WIND DECISION BASED ON FACTS
Carl Brothers (Wind will power our future, Nov. 13) doesn’t seem to realize that the Regional Municipality of Eastern Kings Council consists of duly elected members of the community, and therefore are responsible for representing this community. Aside from the fact that Mr. Brothers stood to gain should the project have been given the green light, the land owners he references (more than a few of whom do not live in this area), have also been promised remuneration by P.E.I. Energy Corporation.
One also has to wonder where he is getting his information, as I attended the meeting and can confirm that the councillors that voted against the proposal referenced the RMEK official plan, the bylaws, community feedback, or a combination thereof in their decisions. It could be reasonably argued that this area was selected by P.E.I. Energy Corp. solely to save money, as there are already transmission lines in place from our current wind farm in Eastern Kings. The land area they chose was not sufficient to accommodate 10 wind turbines per a previous proposal, so turbines larger than any others currently on P.E.I. (over 60 stories in height) were planned in order to achieve the desired output. As one councillor noted, the official plan states, "… it is council’s aim to address opportunities for wind development appropriate in size and scale to the municipality," but it was felt that this proposal did not meet the requirement.
Additionally, Mr. Brothers argues that council is not savvy enough to understand the complexities of the environmental implications. Perhaps on a global scale, that may be true (who truly does?), but when the provincial environmental assessment is only approved pending well over a dozen requirements yet to be met; when the local branch of the P.E.I. Wildlife Federation and P.E.I. Nature Trust oppose development in that environmentally unique area, I submit they are certainly qualified to speak on behalf of the local community with respect to their environment. There are many open fields on P.E.I. Let’s not cut down forests for wind farms. Meeting objectives “at any cost” or indeed, just to save costs, it not the reasonable way forward.
Don Cheverie,
East Point