Big Wind “dishonest,” says former Big Wind executive (Scotland)
Mar 23, 2011
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“I couldn’t stomach the hypocrisy of working for a business sector which was so dishonest with the public.”
Editor’s comment: A wind developer with a conscience! Mike Haseler, who describes himself as once a prominent wind developer in Scotland, bailed out of the business because of its sleaze. Hooray for Mike! Maybe he could start a mass exodus? The following is from Mike’s blog. Write him a note and congratulate the man!
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This is the blog of Mike Haseler and what you may wish to know about me is:
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» I studied physics, electronics and some philosophy at St. Andrews University.
» I have an MBA from Strathclyde.
» I am studying archaeology in Glasgow.
» I worked in a variety of industrial manufacturing companies in which I worked on a large range of projects controlling or monitoring temperature.
» I started my own temperature control company and designed precision temperature controllers.
» Then decided to enter the new area of renewables, and did extensive market research into renewables in the UK through which I gained extensive knowledge of the different development strategies adopted for renewables in the UK and Denmark and consider myself an expert in understanding the factors affecting the early development of renewables.
» In the process I learnt Danish in order to “understand the competition” and in the hope of doing business with the main wind companies in Denmark.
» I was selected as a Green candidate for the Scottish Green party in 2003, but decided not to stand when the first candidate on the list refused to support our local hospital.
» I worked in the wind “industry” in Scotland erecting weather monitoring equipment and was well known in Scotland at the highest level. I eventually took the decision to leave after I accidentally informed a farmer that a wind farm was going to be built next to them.
I still remember their absolute horror! I couldn’t stomach the hypocrisy of working for a business sector which was so dishonest with the public.
» I am proud to have once stood as a Liberal Democrat councillor and doubled their vote receiving a massive 208 votes!
» I am proficient in dozens of programming languages and now write PHP/MySQL websites as a hobby.
» I am an agnostic on man-made warming, a sceptic by scientific training and disgusted with so called climate “science” which isn’t science as I was taught it.
Comment by Bart Sutton on 03/23/2011 at 8:32 pm
Good job Mike! I guess it can weigh on a non-sociopath that eventually being able to do the small things, like sleep at night and face yourself to shave in the morning, take on a larger importance in life.
As a very smart person once said, “there are too many people in the world, and too few human beings.”
Welcome back to the human side!
Comment by Anne (New York State) on 03/23/2011 at 10:57 pm
Hooray for morals!
Comment by Brad Blake (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) on 03/23/2011 at 11:30 pm
Mr. Haseler, thank you for speaking out! You make me proud to be a Scot!
The lies and deceit and unethical behavior of the wind developers in the State of Maine, USA, have been outrageous. Both the media and state government have been complicit, unfortunately, and the good work of citizens to discredit them has been ignored.
In Maine, wind projects have ben expedited by state government and the sprawling sites are going into places that, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, has poor wind potential. It is all about the government subsidies and selling Renewable Energy Certificates to rake in millions of dollars.
It is destroying rural Maine, which has magnificent beauty, a state whose #1 industry is tourism, and calls itself “Vacationland.” Alas, unless we can stop the juggernaut, it will become “Turbineland.”
Comment by Tom Whitesell (Potsdam, New York) on 03/24/2011 at 12:19 am
Wow! An actual hero! May we all discover such personal integrity! I would like to meet you!
(This from someone who is helping to initiate a campaign of informing the under-informed in a rural community which is in the process of being invaded by the Wind Industry. In Parishville and Hopkinton in Northern New York State.)
Comment by Linda Salamon on 03/24/2011 at 10:36 am
Thank you, Mike, for having the courage of your convictions! If every one of us had your courage, & took responsibility for his/her actions no matter how small their role, then the world wouldn’t be in the mess it is in. It is thrilling to find out that there is still some honest people left on this planet, & it gives hope to the rest of us who are fighting Big Wind.
Comment by Gail (Italy) on 03/24/2011 at 11:44 am
Well done Mike—when will the others follow?
In Italy the sleaze and corruption are coming to light.
Comment by Dr Sarah Laurie on 03/24/2011 at 4:48 pm
Mike, I applaud your personal courage and integrity, as I am sure will many others around the world. I can only hope that your example is followed by others with a conscience.
I am on the ‘coalface’ of witnessing the extensive human misery and illness this industry is causing in Australia particularly, and I shudder to think of just how many people globally are now directly affected with the cumulative impact of acute and chronic exposure to the noxious acoustic pollution which industrial wind turbines emit, over much greater distances than even I thought possible.
Far too many so-called professionals, especially those working with and advising the industry, have been complicit in knowingly allowing this to continue, for far too long. The presence of gag clauses in agreements which restrict those people from talking even to members of their own families about their illnesses, when they have been bought out by wind developers because their homes are now uninhabitable, says it all.
I believe all people knowingly party to perpetrating this monstrous deception need to be held morally and legally accountable directly for the damage they have done, not least to the most vulnerable groups in the community—the elderly, the young, and the sick.
I hope others have the personal courage to follow your example. I know they are there, as some have privately indicated to me that they know what is currently going on is wrong.
Editor’s comment: Dr. Laurie is the Medical Director of the Waubra Foundation, Australia.
Comment by Itasca Small on 08/30/2011 at 3:05 am
I, too, am heartened to find your testimony. May God bless others who need the courage to leave the industry and to speak out with the truth.