Cold Air from Wordpress

An anticipated Health Canada study on Industrial Wind Turbine Noise is noted by anti-victim wind promoter Simon Chapman in a new article in Australia. Chapman opines there are no problems with industrial wind turbines except for the problems with the whiny sorts that pretend to be bothered by them: "In this Health Canada study, while proximity to the turbines was statistically significantly associated with annoyance, the relationship was weak. It was better explained by factors such as holding negative views about the visual impact of the turbines (not liking the look of them), being able to the see aircraft warning blinking lights, the perception of vibrations when the turbines were turning and high concern about physical safety. These are all perceptual variables that bothered some..." but also... "The prevalence of residents reporting that they were very or extremely annoyed by wind turbine noise increased from 2.1% to 13.7% when sound pressure levels were below 30 dB...

On May 12th the leader of Ontario’s official opposition party asked the government: Why should Ontario’s businesses and families be subsidizing our competition in New York and Michigan? In response, Ontario’s Minister of Energy, Bob Chiarelli said: “...Any power we sell to the US, to Quebec, to Manitoba, or power they sell us, is surplus power. It’s opportunity power. It’s pure profit… ...The IESO will confirm that, last year, we made a net profit of $350 million—” That perspective might be defensible in Mr. Chiarelli’s lobbyist-populated world, but it’s a harmful one for Ontario ratepayers. The Minister might be communicating that with net revenue on net exports of 16.85 million megawatt-hours (MWh), the province netted $350 million of proceeds. [1] That calculates out to $20.77/MWh. “[T]he average price of electricity generation in Ontario... in 2015 was $83/MWh,” according to a December 2015 news release from Chiarelli’s Ministry of Energy.

"“Does the Minister believe it is appropriate for the Government to approve a project that puts out inaccurate and incomplete information?”

Ontario’s IESO ineptitude in managing Ontario’s electricity supply is displayed in an article from the Lucknow Sentinel,  IESO’s designation of Huron-Kinloss as potential host for green energy projects forces township to reaffirm its no wind turbine stance . The local council noted a change in the IESO’s classification of the area’s transmission capability in determining where to force more industrial wind turbines (the same change I posted on April 14th ) "We can say that we are not a willing host, but what does that mean at the end of the day? Nothing because the contracts are let out by the IESO,” Twolan said, following the council meeting. “We’ve always said we’re not a willing host. We passed that a long, long time ago, but the new map that came out, it changes all the time and we had no input into that. And it doesn’t matter that we passed that we’re a non-willing host, they can still put that in there.” Of 5 recent, and totally needless, industrial wind contracts awarded b...

I've seen many references to a $113 hydro bill "for nothing" today. With anger high over electricity costs in the province, this seems to be a rallying point for some. Not for me. Before I get to the specific bill... I saw tweets from the official opposition this morning showing the bill, and tonight Christina Blizzard has a report on events that followed; Sousa claims hydro bills going down . To me, Sousa is an appalling man, but that's not exactly what he's shown as saying. This is:

Ontario continues to waste its water rights on the Niagara river. I revisited some posts I've written on this topic today, and updated data to bring the graphics up to the end of 2015 A very quick refresher to explain this first graphic. The U.S. and Canada share water rights on the Niagara river. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) runs the Niagara river power plants in Ontario, and there are similar plants on the U.S side (R. Moses Niagara). When I first encountered the issue  in 2011, the U.S. side had additional generation because OPG could not get enough water through its turbines to utilize the full allocation. In March 2013 OPG completed the Niagara tunnel , which was to get more water to it's turbines. OPG claimed output would increase by 1.6 million megawatt-hours (MWh). I've collected Ontario generation data back to 2010, and compared monthly summaries to the U.S. Energy Information Administration data for the U.S. sites. The opposite of what should have happene...

I found this a necessary read all the way through the penultimate paragraph. If there is a way to conclude that the government, and courts, intend to allow intelligent opposition legally, I hope somebody notes it. In the absence of that, this is a pretty good motivator for outlaw strategies of opposition.