Sierra Club joins wind debate

Sierra Club joins wind debate. Sierra Club Canada, an environmental education and advocacy organization, has posted an online web form for readers to send Wainfleet Township council their concerns over the proposed moratorium on wind turbines in the township. So far more than 800 e-mails had been sent to township staff. A Canadian environmental advocacy group has taken to the Internet to let Township council know how they feel about wind turbines.

Sierra Club Canada recently posted an entry on its website (www.sierraclub.ca) urging readers to let Wainfleet township council know how they feel about Ald. David Wyatt’s motion calling for a moratorium on a wind turbine project in Wainfleet until further information on health, economic and environmental impacts the machines have can be gathered.

The moratorium call has been put on hold pending an open house on the matter at township hall Feb. 23.

“It looks suspiciously like a campaign sponsored by Ontario’s opposition Conservative Party and its backers,” the website stated. “Using misinformation about costs and safety, it plays on people’s fears in order to destroy public support for Ontario’s Green Energy Act. This is a critical issue. We all need to let Wainfleet Council know just how important, and popular, wind energy is.”

The website contains a form letter where readers can voice their concerns en mass.

Members of township council have received more than 800 e-mails flood their inbox on the matter.

John Bennett, executive director of Sierra Club Canada, said the campaign is one of their largest to date, stating people from across the country support wind energy. Bennett said the moratorium resembles a Conservative party platform to defy the Green Energy Act, which promotes, protects environmental sustainable energy sources.

“I don’t think a council should call for a moratorium on wind energy,” Bennett told The Leader. “There are people who believe there are impacts, but there have been studies showing there’s no cause for concern. We need to bring the science forward before calling a halt on them.”

In speaking with The Leader, Ald. Ted Hessels said his inbox was flooded with much of the same emails. While he considers the e-mails to be a slight annoyance, it won’t prevent him from making a decision on the matter when it comes up.

“There have been e-mails sent from anywhere from out west to northern Ontario,” Hessels said. “Almost everyone said the same thing: support wind energy. But they aren’t from Wainfleet. They don’t understand how it’s affecting us.”

Hessels said he doesn’t think the writers of the e-mail understand the erection of the turbines could adversely affect aspects of Wainfleet, most notably the future of a long-standing business, Skydive Burnaby, which had previously expressed concerns of safety with two proposed turbines 200 metres west of their location.

“It seems unreal,” Hessels said. “But they don’t have the facts.”

Ald. Richard Dykstra said it’s so easy to send a “cookie cutter” e-mail, but to sort through them is a chore. Dykstra said people are missing the point of the moratorium and don’t understand how this project affects Wainfleet.

“We’re not asking for a permanent halt, just temporary until further in-depth studies are done,” Dykstra said. “There are very few local e-mails. When you’re drowning in so many of them we may miss the one valuable point made by a local e-mailer. It’s so easy to miss it.”

Ald. David Wyatt isn’t phased by the e-mails at all.

“It’s good there’s discussion on it,” Wyatt said. “It’s better than having no feedback on it.”