“This is what I said to the wind energy weasel who offered me $30,000” (Ontario, Canada)

Aug 29, 2012

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Editor’s note:  The following Letter to the Editor was written by a lady in Staynor, Ontario, Canada, describing her outrage against a wind energy developer and local officials and residents who support turning her community into an industrial wasteland.
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—Melodie Burkett (8/29/12)

This is what I said to the wind energy weasel who offered me $30,000/year for 20 years if I would sign a contract to host 3 huge turbines on my land.  He asked me, as well, to add my initials to the clause forbidding me ever to say anything negative about wind turbines on my land. (Pardon me!)

He told me not to get too excited, as he had yet to get all the other farmers on the ridge to sign up.

He gave me a colourful brochure and told me to make sure I did my “due diligence” and researched the wonders of industrial-sized turbines.

I flipped through the brochure and saw the big pictures of big white wind turbines. It struck me that the beautiful farm in the brochure had lost the look and feel of a farm and now looked hideous; it looked like an industrial wasteland.

I looked at this guy in the white shirt and tie and asked him,

Wouldn’t you do better selling Filter Queen vacuum cleaners or time-shares in Mexico?  I would prostitute myself before I would prostitute my farm or sell-out my neighbours or betray the pioneers who worked so hard to clear this land and build what came to be called Clearview. CLEAR view, Get IT? That’s what it’s known for! The breathtaking vistas that attract people looking to settle in a peaceful country setting. The tourists who come to shop in the quaint little shops or the bicycle people who pedal our hills and dales each weekend.”

I had already done my “due diligence” and researched the “marvels” of wind power. The first thing I noticed was that when a company tries to woo a community, their salesmen tell big whoppers! They say things like the “X number of megawatts we put out will power Y number of homes for your community”! They don’t tell you they are quoting NAMEPLATE CAPACITY! A capacity that is never reached! My speedometer on my dash tells me my car can go 220 kph—but in reality would it ever do that? It turns out that wind contributes less that 1 % to the Ontario energy supply, and less than 5% worldwide!

The next big whopper they tell is that wind turbines will reduce carbon emissions and stop climate change. Oh really? How can that be when our gas plants have to run “hot at the ready” to amp up or down as the wind turbines go on and off the grid?  All that up and down, up and down, up and down causes more emissions and wastes fossil fuels. If we are trying to get off fossil fuels and save the planet, why did Germany build 26 new coal plants to stand at-the-ready to provide baseload electricity when the fickle wind decides not to blow? How come China builds a new coal plant each week to back up its wind turbines?

Do you not think that if any significant reduction in emissions were made anywhere in the world due to wind turbines that this would make headline news? Do you notice that a big company like WPD never seems to mention how much emissions have been avoided in reality?

Again, wind companies spew out nameplate capacity, then extrapolate how much emissions they prevent. It is a big fat lie!

Now I have to tell you my heart did a flip flop when first I read Jeff Watchorn’s letter demanding more from our elected representative and Deputy Mayor than the usual Pollyanna blather about how she supports anything “green.” This is the lady who has twice gone public and announced in no uncertain terms that she’s glad the province enacted the Green Energy Act and took this off our plate.  “We don’t have time to get involved in the wind turbine debate” (I paraphrase).

Say what? You don’t have time to become involved in the most serious issue to confront Clearview in the history of Clearview? The issue that will impact our township and the families that have built their lives here, for the rest of our lives? That is shocking and downright shameful. It leaves me speechless! Except to say, “You bake a good cake, Alicia.  Consider staying home and baking cakes for your husband.”

Why did my heart do a flip flop? Because on the very next page of the local paper, right after Jeff Watchorn’s excellent letter, we got some more blather from a Creemore man who claims he likes to drive by a wind farm and look at the majestic 50-story wind turbines. Well, sir, drive to Shelburne, and knock yourself out! I notice you didn’t say you wanted to live amongst them.

Then this guy goes on to say that tourism is not affected at Niagara Falls or the Hoover Dam in Nevada. Duh! News flash:  Apples are not oranges! He then winds on about how “green” turbines are and how much fossil fuel they save. Yup, he drank the Green Kool-Aid right off the wind carpetbagger brochure! I imagine him as one of those nincompoops who stands beneath a 50-story wind turbine and has an orgasm over how quiet it is. Another news flash:  Sound travels! Imagine a mammoth machine anchored to bedrock, throbbing and pulsing out vibrations that have been picked up in a study by Scottish seismologists 10 miles out! This what’s causing all the heartache in Ontario and rural communities around the world. (Please note that the original wind turbines in Europe were only 100 feet tall, not the 60-story ones they are erecting in Ontario today.)

These folks that have had to abandon their homes in order to stop the headaches, tinnitus, vertigo, sleep deprivation and nausea are not whistling Dixie, pal; they are sick, their kids are sick and they had to leave their life’s dream and home. Most had to let the bank foreclose their home as they could not pay rent in town and continue to pay a mortgage on their abandoned home.

Finally, after 5 years, someone listened and now a proper health study is underway. Until the results are in, many townships are demanding a moratorium on all future building of wind factories. Anything less is criminal.

By the way, sir, did you know that banks are not giving mortgages to families in close proximity to a wind factory? Banks (correctly) note that the value of the home is not the market value it was beforehand. And did you know that Insurance companies won’t insure a farm that hosts wind turbines? It seems they realize they can’t control the numerous people willy nilly coming onto the land to service the machines, meaning the insurer would be exposed to too much liability. Great huh?

Well Mr. Pollyanna, if WPD gets their final approval and builds their Fairview wind factory, you can rent my farmhouse very cheap. Then you can think about how wonderful they are at 3 o’clock in the morning when you can’t get to sleep. Come and see me; my farm is the beautiful one with all the signs saying “Wind Turbines Make Bad Neighbours” and “Wind Turbines: A BIG FAT LIE!”

Oh, I almost forgot. The UN has asked the European Union to rethink their energy policy. It seems the thousands and thousands of wind turbines to date have not produced the energy they predicted, and the EU cannot afford this farce any longer. Guess they thought they would get more bang for their buck. (Yeah, and I thought my car would drive 220 kph ‘cause it says so on the speedometer.)

  1. Comment by Karen Bessey Pease on 08/29/2012 at 7:48 pm

    Ahhhh…..

    Righteous indignation! Thank you, Melodie!

    I love it! And … I’m with you, girl! No quarter given. Good onya!

    Kaz

  2. Comment by Sharon Eddy on 08/29/2012 at 8:40 pm

    Melodie,

    Thanks for sharing your letter and I must congratulate you on your
    wording. It was strong, on point and used just the right amount
    of sarcasm which, with these companies and hired lap dogs…oops,
    I mean workers, is easy to do.

    Sharon

  3. Comment by Tom Whitesell on 08/29/2012 at 9:01 pm

    Melodie,

    This is an exquisitely expressed letter, especially your quoting what you said to the turbine salesman. Congratulations! How many people are this informed, clear-headed, and willing to tell off a crooked sleazeball salesman who is out to wreck their lives for a paycheck? Thank you!

    I have a photo I’d like to send you. It is of my car parked in front of a current Vestas mega-turbine, on the ground just before it is mounted atop a huge tower in the wasteland of turbines in Ellenburg NY, 25 miles east from Drs. Nina Pierpont and Calvin Martin. The turbine nacelle is considerably more massive than a school bus.

    Tom

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  4. Comment by EdD on 08/29/2012 at 9:08 pm

    This is one of the best letters yet on the Wind Sharks’ scam. Hopefully, it will get on lots of email to folks all over the world.

  5. Comment by Gerry on 08/29/2012 at 11:55 pm

    What a great letter telling just as it is! And Melodie doesn’t even live in a wind factory—yet. I like the comment about not selling out her neighbors. How many greedy farmers would think of their neighbors? Living, as I do, in a wind factory I could feel a sense of anger. It’s difficult to write without anger for the reason that our quality of life has been robbed from us for a hoax and scam.

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  6. Comment by Melodie Burkett on 08/30/2012 at 12:19 pm

    Thank you all for your kind words.

    Tom Whitesall, I would love to see the picture of your car beside the mega industrial wind machine. Please send it.

    Melodie Burkett
    Box 2058
    Creemore Ontario
    L0M 1G0

    Like Calvin says, “Get mad, stay mad, make history!”

    Editor’s note: Tom has now attached the photo to his comment.

  7. Comment by Johannes Karl Marciniak on 08/30/2012 at 9:40 pm

    JOHN MARCINIAK WINDFARM REFUGE.GREAT LETTER. KEEP FIGHTING. YOUR LIFE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME IF YOU GET THESE VERY EVIL MONSTERS. AND WHEN YOU DO YOUR RESEARCH NONE OF THE GREEN TECH IS BETTER FOR THE ENVIROMENT. THE GREEN MOVEMENT HAS BE TOTALY CORUPTED, ? MY HEAD IS ALL SREWED AGAIN AND I’M NOW 20 KMS FROM THIS CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.BYE JOHN

  8. Comment by Patti Kellar on 08/30/2012 at 10:43 pm

    Beautifully written, Melodie. Thank you so much for your passion. I hope all of the naysayers have the chance to read it.

  9. Comment by Melodie Burkett on 08/31/2012 at 7:23 am

    Thanks for the picture, Tom.

    Mel

  10. Comment by summerhaven_summerhell on 09/04/2012 at 9:59 pm

    Melodie—great letter! You and Mike are an asset to your community. I am sorry that we don’t have people like you in our county.

    Meanwhile, down here in Haldimand County, Ontario, with our council that sold us out and our mayor that does Samsung commercials, we will be having our preliminary hearing for our appeal against Capital Power on Sept 5th. This is the 3rd of the 4 turbine companies to invade our lives.

    The list includes NextEra, Samsung, Capital Power and, just recently added, Niagara Wind Project—which will bring the total to 200 turbines along Lake Erie, from one end of our county to the other. Other than in the industrial area, which is home to Nanticoke Generating (Coal Power) and US Steel, there will not be anywhere along our shore of Lake Erie which will not have turbines within a half mile of any beach.

    Keep fighting them off or they will destroy your beautiful area as well!

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