that has rarely been prosecuted in Vermont, Treadwell said. It carries potentially severe penalties. “It is punished as criminal contempt of the Vermont Supreme Court, and is potentially punishable by fine or imprisonment or both, in the court’s discretion,” Treadwell said.

“In the court’s discretion,” Treadwell said, means there are no maximum defined penalties.

Assistant Attorney General Zachary Chen named five cases in a letter notifying Smith of the investigation, and two attorneys were involved in both cases. Smith said one of them had previously accused her of practicing law without a license. Both have given Smith reason to believe they’ve sought to instigate an investigation against her, she said.

Joslyn Wilschek is one of the attorneys, and in a previous Public Service Board hearing she told hearing officers that Smith had been in that instance practicing law without a license.

Non-lawyers aid participants in legal and other proceedings all the time to good effect, Wilschek said, but Smith represents herself as having training that she actually lacks.

“She gives legal advice to landowners, and she drafts their filings to the Public Service Board, and I think it’s a real disservice, because she puts herself out there as having the knowledge of a lawyer, when she doesn’t,” Wilschek said.

Wilschek said she didn’t file a complaint against Smith with the AG’s office, but said she supports it and said that if asked, and if her clients consented, she’d testify Smith had done what she’s been accused of. Wilschek said her remarks reflect only her personal observation, and not her clients or their positions.

Based on what she’s seen, such charges have no basis in political motives, Wilschek said. “I disagree with people all the time — that’s what a lawyer does — but when someone does something this egregious, it’s not political, it’s protecting the public,” she said. “When you see someone putting themselves out there like a lawyer, it’s a real disservice to people who don’t understand the training a lawyer needs.”

People who Smith has assisted say they have no other effective advocate, and say they’re shut out of the hearing process for renewable projects by the excessive legality of the proceedings.

“What she does is she provides citizens — normal, everyday citizens in the state of Vermont — with a possibility of having any chance at participating in the Public Service Board process,” said Christine Lang.

Lang, with her husband and with Smith’s assistance, is attempting to persuade the Public Service Board to assess penalities on prospective wind developer Travis Belisle for constructing a meteorological tower without a permit. The met tower is a precursor to the wind turbine development project, and she says a permit filed with the board would have given the public advance notice.

State agencies and developers are well-represented by lawyers at Public Service Board hearings, while ordinary citizens are shut out of the process, Lang said.

“I think it’s a witch hunt to distract her from the work she’s trying to do to help citizens, because she’s the only one out there who’s helping citizens,” Lang said. “Does that make sense I should have to have an attorney to participate in what is supposed to be a public process?

“This is why this entire process is completely broken,” she said. “It is a developer-run process run by the developers and their lawyers, and they are getting everything they want, and they are going to destroy this state.”

Leslie Cadwell, another attorney who has represented wind developer David Blittersdorf, says Smith has led her clients to bad ends. Cadwell participated in a case against Smith that complaints with the AG’s office have highlighted as representative of Smith’s alleged illegal behavior.

“As a result of Annette’s participation in a case she was involved with before the Public Service Board, the town of Irasburg has violated open meetings law twice, and has admitted it,” Cadwell said.

Professional ethical standards lawyers abide by prohibit this kind of behavior, Cadwell said.

“If Annette wants to represent people in the Public Service Board process, or advise people about how to participate in the Public Service Board process, she ought to go to law school,” Cadwell said. “Or, in Vermont, she can actually do a four-year clerk program where she can learn how to be a lawyer and understand how to ethically represent her clients in courts.”

Vermont is one of few states that allows lawyers to work as clerks in lieu of law school as a means of studying to become an attorney, Cadwell said.

Cadwell said that she did not file complaints against Smith with the attorney general’s office.
VT Digger

What utter bunkum.

Annette Smith has absolutely no case to answer. She hasn’t represented herself to be legally qualified to practice law (to those she represents or anyone else); hasn’t raised a fee for her services; and hasn’t pretended to have qualifications that she does not possess.

Instead, all she has done, is to have given collective advice to, and advocated for and on behalf of, people who simply cannot afford legal representation; and done so in ‘Mickey Mouse’ hearings before an administrative planning panel (the Public Service Board); which has no Curial authority – and all the Judicial formality of the process required to obtain a driver’s licence at the DMV.

Planning panels and tribunals (indeed, Supreme and High Courts) hear self-presented plaintiffs, applicants and defendants on a routine and regular basis. It’s now so common as to be unremarkable – especially in planning cases.

In Australia, and other common law jurisdictions, otherwise unrepresented litigants are entitled to have what’s called a ‘McKenzie friend‘ represent them in courts of law.

The McKenzie friend openly gives legal advice and assistance in and out of court; and does not need to be legally qualified to do so. The crucial point is that litigants in person are entitled to have assistance, lay or professional, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Provided the McKenzie friend does not represent themselves to be legally qualified to practice law and doesn’t charge for their time (although charging for time is permitted in England and Wales), there can be no complaint from the court hearing the case, other parties or their lawyers about them giving advice, assistance and otherwise advocating for the litigants they help to present their cases.

Given the fact that there is no obligation on litigants, in any forum, to retain and pay for the services of a qualified lawyer, the charge against Annette Smith is pure, unadulterated nonsense; and is nothing more than the usual bullying, stand-over tactics employed by the wind industry and its parasites – tactics that see its goons beating up on pensioners, disabled farmers and middle-aged mothers.

The ridiculous nature of the developer instigated trumped-up charge against Annette Smith was noticed by another famous American community defender, Erin Brockovich – who has endorsed a crowd funding page for Annette’s legal defence costs on her facebook page – Erin Brockovich – noting that:

The head of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, Annette Smith, is under criminal investigation by the Vermont Attorney General’s office for alleged “unauthorized practice of law”. Whoever could have imagined helping people have a voice in regulatory proceedings would lead to this; it is obviously politically motivated. I am outraged. The charge is highly unusual; if there is prosecution, it would be tried at the Vermont Supreme Court. This hasn’t happened since 1962 and only five times in the history of Vermont. The legal community in Vermont is scratching their heads, outraged, and various things in between. A gofundme page was set up yesterday to help with her legal fees https://www.gofundme.com/74kx663w

With its ham-fisted attempt to crush Annette Smith and the communities she helps to defend, the wind industry can expect nothing but fury and revenge in Vermont, from here on. Let’s call it the beginning of a ‘revolution’.

January 28, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

Bankers & Investors Close Ranks & Doom Wind Industry to Death By A Thousand Cuts

January 28, 2016 by stopthesethings

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Earlier this week we looked at how Australia’s big power retailers have turned their backs to the wind to face the Sun, instead.

Commercial retailers (we don’t count the ACT Government) haven’t entered any Power Purchase Agreements with wind power outfits since November 2012; and, we hear, have determined not to enter any more PPAs for wind power, ever again.

The big operators have absolutely no interest in wind power; and every interest in killing off the Large-Scale RET that created, and for the time being sustains, the wind industry.

As pointed out previously, the retailers’ switch to large-scale solar is a canny, but fleeting move – designed to avoid the shortfall penalty for the few years it takes for the LRET to collapse; as the political and economic toxicity of the policy escalates over the next year or two.

It is, after all, a pointless $3 billion a year power tax that runs until 2031 – for no other reason than to subsidise the production of insanely expensive and wholly unreliable wind power; at a time when Australia’s grid is swamped with oodles of the reliable, secure and affordable stuff.

Without PPAs with retailers, wind power outfits haven’t a hope in hell of obtaining bank finance to build any new wind farm capacity; and the retailers’ recalcitrance has investors spooked, too – as the following articles attest.

Wind optimism stalls
The Courier
Matthew Dixon and Peter Hannam
16 January 2016

STALLED: Investment in large wind projects isn’t coming as quickly as expected.

THE confidence that everyone had expected to return to the renewable energy sector following the demise of Tony Abbott is yet to come to fruition.

Investors spent just $15 million since February 2014 on big wind, solar or other clean energy projects that were not otherwise supported by government programs such as the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

That figure is a huge drop from when investment peaked in 2011 on the back of government support for renewables.

The figures and belief that the industry may have stagnated according to an annual survey by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Despite Mr Abbott’s removal as prime minister, and many key figures in the industry expectations of a return to bigger levels of investment, there is no certainty that the investment will return in 2016.

With a number of major wind farms in the Ballarat area already securing planning approval and only waiting on investment for construction to begin, development has stagnated.

This includes huge farms planned in Stockyard Hill and within the Moorabool Shire.

Australian Wind Alliance national coordinator Andrew Bray said the industry had not rebounded as some had hoped, but there was still a lot of optimism.

“It is definitely the case that the market has not recovered since the Abbott government’s attack on the Renewable Energy Target,” he said.

“While there appears to be some optimism surrounding projects starting to progress, that hasn’t eventuated.

“It is now up to all the players, the banks, the retailers to come to the table and start resolving this impasse.”

The Abbott government’s repeal of the carbon tax in July 2014 – which removed long-term price support – and a mishandled review that led ultimately to a cut of about one-fifth in the 2020 Renewable Energy Target meant “confidence evaporated” in the sector according to Kobad Bhavnagri, head of Bloomberg New Energy Finance in Australia.

“It can’t be understated that the actions of the Abbott government have destroyed confidence in the renewable energy market,” Mr Bhavnagri said.

“Lenders in the market are almost all of the view that the political risks in the RET … have made it too risky to invest in.”
The Courier

Predictable ‘sackcloth and ashes’ stuff from a pair of typically deludedFairfax wind-cultists, but the line they pull from Bloomberg’s boffin that: “Lenders in the market are almost all of the view that the political risks in the RET … have made it too risky to invest in” is absolutely spot on!

Not only are investors not game to throw so much as a shekel at wind power in Australia anymore, those with skin in the game are cutting and running as fast as their panicked, jelly-legs can carry them.

To give some insight into the fear that’s driving them, we’ll head back in time to trace a little tale about a Spanish wind power outfit’s efforts to ditch the Taralga wind farm in NSW.

Renewable energy sector crisis forces Banco Santander to quit Taralga wind farm
Sydney Morning Herald
Angela Macdonald-Smith
31 March 2015

Banco Santander, a major investor in renewable energy, will sell its only Australian wind farm and exit the local sector because of policy uncertainty that has dragged the industry into crisis.

Santander will seek a buyer for its 90 per cent stake in the 106.8 megawatt Taralga wind farm near Goulburn, which is not being included in the renewable energy fund it set up late last year with two Canadian pension giants because of the perceived poor prospects for the sector in Australia, say sources.

David Smith, executive director of Santander in Sydney, declined to comment.

Australia’s renewable energy sector has been left in limbo by the political debate surrounding the country’s 2020 renewable energy target. The government and Labor Opposition agree the 41,000GWh target for large-scale renewable energy needs to be reduced to suit the downturn in total power demand from the grid, but have been unable to agree on a compromise.

As of last week, the government was proposing a 2020 target of 32,000GWh, while Labor wants a target in the high 30,000GWh range. A compromise suggested by the Clean Energy Council at 33,500GWh, up from the current level of about 17,000GWh, has failed to find backing.

Investment in large-scale renewable energy collapsed by almost 90 per cent in 2014 as a result of the deadlock, which has been criticised by several large foreign investors in the local renewable energy sector, including GE, Spain’s Fotowatio Renewable Venture and Infigen Energy cornerstone shareholder, the Children’s Investment Fund. They have all warned of the harm to Australia’s sovereign risk, which will deter long-term infrastructure investors.

In December, Santander struck a deal with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board in Canada to transfer its portfolio of renewable energy and water infrastructure assets into a new company owned equally by all three parties. But despite the partners having an appetite for other infrastructure assets in Australia, the wind farm was excluded from the $US2 billion-plus ($2.6 billion) portfolio of assets in the new company because of the uncertainty around the RET and the decision by the Coalition government to ditch the carbon tax, say sources close to the company.

The new company will, however, invest in Brazil and Mexico, which are seen as offering better prospects for renewable energy investors than Australia.

“It is quite clear that the uncertainty around the RET and other changes to policy that have occurred over the past few years has created a lot of uncertainty for investors in the renewable energy space,” said Richard Pillinger at BlueNRGY LLC, which owns 10 per cent of the Taralga wind farm.

The Taralga wind farm, which has a 10-year contract to supply power to EnergyAustralia, was financed with about $280 million from Santander, CBD Energy, Danish export credit agency EKF, ANZ and the federal government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Production of electricity from the first of the 51 wind turbines began in December.

CBD Energy has since gone into administration and been acquired by US-based BlueNRGY LLC.

Santander is closing the Sydney office for its equity investment arm, which focuses on renewable energy, in mid-2015.
Sydney Morning Herald

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With the dreaded Tony Abbott little more than political history, and the ‘immutable’ 33,000 GWh annual LRET target now set in stone (just like the previous 41,000 GWh target!), Banco Santander should have been knocked to the floor with a rush of cashed-up and willing buyers.

So, let’s wind the clock forward and tally up the bids for Taralga.

Taralga Wind Farm sale runs out of puff
The Australian
Bridget Carter and Gretchen Friemann
22 January 2016

The sale of the Taralga Wind Farm could be put on hold, with sources suggesting the sales process for the asset generated limited buyer interest.

Apparently, one mystery bidder did circle the operation, but it is now thought unlikely it is still interested.

AMP Capital is among other groups that had a look in the early stages.

But sources say that the carrying value of the asset is too high, and long-dated swaps in the capital structure that are difficult to change are deterring buyers.

The Spanish owners, Banco Santander, appointed ANZ last year to sell the wind farm on the NSW coast, 45km north of Goulburn.

Taralga was expected to sell for about $200 million.

It gained state approval in 2012 to build 51 wind turbines, generating 106.8 megawatts of electricity.

Banco Santander, the world’s third-largest clean energy lender, had moved to sell the asset as part of its decision to exit the Australian market.

It is understood to have reached a global tie-up with some of Canada’s pension funds in recent times.
The Australian

Not a serious bid in sight! Whatever could have got investors to balk at a ‘sure-fire’ one-way bet?

Could it be that investors have worked out that ANY business that depends entirely on a piece of government policy can be done in at the stroke of a pen?

For STT’s analysis of what’s behind the investors’ panic see: Wind Industry Still Wailing About ‘Uncertainty’ as Australian Retailers Continue to Reject Wind Power ‘Deals’

We’ve said it before and we’ll keep saying it: the wind industry is among the greatest Ponzi schemes of all time. If you have so much as a penny anywhere near it, then grab it and get out fast.

Wind Weasel Wants To Attack Innocent Victims…

January 27, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

Wind Industry Peopled by Career Criminals: Convicted Felon Launches Ludicrous Defamation Claim Against Opponents

January 27, 2016 by stopthesethings

The wind industry seems to attract a particular class of bloke, in much the same way that the Prohibition era drew lots of heavy-set Italians to the Mob.

Maybe that seemingly endless stream of massive subsidies filched from taxpayers and power consumers generates the same allure as festering dung does for swarms of flies?

Whatever it is, the whiff that surrounds the wind industry has attracted (and continues to attract) a class that has no hesitation lying, cheating, stealing and even bonking their way to the easy loot on offer.

The Italian Mob were in on the wind power fraud from the get-go: applying their considerable (and perfectly applicable) skills – leading the European wind power fraud, with what economists call “first-mover-advantage” (see our post here).

We’ve reported on just how rotten the wind industry is – from top to bottom – and whether it’s bribery and fraud; vote rigging scandals; tax fraud; investor fraud or REC fraud – wind weasels set a uniform standard that would make most businessmen blush.

Now, here’s another story detailing not only the fact that the wind industry is peopled by career criminals, but also that their audacity knows no bounds.

Wind farm developer sues project opponents for defamation
Arkansas Online
Dan Holtmeyer
16 January 2016

The CEO of the company hoping to build the state’s first wind farm west of Springdale has sued two of the project’s opponents for defamation.

Jody Davis, head of Texas-based Dragonfly Industries International, claims several disparaging posts made by Jonathon and Vivian Hamby on the “Stop the Elm Springs Wind Farm” Facebook page aren’t true and have damaged his and his company’s reputation. Davis filed the lawsuit in Washington County Circuit Court and asks for a judge to order the married couple to remove the posts, compensate Davis for the damage done and pay punitive damages.

The lawsuit cites five examples of the posts, including one in November asking of Davis and another man involved in the project, “Do these look like ‘experts’ in wind energy to you, or do they look like career criminals who scam people out of their hard-earned money?” Davis claims the Hambys knew the statements were false or were published with reckless disregard of the truth.

That post referred to Davis’s history of crimes involving money. Davis pleaded guilty in 2009 to embezzling about $785,000 from three organizations in Oklahoma and served 17 months in prison, according to federal court documents. He was also sentenced to probation in Arkansas for a hot-check violation in 1999.

The Hambys’ attorney, Travis Story, dismissed the complaint in a statement as an attempt to intimidate the Hambys. The truth is “an absolute defense” in defamation cases, Story wrote.

“This is a pathetic and desperate move by Jody Davis,” Jonathon Hamby said Friday evening. “His criminal history is what is causing him problems, not some Facebook post.”

Davis didn’t return an email or phone message requesting comment Friday evening. Last year he said he had paid for and had grown past his mistakes.

“It is really sad that the press and the community wish to put more emphasis on tearing a person down who has truly changed their life and worked hard to build a life and future for their family that is structured around Godly relationships,” Davis wrote in an email last month.

Davis and other Dragonfly representatives have said they plan to build dozens of turbines on a 300-acre site on the western edge of Elm Springs, a town of about 1,700 people. They have said they intend to use a unique turbine design that’s quieter, safer for wildlife and more efficient than the standard design.

The Hambys live next to the land. They and other neighbors worried about the project’s impact on their health and property value and said the turbine design was untested and unproven. After the City Council approved the land’s annexation into Elm Springs last fall, the Hambys were involved with the successful petition drive to put the annexation up for a public vote. The vote’s scheduled for March 1.

Elite Energy, a related company that owns the site, tried to get the land rezoned from residential-agricultural use for the project but dropped the request in December. Hamby said he believed the project could still go forward, because residential-agricultural zoning allows utility facilities under city code.

At the Planning Commission’s meeting Monday, chairman Matt Casey said he agreed the 150-foot turbines could be built on the land as zoned, according to a recording of the meeting. The project would still need building permits and perhaps other permitting before going forward, Casey said. The commission didn’t take any formal action.

Jonathon Hamby attended the meeting and said neighbors’ concerns must be addressed.

“It seems like you’re trying to find a way around this,” he told the commission.

Mayor Harold Douthit said Hamby and others had several public opportunities to speak their minds. Hamby and Douthit argued for a moment before Casey ended public comment and adjourned the meeting.
Arkansas Online

As attorney, Travis Story, correctly points out, “the truth is “an absolute defense” in defamation cases”. Indeed it is.

Now, here’s the unvarnished truth about Jody Davis

Wind Farm Company CEO Responds To Past Embezzlement Conviction
5 News KFSM
Zuzanna Sitek
19 November 2015

ELM SPRINGS (KFSM) — The chief executive officer of a Texas-based company that has proposed building a wind farm on 300 acres in Elm Springs addressed his past embezzling conviction Thursday (Nov. 19).

Jody Douglas Davis is the CEO of Dragonfly Industries International, LLC. On Aug. 10, 2009 he pleaded guilty to 18 counts of wire fraud and 64 counts of money laundering in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Upon sentencing 46 counts of money laundering were dropped and Davis was sentenced to a little over three years in federal prison. Davis was released July 18, 2011 and was put on supervised release until July 17, 2014, according to records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

On Thursday, he released the following statement to 5NEWS:

“I made some mistakes in my past. I paid a high price for these mistakes, including a debt to society. The experience transformed me. Since that time, I have tried to live my life as an example, so others might understand how they can be transformed. I hope and believe my business and personal achievements in recent years reflect that example.”

The Board of Directors of Dragonfly Industries also sent 5NEWS at statement:

“The Board of Directors of Dragonfly Industries International, LLC are completely behind Mr. Davis as our Chief Executive Officer. As a company, we believe that there are such things as second chances when a person does not just modify their behavior but one goes through complete heart change. Mr. Jody Davis has our full support and we eagerly look forward to the future in all our business endeavors.”

Davis embezzled $1,153,627 from Windsong Marketing, LLC, Newsong Assembly and Buyers Assistance, LLC, according to a federal indictment. All three companies were involved in home-buying assistance and Davis was employed as an account executive from about August 2003 to February 2005, the indictment states.

Windsong, Newsong and Buyers would advance money to help home buyers in meeting their financial obligations for their home purchases. When the home purchase was completed, the seller of the home would send Windsong, Newsong and Buyers an amount that equaled or exceeded that which had been advanced to the home buyer. If the sale failed completely, then the home buyer would be obligated to return the amount which had been advanced to him or her to purchase the home.

From January 2004 to February 2005, Davis would contact home buyers and sellers and instruct them to wire transfer the money that was supposed to be returned to Newsong, Windsong and Buyers to a bank account he had set up at First Pryority Bank in Pryor, Oklahoma instead of wiring the money into bank accounts belonging to Newsong, Windsong and Buyers, according to the indictment. Davis had listed the account at First Pryority Bank as belonging to Autos, Inc. even though Davis was not in the business of vehicle sales or servicing, the indictment states.

Davis used the money sent to the Auto, Inc. account to settle prior debts, as well as to purchase vehicles, real estate, building and property improvements, boats, personal water craft, all-terrain vehicles, tractors and jewelry, including a diamond ring and earrings, according to the indictment.

As part of his plea agreement Davis must make restitution to his victims. Newsong, Windsong and Buyers were owned by Gayle Towry before the companies were dissolved, according to court documents. Upon Towry’s death in December 2009, just months after Davis’ guilty plea, restitution payments were transferred to one of his children, Kenneth Towry.

Kenneth Towry spoke with 5NEWS about the case and identified the Jody Davis pictured in the photograph on the Dragonfly Industries website as the same man who embezzled money from his father. Towry said of the amount Davis has been order to pay back, he has seen about $1,000 so far.

Towry’s attorney also confirmed the CEO of Dragonfly Industries and the man who defrauded his client were the same person.

Federal court documents show jurisdiction over Davis’ 2009 case was transferred from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in August 2012.

Documents filed with the Texas Secretary of State’s office show Dragonfly Industries International, LLC filed its certificate of formation Sept. 5, 2014. The registered agent on the formation form is listed as Nadine R. King-Mays, an attorney based out of Dallas, Texas.

On a Texas Franchise Tax Public Information Report filed in 2015 Jody Davis is listed as a governing member of the company. His address on the form is listed as being in Farmington, Arkansas. The other governing members listed on the report are Phillip Ridings and Craig Cook. Both of their addresses are listed as being in Jupiter, Florida. According to the Dragonfly Industries website, Ridings is listed as the inventor of the wind turbine that the company has proposed to use in Elm Springs and Cook is listed as the chief operating officer.

5NEWS contacted the address where Dragonfly Industries has its office and was told the suite is undergoing renovation.

The wind farm project proposed in Elm Springs would be Dragonfly Industries’ first wind farm, according to the company’s website. Mayor Harold Douthit said he didn’t know about Davis’ criminal history, and said it wasn’t his place to ask.

“We give every business that wants to operate in Elm Springs no matter what they are, the same level of scrutiny,” Douthit said. “If they’re approved we welcome them, and we wish them well, but the scope of what we can do is limited to the proposal that’s in front of us.”

The Elm Springs City Council tabled a motion Monday (Nov. 16) to rezone the property for the wind farm to give council members more time to look into Dragonfly Industries and to address residents’ concerns.

Stop the Elm Springs Wind Farm, which opposes the project, issued the following statement Thursday:

“We were surprised to learn of Jody Davis’ criminal history this morning when the news story aired. Needless to say, we have been suspicious of this operation from the beginning. The individuals involved with Dragonfly have no wind energy experience, they have never built one of their “experimental” turbines, and they don’t have a buyer for their energy. In addition, they wanted to build a wind farm in an area that does not have the wind speeds necessary to sustain a wind farm. Mr. Davis is supposed to be present at the Elm Springs Planning Commission meeting on Dec. 14 to answer all of the public’s questions. We look forward to hearing what he has to say on Dec. 14.”

A court records search shows Jody Davis also has a criminal record in Arkansas.

In April 1999, Davis was accused of violating the Arkansas hot check law, according to records filed in Washington County Circuit Court. In January 1999 Davis wrote himself a check in the sum of $10,000 on an account at McIlroy Bank (now Arvest Bank) based on a deposit from Peoples Bank in Westville, Oklahoma which would later deny payment because of insufficient funds on deposit, the documents state.

In June 1999, Davis pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years probation, according to court records. He was also ordered to pay $10,096 in restitution. Davis satisfied the conditions of his judgement in September 2002, records show.

Records show Davis was also arrested in May 2007 in Faulkner County on possession of a controlled substance. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years of probation. In 2009, just months before he pleaded guilty to federal embezzlement charges, he was arrested on a probation violation, according to court records.

In a letter from 2009 to a federal judge, Davis asks the court to let him voluntarily surrender to serve his time in federal prison. In the letter, Davis writes he developed a drug problem four years earlier because of a series of tragic events. He also asks the court to give him time to make sure his ill mother is taken care of and to see his children before beginning his federal prison sentence.

As part of his federal prison sentence, the court recommended Davis be put in a facility where he will have the opportunity to participate in the Bureau of Prisons’ Residential Drug Abuse Treatment Program. The court also recommended Davis be placed in a facility as close to Searcy, Arkansas as possible. The closest federal facility to Searcy is in Forrest City.

A search of the Arkansas Secretary of State website also shows Davis had three companies in Northwest Arkansas registered in his name: Global Growth Investments, Inc in Fayetteville in 2001, J.D. Davis, Inc in Springdale in 1998 and Star City Collision Center, LLC in Star City in 2009. The licenses for all three were revoked.
5 News KFSM

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And it seems that Jody Davis wasn’t the only felon attracted by the wind industry’s impeccable record for probity and integrity ….

Records show proposed wind farm representative has history of financial trouble
5 News KFSM
Zuzanna Sitek and Dillon Thomas
24 November 2015

ELM SPRINGS (KFSM) – Another key player involved in the proposal to build a wind farm in Elm Springs has a history of criminal and civil cases involving his finances.

Court documents obtained by 5NEWS show Cody Fell has a history of financial issues in Arkansas and Oklahoma. According to city council meeting minutes, Fell and two others represented Dragonfly Industries International at initial meetings with Elm Spring city leaders in December 2014. However, Fell’s official role in the company is unclear and he is not listed on the company’s website.

Court documents that go back to May 2003 show Fell has a history of failure to appear, failure to pay for services and a conviction for violating Arkansas’ hot check law.

In 2003, Fell was ordered to pay $5,357 in Washington County when he didn’t appear for a case involving one of his companies, Creative Home Designs, after he failed to pay his account with Smith Tile Company.

Later in March 2004, court records show Fell pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of Arkansas’ hot check law after he knowingly made out a check to Air Control Corporation for $2,462 that wouldn’t clear. Fell was sentenced to 12 months of probation with minimal supervision.

Also in 2004, documents show Fell faced foreclosure on a property in Tontitown after owing Arkansas National Bank more than $316,000.

In 2005, after failing to respond to another court case, Fell and another one of his companies, Builder Services of Northwest Arkansas, were ordered to pay nearly $5,400 to United Bank of Springdale.

Then in 2009, First State Bank of Northwest Arkansas took Fell to court after he failed to make payments on a loan and again didn’t respond to a summons. Fell was ordered to pay nearly $29,000.

Fell also has a record of financial cases in Oklahoma.

In 2007, in Adair County, Fell was order to pay more than $40,500 to the Theodore R. Murray Living Trust after defaulting on a promissory note and mortgage.

That same year, Fell and one of his companies in Oklahoma, Custom Structures, was summoned to court by Tulsa Casting and ordered to pay nearly $3,500. Records show a bench warrant was issued for Fell in 2009, but was returned several months later after Fell couldn’t be located.

In 2008, Fell and another one of his companies, Eagle Management, were summoned to court for breach of contract, although the sum sought in the case was not available in online records. The records show a judge issued several bench warrants for Fell after he failed to appear in court. Fell and his wife filed for bankruptcy, but their case was dismissed “because of various misrepresentations of the defendants,” according to a citation for contempt.

And as recently as 2012, Fell and Eagle Management were once again brought to court for breach of contract after failing to pay a $55,000 contract. Again, the judgment was by default because records show Fell never showed up for court or responded to any summons.

Records show Fell has also been a defendant in several cases in Delaware County. In two of the civil cases the sought monetary relief exceeded $10,000.

Dragonfly Industry’s CEO, Jody Davis, released a statement last week regarding an embezzlement conviction from 2009 for which he served time in federal prison.

5NEWS contacted Davis regarding Fell’s background, but didn’t receive a response.

Elm Springs Mayor Harold Douthit sent the following statement to 5NEWS Tuesday (Nov. 14):

The information brought to light recently surrounding Dragonfly personnel no doubt has put a cloud on the future of the wind farm project. I am confident the Planning Commission and City Council will make the right decisions for the citizens of Elm Springs. I respectfully support those decisions.

According to Washington County real estate records, the plot of land for the proposed wind farm project is located at Tally Gate Road and Kenneth Price Road and was annexed into Elm Springs by the city council in October.

Records indicate the land is owned by Elite Energy, LLC, a company that’s registered to Brandon Smith, and was purchased in February 2015 from Chambers Bank. City council meeting minutes show Smith was also present to discuss the wind farm project with city leaders in December 2014. Fell, Smith and Ron Filbeck are listed in the minutes are representing Dragonfly Industries. None of the three men are listed on the company’s website.

Arkansas Secretary of State records show Fell, Smith and Filbeck listed as managing members of CBR Investments, also Auto Solutions Used Cars, in Springdale.

Documents from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality indicate the Arkansas One Elite Energy Wind Facility has been granted a stormwater construction general permit. The permit correspondence was addressed to Arkansas Wind Power, LLC and Jody Davis. Arkansas Secretary of State records indicate Arkansas Wind Power is registered to Phillip Ridings, who is listed as the inventor of the wind turbine technology that will be used in Elm Springs, according to the Dragonfly Industries webpage.
5 News KFSM

Australian Power Retailers Deliver Fatal Blow to Wind Industry with Mass Solar Roll-Out

January 25, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

Wind is Novelty Energy. Not for Prime Time!

STOP THESE THINGS

Collecting RECs for the time being …

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STT has been pointing out for sometime now, the fact that Australia’s big 3 power retailers have been refusing to ‘play ball’ with beleaguered wind power cowboys, like near-bankrupt, Infigen and the union super fund backed disaster, Pacific Hydro.

Commercial retailers have not entered any power purchase agreements with wind power outfits, since about November 2012; and have made it very clear that they have no intention of doing so, any time soon.

As we noted back in September last year – Let the Sun Shine In: Australia’s BIGGEST Power Retailer Determined to Kill Wind Power – Australia’s big retailers had created a strategy that would kill 2 birds with one well-aimed stone. The first victim on their radar being the wind industry in Australia; and the second glittering prize, the completely unsustainable Large-Scale Renewable Energy Target.

Here’s how the strategy…

View original post 2,279 more words

Wind Turbine Torture….Denied, and Ignored by Authorities!

January 25, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

Group says wind farm causing health issues

Credit: Sharon Roznik, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin | January 24, 2016 | www.fdlreporter.com/ ~~

Joan Lagerman likens the sound to “shoes in a clothes dryer,” or “someone shutting a dumpster lid over and over.”

The Malone woman is among a group of residents who are suffering from a variety of ailments they believe are caused from living in the shadow of wind turbines.

On certain days, when the blades are coated in ice, the noise is so bad it shakes the walls of her home.

Calling themselves Concerned Citizens of Fond du Lac County, the group plans to attend the next meeting of the Fond du Lac County Health Department at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 2 to voice health concerns they say are caused by the whirl of the seven-ton blades.

Their main goal is to shut down the turbines at night so residents can get some sleep.

Blue Sky Green Field is a WE Energies, 88-turbine wind farm set on 10,600 acres, spread between the townships of Calumet and Marshfield in Fond du Lac County, not far from the east shore of Lake Winnebago. Lagerman and her neighbors are surrounded by the 44 towering turbines spinning in Marshfield.

The wind farm generates energy for the southeastern Wisconsin power grid, producing enough for service to 35,000 homes, according to WE Energies.

Choking back tears, Lagerman, 55, said Thursday she can’t take it anymore – the constant headaches, insomnia, hypertension and anxiety that came on after the wind farm was erected in 2008.

“Doctors can’t find what is causing my health problems, but I can tell you when I leave home, they all go away,” Lagerman said.

Just down the road, Elizabeth Ebertz, 73, lives in quiet agony in her home. From her west window, six turbines are visible, and from a south window five can be seen.

She said sleep is the biggest problem, and uses phrases like low frequency noise and infrared sound – both associated with wind turbines and sleep disturbance, according to a report by the World Health Organization.

“Most of the time when I wake up, I am nauseous with a severe headache and pain in my ears,” Ebertz said, hardly able to get the words out. “I have lived here all my life and it has turned into a living hell.”

But Brian Manthey, a spokesperson for WE Energies, said that, over the years, they have been getting complaints from the same handful of people. The rest of the citizens living among 88 turbines seem to be content. Some, he said, are even asking for waivers to build closer to the turbines than setback requirements of 1,000 feet allow. (More recent updates now require a distance of 1,250 feet from a residence).

The company sees no need to shut down the turbines, he said. A sound study completed in 2008 indicates the noise output is at or below permitted levels. As for studies on wind turbines and health problems, there have not been any peer-reviewed science studies that show any link, Manthey said.

“For the most part, we have very successful relationships with neighbors in the area,” he said. “And if there is a problem, ice build-up or a lightning strike, we address the issue.”

But resident Larry Lamont, 75, said WE Energies doesn’t consider that, when trees are leafless in winter, or there is heavy moisture content, the noise is overbearing. The hum from transformers is constant, and it’s compounded by the dozens of turbines in the area.

“They don’t take into consideration that while they may be monitoring noise output, they aren’t adding them all up together,” he said.

The group has appeared before town boards and state legislators to voice their concerns. Back in 2008, some farmers in the area requested that there be a citizen vote, but the town board went ahead and approved the wind farm, Lamont said.

When WE Energies first approached families living in the area in 2008, Bernie and Rose Petrie, like most people, thought green energy would be a good thing. About 55 landowners leased land or easements to the energy company to erect wind turbines, with one turbine taking up about a half an acre and co-existing with crop production and dairy farming.

Looking back, allowing wind farms to the area was a huge mistake, said 55-year-old Rose Petrie.

The couple is living on a family farm that dates back to 1928. Moving is not an option for them and for others annoyed by the whoosh of turbines.

“Roots run deep around here,” Rose Petrie said, “and before the wind turbines came, our lives were peace and quiet.”

How to Attend

Concerned Citizens of Fond du Lac County is asking residents concerned about the health impact of wind turbines to attend the next meeting of the Fond du Lac County Board of Health at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 2 in Room H at the City County Government Center, 160 S. Macy St.

Source: Sharon Roznik, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin | January 24, 2016 | www.fdlreporter.com/

2016 Australian of the Year Awards, by STT

January 25, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

STT’s Australian of the Year Awards 2016

January 25, 2016 by stopthesethings

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Australians are a weird mob – as demonstrated by that, somewhat militaristic, culinary mash up; detailing ‘Operation Boomerang’ – a top-level mission to extract expats from far-flung, lamb-free-zones and return them to mouth-watering, succulent barbecued delights.

The fact that Aussies love our lamb, and frown on vegans, upsets the PC Police, but then we’ve never had much time for priggish authority: whether defending France in the Great War; or ourselves from fire and flood, we’re a bunch that tends to get on with the job, without much fuss or fanfare. And, quite rightly, treat the presumed elite and pompous with a mixture of suspicion and derision.

Mildly hedonistic, and hard-wired with a sense of fair-play, Australians, on the whole, are slow to anger, but quick to jump in to a stoush when the bullies of the world start throwing their weight around.

****

And, despite ingrained and healthy irreverence, Australians pull together as a pretty decent, civil society – built around protection for the weak and the vulnerable among our number – whether it be one or hundreds.

When faced with the unarguable suffering of human beings, arguments pitched along the lines of “it’s all for the greater good” don’t cut it with STT – and they tend not to cut it with Australians, either.

Last time we looked, Australians were gifted with a few fundamental precepts in their treatment of their fellow Australians.

First, don’t annoy your neighbours – and, if one of them is in trouble, don’t hang back and wait to be asked – get in there and help them.

****

Whether it’s bushfires or floods – Australians know how to pitch in and save their neighbours’ lives and property. Why? Because it is the right thing to do.

As Operation Boomerang suggests, 26 January is the day when Australians hit the beach, haul-out the barbie and wash down paddocks full (or, rather emptied) of Aussie lamb, with frosty cold beer and humongous Australian reds. Mmmmm

And, on Australia Day, the country turns to reflect on the achievements of those who fight with honour and courage, in a whole range of human endeavours, for the betterment of our collective lot.

In Australia, the fight to bring the great wind power fraud to a shuddering halt is being won: the wind industry is on its knees, investment is at a standstill and the financial collapse of wind power outfits – like the near-bankrupt Infigen – is a case of when, not if.

The talk has turned from consideration of the wind industry’s “future”, to the timing of its inevitable demise.

But that switch in fortune has come thanks to the blood sweat and tears of hundreds of well-informed and dedicated individuals around this country.

As with any public gong, it’s impossible to mention them all, so we’ll stick to those who STT thinks have made outstanding contributions in their respective fields.

Once again, following the style of Australia’s national daily, The Australian, STT throws up a list of notables as nominees for “STT’s Australians of the Year”.

It’s not necessarily a beauty contest, so feel free to vote according to your heads and not your hearts. And, because our little list is obviously cursory and incomplete, you have absolute liberty to nominate and vote for all of those unsung heroes in your communities who have made the kind of contributions that are worthy of recognition and praise.

We gratefully recognise and thank our perennials, whose tireless devotion to either destroying the wind industry, or saving those who suffer at the hands of that callous industry and those paid handsomely to supposedly protect them, earned them awards for remarkable efforts in our 2015 Australia Day Honours:

Starting with the Tireless Community Defenders:

With this award, STT hopes to recognise the tireless and dedicated work of the people who have rallied to promote the interests of farmers and rural communities around the Country.

Where the wind industry and its parasites attack these people as “anti-wind” (a strange and meaningless epithet, if ever there was one – STT thinks it impossible to find a human being with antipathy towards a gentle summer’s breeze) – STT says the proper characterisation is of a group of people who are positively fearless in advocating in favour of sensible energy policy and, therefore, are better described as “pro-Australian”, “pro-farming” and “pro-community” leaders and advocates.

We again note and thank:

South Australia’s Mary Morris – who continues to impress and inspire with efforts to ensure communities get relevant noise rules and that they get enforced. Her relentless efforts to get the facts before the Senate Inquiry were super-human: Wind Farm Senate Inquiry Fallout Continues19 June 2015.

Victoria’s Annie Gardner – who is leading the charge with the new wind farm commissioner, Andrew Dyer – hammering him with the kind of facts that he’ll never get from AGL, Greg Hunt or any of the other puppets controlled by the wind industry; and calling out her heartless neighbours for setting up hundreds of these things on their properties, destroying her community and leaving them all for dead: Macarthur Turbine Hosts Destroy Local Community & Bolt, as Hammering the Wind Industry becomes the “New Black” 27 June 2015.

Victoria’s Keith Staff – who continues to use his awesome email contact list to great effect, bombarding our political betters and journalists with every “inconvenient” fact that scuttles the endlessly repeated lies, upon which the great wind power fraud depends. As we’ve come to expect, Keith gave them hell in his evidence to the Senate Inquiry, too: Senate Inquiry: Hamish Cumming & Ors tip a bucket on the Great Wind Power Fraud 15 April 2015.

New South Wale’s Patina Schneider – is the NSW’s Tablelands answer to the Celtic warrior queen, Boadicea. Patina is the brains and muscle behind the Australian Industrial Wind Turbine Awareness Network – a group dedicated to smashing the wind industry and exposing the corruption that it exploits to its advantage; and she just keeps giving them hell: Time to Tune-In Tony: Coalition’s $46 Billion Wind Industry Rescue Package has Liberal Voters Seething 9 June 2015.

Then there are the experts and their immeasurable Contributions to Science and Public Health:

South Australia’s Professor Colin Hansen – is one of nature’s true gentleman; and Australia’s leading academic authority on noise and vibration. Colin’s work on identifying the precise nature of the noise generated by industrial wind turbines, and its relationship to the health effects suffered by neighbours, has been going on quietly in the background for almost 7 years now. His evidence before the Senate Committee was as compelling as it was impressive. He continues to press for a set of noise rules that actually protect people, instead of the wind industry: Top Acoustics Professor Calls for Full Compensation for Wind Farm Victims, as Council Calls for “National Noise Cops” 29 March 2015.

New South Wales’ Steven Cooper – was another who impressed the Senators during the Inquiry into the great wind power fraud. Quiet and methodical, Steven Cooper is the acoustican’s acoustician. Motivated by the ethical responsibilities that are attached to acousticians, requiring them to put public health and safety first and foremost; Steve laid out that, and much more, before the Senate Inquiry: Senate’s Wind Farm Inquiry: Steven Cooper’s Evidence on his Groundbreaking Study 14 April 2015.

South Australia’s Dr Sarah Laurie – defines fortitude, resilience, stoicism, fearlessness, and an overall desire to let right be done: terms that only begin to capture the essence of a remarkable women. Sarah continues in her efforts to win an Australian ‘fair go’ for all: Senate Wind Farm Inquiry – Dr Sarah Laurie says: “Kill the Noise & give Neighbours a Fair Go” 17 July 2015.

There are the gifted and inspired leaders and their Contributions to Political Reform:

Victorian Senator, John Madigan – holds that “justice” and “right” are not just fancy concepts to chatter about – they are the pillars of decent, civil society. Dogged and determined, John, as Chair, provided the teeth needed to put last year’s Senate Inquiry on track and ensured a cracking set of recommendations hit the press; and he continued to expose the insane cost of the most pointless policy ever devised: Wind Power Fraud Finally Exposed: Senator John Madigan Details LRET’s Astronomical 45 Billion Dollar Cost to Power Consumers 20 June 2015.

South Australian Senator, Nick Xenophon – SA’s favourite Greek, has rallied behind South Australian communities set upon by wind power outfits from the very beginning; and he gets it. Nick’s efforts on the Senate Inquiry were as remarkable as they were breathless. Appearing, often by phone hook-up and with time stolen from the most punishing schedule in politics, his cross-examination of pompous, obnoxious and arrogant wind industry spruiker, Vesta’s Ken McAlpine – later forced to apologise for spreading malicious falsehoods about Dr Sarah Laurie – was well-worth the admission price: Vesta’s Ken McAlpine Forced to Apologise to Dr Sarah Laurie for …. well, just being ‘Ken’ 20 September 2015.

New South Wales Senator, David Leyonhjelm – doesn’t hide his light under a bushel – and is always on the front foot in his efforts to educate and inform Australians about the nature, scale and scope of the greatest rort of all time. David sat on the Senate Inquiry – the existence of which was due in no small part to his powers of influence and persuasion – needling the shills that lined up to protect what’s left of the wind industry; and otherwise giving them hell: NSW Senator – David Leyonhjelm – Hammers the “Smug Untouchability” of the wind industry14 June 2015.

Western Australian Senator, Chris Back – has been an STT Champion from the very beginning. Despite plenty of bitter opposition from the wind industry plants in Environment Minister Greg Hunt’s office, and a few rabid wind-cultists working as staffers on the Senate Committee, Chris manged to steer the Senate Inquiry in precisely the right direction. Not content with impressing his mark on the thumping Senate Report, Chris came out pressing for an immediate end to the madness: Liberal Senator – Chris Back – Demands Moratorium on New Wind Farms 17 October 2015.

Queensland Senator, Matt Canavan – is an economist by trade, having worked for the Productivity Commission, he’s got a head for facts and figures; and he gets it. Matt’s well-reasoned musings have graced the pages of STT more than just a couple of times. Matt slipped onto the Senate Committee and made a very solid contribution to the Inquiry, grilling wind industry hacks about the true (insane) cost of wind power; and he continued his offensive in the Senate, with his attack on ‘Green’ hypocrisy and the nonsense of wind power: Australian Senator – Matt Canavan – Slams “Greens” Hypocrisy & Skewers the Great Wind Power Fraud 31 March 2015.

Federal MP, Angus Taylor – aka “the Enforcer” – has been smashing into the great wind power fraud, even before he was elected in a landslide to the New South Wales seat of Hume in September 2013. Angus, a Rhodes scholar in economics and law, has been on the front foot ever since. Recent Liberal party shenanigans aimed at shunting Angus out his electorate have only stiffened his resolve; expect to see him on the front bench soon; and in a position to finally put to death the ludicrously costly and thoroughly pointless LRET. Meanwhile, the Enforcer’s relentless work to protect Australian rural communities continues: Angus Taylor MP: Retailer Boycott – Wind Farms will NOT be Built where there is ‘Negative Community Reaction’ 27 October 2015.

There are the journos noted For Excellence in (Proper) Journalism:

Alan Jones AO – took more than just a passing “interest” in the great wind power fraud, its consequences and victims; starting with his appearance as the MC at the great wind power fraud rally in Canberra, June 2013 (seeour post here). Ever since, Alan has been very much the ‘voice’ of the people; and continues to torment the gullible and corrupt among our political betters, with powerful pieces that expose the rottenness of the wind industry and those behind it: Three Magnificent Women Take On Australia’s Monstrous Wind Power Outfits & their Pathetic Political Backers 12 August 2015.

Graham Lloyd – is The Australian’s Environmental Editor and, among his journalistic peers who claim that tag, is unique. Where Graham differs, is that he lives up to the ethical responsibilities, which were once central to journalism as a profession: he equips himself with the facts. Once armed, he’s positively dangerous – uncovering the fraudsters and charlatans that parade as ‘Friends of the Earth’, with pointed pieces that get the ‘troublesome’ truth out: Pacific Hydro & Acciona’s Acoustic ‘Consultant’ Fakes ‘Compliance’ Reports for Non-Compliant Wind Farms 19 September 2015.

For more on our perennial contenders check out last year’s: STT’s Australian of the Year Awards.

Now, we introduce our new contenders for 2016.

And the categories and nominees are:

Tireless Community Defenders

Martin Hayles

****

Martin Hayles skips the nomination process and takes a prize, without contest. But, tragically, this gong is delivered posthumously: Martin died suddenly, at an all too young 51, a fortnight ago.

STT followers will know of Martin through the variety of characters he adopted on our comments boards: The Goat of Greenhill Road; and Jeff’s Last Goodbye (a nod to his favourite artist, the seminal Jeff Buckley), to name a few. Whichever of these characters he adopted, his comments were erudite, insightful, full of passion and always entertaining.

Martin was the attack dog for the Heartland Farmers – a group of equally dogged community defenders – dedicated to saving South Australia’s premier grain growing region, Yorke Peninsula from the ludicrous Ceres wind farm proposal; a proposal which SA’s favourite Greek, Senator Nick Xenophon, quite rightly, described as an “economic kick in the guts for South Australians”.

Martin took it up to the handful of Judas Iscariot types – heartless land-owners, who were prepared to destroy their community for a measly 30 pieces of silver.

And he hounded, without mercy, the former second-hand car salesmen that fronted Suzlon aka RePower aka Senvion – who tried – with the seemingly indestructible tenacity of cockroaches – to sleaze (and when that failed), lie, threaten, bully and deceive the crème de la crème of South Australia’s grain growers, in an effort to spear almost 200 of these things into the most productive barley growing region in the Country.

But that’s Martin the warrior. Martin, the man, touched so many lives, and his death will affect so many, many people. Martin was gifted with great care and compassion for others; and always found time in his heart for people set upon by the tyranny and inequity of this stinking industry. His tenacity, strength and drive was something to behold and inspire.

As his spirit soars further and beyond us, in the words of another great who passed this month, to Martin we say ‘Check ignition and may God’s love be with you.’

For Excellence in (Proper) Journalism

Hendrik Gout

****

Channel Seven’s Today Tonight is the must-watch current affairs show for South Australia’s aspiring working class – when an issue becomes the top story on Today Tonight, you can guarantee you’ve reached not only a substantial audience by number; but that you’ve also hit political dead-centre – in terms of reaching voters capable of deciding elections; and policies on the way to them.

The Today Tonight viewer mightn’t be a Twitter jockey, but he or she is a first-class talker; whether it’s at work or backyard barbecues, whatever they’ve seen soon becomes the topic of the day (or the week).

When the topic is their spiralling power bills and, despite paying through the nose for the stuff, suffering statewide blackouts to boot, you can guarantee plenty of fist-waving fury being added to tea room and backyard debates on just who, or what’s to blame.

Leading Today Tonight’s charge against SA’s wind power driven energy and economic crisis is Hendrik Gout. Laid back, with a laconic flair, Hendrik has earned his stripes as an STT Champion in recent months, with brilliant pieces detailing SA’s unfolding, ‘double-whammy’ nightmare of rocketing power prices (already double the rates of the ACT, and set to double again) and a grid on the brink of collapse.

Here’s a taste of Hendrik’s dry wit and insight:

Today Tonight Reports on South Australia’s Wind Power Policy Disaster 20 December 2015
Rocketing Prices AND Blackouts: South Australians Lament Their Dark & Dismal Wind ‘Powered’ Future 15 November 2015

STT’s Special Award for True Courage & Real Compassion

Clive and Trina Gare

****

Clive and Trina Gare are cattle graziers from South Australia’s Mid-North with their home property situated between Hallett and Jamestown.

In a truly noble and remarkable move, the Gares gave evidence to the Senate Inquiry into the great wind power fraud during its Adelaide hearing, in June 2015:

SA Farmers Paid $1 Million to Host 19 Turbines Tell Senate they “Would Never Do it Again” due to “Unbearable” Sleep-Destroying Noise

In their evidence, the Gares made it very clear that it was the worst decision of their lives; describing the noise from the turbines on their property as “unbearable”; requiring earplugs and the noise from the radio to help them get to sleep at night; and the situation when the turbines first started operating in October 2010 as “Crap, to put it honestly” – entirely consistent with, and properly vindicating, the types of complaints made routinely by wind farm neighbours who don’t get paid, in Australia and around the world.

The Senators on the Inquiry were moved no end by the daily misery laid bare by people who’ve had to live up close and personal with these things for over five years, and all the more so knowing that over that period they’ve pocketed over $1 million for doing so. Trina Gare candidly observing, in the same terms as Clive, that:

In my opinion, towers should not be any closer than five kilometres to a dwelling. If we had to buy another property, it would not be within a 20-kilometre distance to a wind farm. I think that says it all.

The Gares – along with plenty of others in the same position – were played by wind power outfits for dupes; as their evidence to the Senate attests.

Admitting to a mistake takes honesty and personal integrity; admitting to a colossal mistake, even more so. However, to not only do so in public, but to your Parliament, exhibits moral decency – especially given the potential of that admission to operate as a sobering warning to others who have made, or who are likely to make, the very same error.

What the Gares did is both remarkable and noble: these fine and decent people deserve the gratitude and sympathy of all; from those in their community, and well-beyond.

What they also deserve is that our political betters admit their mistakes; and immediately correct the errors that have led to the single greatest policy disaster in the history of the Commonwealth. After what the Gares have done, anything less is a monstrous insult.

On careful and considered reflection, Clive and Trina Gare take STT’s Special Award for True Courage & Real Compassion; and earn our undying respect and gratitude, as well.

So, as you wash down your rack of lamb with a thumping Barossa Valley shiraz, we think it only fitting to spare a thought for the efforts outlined above. Australia is all the better for people like these and the tireless contributions that they make. STT thanks them all.

What I want.

January 24, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

What we want, and what we really need…

Canadian Common Sense

While I was in church today doing my best to pay attention to the homily, I couldn’t keep my mind from bringing up an image that has haunted me for three days now. It was a short video on face book of a three year old boy crying in fear as an adult male tormented him with a pellet gun. It was a clip from some third world middle eastern pot hole, and the guy was laughing thinking the whole thing funny. the poor kid was terrorized. He was standing in a corner while the man made moves as if he was going to shoot him. I wanted so badly to fly to that little boy’s defense that I ached as I watched it. There was of course nothing I could do, but my heart broke for the little lad. As I sat there in my pew, I began to…

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Corrupt Wind-Pushing Politicians Allowing Abuse of Citizens!

January 24, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

Institutional Malice: Wind Farm Victims’ Government Endorsed Suffering Continues With Greg Hunt’s Knowledge

January 24, 2016 by stopthesethings

****

The number of Liberal (Australia’s once small-government, conservative, business and family friendly) Party MPs that hold a bizarre affection for these things can be tallied up on one hand.

The Liberal’s King of the Wind Worship Cult is the hapless Environment Minister, young Gregory Hunt. Hunt’s office is headed up by wind industry plant, Patrick Gibbons – who, along with his best mate, Ken McAlpine are responsible for cooking up the great wind power fraud in Australia.

At the time, they were staffers in the office of Victorian Labor Minister, Theo Theophanous, who with his brother, Andrew added more than alittle ‘colour’ to politics.

In a cosier than cosy turn of events, Gibbons runs Hunt’s office; and McAlpine is now Vestas’ top media manipulator in Oz. How convenient!

Hunt and his office are fully aware of the life-destroying consequences foisted upon the hundreds of unfortunates stuck with these things by their wind industry benefactors. Hard-working rural people, ground down by incessant turbine generated low-frequency noise and infrasound – delivered in merciless, daily onslaughts, at places like Cape Bridgewater, Waubra and Macarthur in Victoria, Gullen Range and Cullerin in NSW, Windy Hill in QLD and Waterloo and Jamestown in SA.

Hunt and his cohorts are always quick to defend their paymasters; jumping on any suggestion that their beloved ‘eco-friendlies’ could harm so much as a fly.

However, try as they might, facts have an uncanny ability of bubbling to the surface; and, once there, ignorance of them is no defence.

When political history is drawn, and the legacies of those involved are measured up, it’s often what the protagonists didn’t do that stains their scorecard, rather than what they did.

For those responsible for enabling the greatest economic and environmental fraud of all time – like Greg Hunt – it will be the fact that they knew full well that their favourite renewable rort caused wholly unnecessary misery to courageous, magnificent and stoic Australian women like Sonia Trist, Jan Hetherington and Annie Gardner:

Three Magnificent Women Take On Australia’s Monstrous Wind Power Outfits & their Pathetic Political Backers

****

That our political betters are fully aware of wholly unnecessary suffering is a matter of no doubt.

You see, people like Greg Hunt and others, with full responsibility for the policies that saw thousands of these things speared into backyards across the country – driving people to the edge of sanity in their own homes; or driving them out of them altogether – get swamped with emails from their victims on a daily basis.

Just like this tragic tale laid out by Jan Hetherington from Macarthur in western Victoria.

But, before you confront what Jan has to deal with, night after punishing night (and it is confronting), take note of the who’s who list of recipients – a group that can never say that they didn’t know.

From: Jan Hetherington
Sent: Friday, 15 January 2016 12:10 PM
To: ‘St. Clair, Nicky’ <Nicky.StClair@environment.gov.au>; ‘Macarthur WindFarm’ <MacarthurWindFarm@agl.com.au>
Cc: ‘Malcolm.Turnbull.PM@aph.gov.au’ <Malcolm.Turnbull.PM@aph.gov.au>; ‘Greg.Hunt.MP@aph.gov.au’ <Greg.Hunt.MP@aph.gov.au>; ‘dan.tehan.mp@aph.gov.au’ <dan.tehan.mp@aph.gov.au>; ‘daniel.andrews@parliament.vic.gov.au’ <daniel.andrews@parliament.vic.gov.au>; ‘matthew.guy@parliament.vic.gov.au’ <matthew.guy@parliament.vic.gov.au>; ‘Sussan.Ley.MP@aph.gov.au’ <Sussan.Ley.MP@aph.gov.au>; ‘Senator.Nash@aph.gov.au’ <Senator.Nash@aph.gov.au>; ‘Frydenberg, Josh (MP)’ <Josh.Frydenberg.MP@aph.gov.au>; ‘lily.d’ambrosio@parliament.vic.gov.au’ <lily.d’ambrosio@parliament.vic.gov.au>; ‘martin.foley@parliament.vic.gov.au’ <martin.foley@parliament.vic.gov.au>; ‘jill.hennessy@parliament.vic.gov.au’ <jill.hennessy@parliament.vic.gov.au>; ‘lisa.neville@parliament.vic.gov.au’ <lisa.neville@parliament.vic.gov.au>; ‘jala.pulford@parliament.vic.gov.au’ <jala.pulford@parliament.vic.gov.au>; ‘richard.wynne@parliament.vic.gov.au’ <richard.wynne@parliament.vic.gov.au>; ‘mary.wooldridge@parliament.vic.gov.au’ <mary.wooldridge@parliament.vic.gov.au>; ‘david.davis@parliament.vic.gov.au’ <david.davis@parliament.vic.gov.au>; ‘david.southwick@parliament.vic.gov.au’ <david.southwick@parliament.vic.gov.au>; ‘david.o’brien@parliament.vic.gov.au’ <david.o’brien@parliament.vic.gov.au>; ‘Brad.Battin@parliament.vic.gov.au’ <Brad.Battin@parliament.vic.gov.au>; ‘Katrina Rainsford’ <krainsford@sthgrampians.vic.gov.au>; ‘bruce.armstrong@sydney.edu.au’ <bruce.armstrong@sydney.edu.au>; ‘Cathy.McGowan.MP@aph.gov.au’ <Cathy.McGowan.MP@aph.gov.au>; ‘goulburn@parliament.nsw.gov.au’ <goulburn@parliament.nsw.gov.au>; ‘senator.Day@aph.gov.au’ <senator.Day@aph.gov.au>; ‘senator.Xenaphon@aph.gov.au’ <senator.Xenaphon@aph.gov.au>; ‘senator.Canavan@aph.gov.au’ <senator.Canavan@aph.gov.au>; ‘senator.Leyonhjelm@aph.gov.au’ <senator.Leyonhjelm@aph.gov.au>; ‘senator.madigan@aph.gov.au’ <senator.madigan@aph.gov.au>

Subject: my 89th formal complaint re-Macarthur wind farm.

Dear Commissioner Dyer, and AGL,

As you have been made aware, from our meeting with you in December, 2015, I am now “sensitised” by the hammering from the excessive pulsating infrasound, low frequency noise and vibration, that saturates my home day in and day out, emitted by the 140, 3MW turbines at the Macarthur wind facility.

I told you about the problem I had, when I was a patient in the newly built Western Private Hospital in Melbourne, in 2015, where I experienced the same symptoms from infrasound as I experience at home, and independent acoustician Les Huson tested my hospital room and positively identified and recorded infrasound in that room.

Not only am I still being hammered by this “noise” as I go about my daily routine at home, but I recently visited Portland on the 6th and 7th and 12th and 13th January 2016, to attend the Cruise ship markets to showcase my glassware.

Each visit I stayed overnight in Portland with a friend, and to my horror, I experienced the same symptoms that I experience at home, from the low frequency and infrasound.

There are wind turbines on the edge of the township of Portland at Cape Nelson, and Cape Bridgewater.

I experienced symptoms of sleep deprivation, palpitations, anxiety, ears aching and ringing, head-pressure and aching on the back of my head and the top of my jaws. I could hear the low droning noise of the turbines during the night.

These are the same symptoms I experience at home, living near the Macarthur wind facility.

At the market on the foreshore during the day, I kept experiencing “whacks” to my head, as if someone had hit me on the back of my head. These “whacks” would give me a jolt and they hurt.

This excessive, pulsing infrasound, low frequency noise and vibration is a REAL problem, and I hope you have started your investigation into this REAL problem.

We cannot be expected to live our lives like this anymore.

I cannot be expected to be fearful of travelling to other places and experience the same dreadful symptoms that I experience at home.

This is “3rd world” stuff, and surely we’re better than that, we should be able to look after each and every one of our citizens, equally and without bias.

I pay my taxes and I expect something in return.

I expect to be treated with respect and compassion regarding this wind farm problem and not live in fear for my health and safety and wellbeing.

It’s about time politicians stopped playing politics and the popularity stakes and DO something about this wind farm problem.

I would like confirmation and receipt of this formal complaint please.

Sincerely

Jan Hetherington

Saturday Silliness – wind turbine photo of the year

January 23, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

No end to the stupidity!

	How The Climate Grif… on There is NO Global Warming…
	Bob Bateman on Government-Induced Climaphobia…
	William Hooi on Germany’s Renewable Energy Dis…
	Jessica on Issues for Landowners to Consi…
	Raymond on Poorest Families Left Powerles…

"Mothers Against Wind Turbines™" Phoenix Rising…

Children Deserve Protection!

Month: January 2016

A Worthy Opponent, for the Wind-Pushers!

SA Wind Farm War: AFL CEO – Gillon McLachlan – Launches Litigation Against NZ’s Trustpower

Vermonters Stand Up Against the Windpushers!

Vermonters in Full-Scale Open Rebellion Against Planned Wind Turbine Roll-Out

Bankers & Investors Close Ranks & Doom Wind Industry to Death By A Thousand Cuts

Wind Weasel Wants To Attack Innocent Victims…

Wind Industry Peopled by Career Criminals: Convicted Felon Launches Ludicrous Defamation Claim Against Opponents

Australian Power Retailers Deliver Fatal Blow to Wind Industry with Mass Solar Roll-Out

Wind Turbine Torture….Denied, and Ignored by Authorities!

Group says wind farm causing health issues

2016 Australian of the Year Awards, by STT

STT’s Australian of the Year Awards 2016

What I want.

Corrupt Wind-Pushing Politicians Allowing Abuse of Citizens!

Institutional Malice: Wind Farm Victims’ Government Endorsed Suffering Continues With Greg Hunt’s Knowledge

Saturday Silliness – wind turbine photo of the year