Wind of Change

GREEDY LYING BASTARDS

2012-01-24T11:55:00.000-08:00

In the past we have raised questions about the honesty and integrity of the Global Warming Policy Foundation. The registered charity routinely publishes claims which run counter to the global scientific consensus. In short, it tries to persuade people that climate change isn't happening - or, if it is, then it's got nothing to do with any of us - and so we should just carry on doing what we're doing, such as burning fossil fuels like there's no tomorrow.

The Global Warming Policy Foundation has been criticised because, as a registered charity it really should avoid political campaigning. It also refuses to disclose the sources of its funding. This is quite possibly because it is funded by the oil industry. The oil industry doesn't like talk about climate change. It's bad for business. So it would make sense if Big Oil was supporting the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a charity which has done much to confuse the public about this crucial issue.

Well, it turns out that we're not alone in having concerns about this bunch of climate sceptics. A Freedom of Information request has been submitted, demanding to know who is actually paying the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

If you're quick, you can sign a petition calling on Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, to make the GWPF come clean:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/tell-climate-sceptic-think-tank-to-disclose-funding/

Meanwhile, the oil industry comes in for a pasting in a new film documentary. Titled, with delirious honesty, GREEDY LYING BASTARDS, the featire-length documentary by US filmmaker Craig Rosebraugh claims to be a "searing indictment of the influence, deceit and corruption that defines the fossil fuel industry". Featuring an impressive roster of interviewees, the film analyses the ways and means by which Big Oil tries to cast doubt on climate change and make out that any increase in global average temperatures is certainly nothing to do with CO2 emissions - no sirree Bob! Just the sort of thing that the Global Warming Policy Foundation keeps trying to thrust down our throats: a wholly bogus and unscientific argument designed solely to prop up the profits of the oil barons at the expense of the planet.

So, definitely worth keeping an eye out for: http://greedylyingbastards.com/

Now, all this on the day that one of the UK's biggest oil refineries goes into administration. One really has to wonder how long any of us can afford to play along with the Big Oil blood-sweat-tears-filth-spills-and-money machine. After all, when there's so much clean, green, cheap and harmless potential energy out there in the form of wind, waves and sunlight, you do have to question the sort of idiocy which criticises windpower for being "inefficient" and "unreliable" when a major oil refinery can shut down just like that.

But that's the problem with the mounds of self-serving propaganda which spew forth from the oil industry like so many oil slicks. It plays into the hands of the mega-maniacs of the nimby fringe, those lunatics who pretend to be "pro-renewables" but only if they can't actually see them. Having no moral scruple or basic integrity, your average nimby will happily tell any old lie that seems to help their cause - and the oil and nuclear industries, having the most to lose from a healthy renewables industry, are only too eager to keep supplying them with those lies.

So please do sign the petition above (before Friday 27 January) so that we can find out if the professional climate change deniers of the Global Warming Policy Foundation really are being kept in champagne and oysters by the oil industry. It would be just another example of major vested interests campaigning ruthlessly and dishonestly against the public good - the sort of thing that Craig Rosebraugh's GREEDY LYING BASTARDS would appear to be all about.

The idiots out there like to claim that windfarms only happen so that unscrupulous developers can get their sticky hands on oodles of government subsidies. Well that, dear friends, is a load of absolute balls. Those who make those claims are either mouthpieces for the GREEDY LYING BASTARDS of the oil industry or are dupes of those same illegitimate and mendacious money-grubbers. As we've shown in the past, most of the claims made about wind power by dimwits and spin doctors turn out to be untrue - as far as renewables are concerned - though they are in fact amazingly accurate when applied to oil and nuclear.

It should come as no surprise, then, to discover that most of the false claims made about renewables - and wind power in particular - originate in the oil industry or firms which represent the oil industry (like Civitas, whose brainless anti-renewables report, published the other week, just shows how they'd rather take Big Oil's dirty lolly than protect your children's future). Bear that in mind next time you hear a scary or disturbing "fact" about windfarms.

IT'S ALL GOOD NEWS

2012-01-20T06:52:00.000-08:00

UK wind power reached a new record for capacity this week. The fact that the Ormonde offshore windfarm off the Cumbrian coast now has 120 megawatts of operational capacity thrust the combined wind energy capacity of the UK's onshore and offshore windfarms to more than six gigwatts. That's enough to provide the electricity needed by more than three million homes.

The news that UK wind has broken through the 6GW barrier came on the same day as the right-wing think-tank Policy Exchange published yet another useless report rubbishing renewables (see previous post). The Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Chris Huhne, responded robustly to the Policy Exchange's stupid attempt at derailing the burgeoning renewables industry. He called the report "nonsense on stilts" and aptly accused the "rather silly thinktanks" of "coming up with wild and woolly estimates to get headlines in the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph."

(Foreign readers might care to know that the Daily Fail and the Torygraph are low-grade "newspapers" with a history of denying climate change (the Telegraph) and making up outrageous stories to scare the middle-classes (the Mail). Neither can be trusted to print the truth when it comes to renewable energy. Even petrochemical giant BP has recognised that renewables are set to be the fastest growing energy sector over the next two decades.)

In addition to the 6GW of wind energy capacity already installed, there's still another 19.5 gigawatts currently under construction, consented or in planning. Which means that the UK is on course to achieve the impressive total of 31 gigawatts of wind energy capacity required by the government's renewable energy roadmap for 2020. Well, lordy, lordy, looks like we might be doing something right, for once!

One thing that will help matters enormously is the fact that a new radar system has been developed which will allow the Ministry of Defence to put aside its objections to at least 4GW worth of wind power projects. Previously, the spinning blades of the turbines created "clutter" on the MoD's radar screens. But a new software system has successfully dealt with that. This will open up the way for many more new onshore and offshore windfarms, and the hateful nimbies who object to windfarms for no good reason can no longer rely on the MoD to put the kibosh on things.

And the good news just keeps on coming. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has published a report, compiled by a panel of independent experts, which reveals that there is no connection between windfarms and ill health. Executive Summary and link to the MassDEP report here:

http://www.mass.gov.uk/dep/energy/wind/impactstudy.htm

The alleged impact of windfarms on human health has been grotesquely played up by nimby groups in recent years, purely to spread unnecessary concern and alarm. The claims made the nimbies, ludicrous and unfounded as they are, are based almost entirely on one poor-quality study, carried out under extremely unscientific circumstances, which has never been peer-reviewed or publishing by a recognised scientific journal. All this means that the "research" which the nimbies routinely point to is - scientifically speaking - pants.

Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection's report joins the growing list of genuinely scientific studies which have established that there is no discernible link between windfarms and health problems ("There is no evidence for a set of health effects, from exposure to wind turbines that could be characterised as 'Wind Turbine Syndrome'.". It's yet another nimby myth - and how sweet of our barking neighbourhood nimbies to go round convincing their friends and fellow villagers that a windfarm would make them sick when they had absolutely no evidence to prove it!!

Oh, and one final bit of good green news. The Energy Fair group is taking the UK government to court over its policy of building ten new nuclear power stations. This is partly because the tax-payer would have to underwrite the costs of any nuclear accidents - which amounts to a subsidy. And that's illegal under EU law.

Think of it as a bit like an apocalyptic version of the PIP breast implants scandal. In the latter case, private companies inserted cheap silicone implants into large numbers of women. When it became clear that those implants could burst, the private companies decided, in the main, that it wasn't their problem. The NHS could sort it out. Or, in other words, a private company creates a godawful mess which the public sector then has to clear up. Well, a nuclear accident in the UK would be a bit like that, only on a massive scale. A private company screws up, and the tax-payer foots the bill.

The government has insisted that there will be no public subsidies to pay for the new generation of nuclear power stations - the sort that take twice as long, and twice as much, to build as originally estimated. However, the introduction of the carbon floor price is likely to see the nuclear power operators given £500 million of taxpayers' money every year until 2030 for doing nothing, and there are other hidden subsidies buried away in the system.

The more manic and mendacious anti-wind campaigners continually bang on and on and on about the "subsidies" which help to create a level playing field for renewables. Those "subsidies" - which actually come from small increments on the energy customer's bill, and not from taxpayers - will soon be phased out. After all, some windfarms are already producing electricity as cost-effectively as gas, and pretty well all of them will be within three or four years from now. But still, the raging reactionaries of the Taxpayers' Alliance (an extreme right-wing pressure group) and the nimby dingbats keep citing "subsidies" as a reason to halt all renewables, now and forever, amen.

The reality is that fossil fuels and nuclear are heavily subsidised. Renewables currently receive a mere fraction of the government support available to the more polluting and dangerous energy industries. Those who keep crying "subsidies" are either missing the point or having you on. And as recent surveys have shown, the UK public is quite happy to see subsidies going to windfarms. It's a good way of getting a strong, clean, green energy system going throughout the country.

By taking the government to court over its "hidden" subsidies to new nuclear, Energy Fair could call a halt to the deployment of new nuclear power stations. And why not? It's not as if they're really needed. One serious report after another has noted that, with a bit of effort, we could meet most if not all of our electricity needs from renewables over the next few decades.

We're getting there. 6GW of wind energy capacity already, and plenty more when they came from. Another major objection or two to windfarms swept aside. The government in the dock over nuclear. What's not to like?

LIES, DAMNED LIES AND LOBBYING

2012-01-18T12:18:00.000-08:00

Being an anti-wind nimby must be a bit like queueing for the bus.

You wait ages for one biased and inaccurate report from a right-leaning think-tank and then three come along all at once!

First, there was the gormless report from KPMG which was leaked to the Sunday Telegraph (who else?) late last year. This report made the bold (i.e. ludicrous) claim that it would be a lot cheaper to build new nuclear and gas-fired power plants than to invest in extra wind power capacity. Somehow or other, Germany, Denmark and Spain have managed to reduce electricity prices by investing in wind power. But the gonks at KPMG really were trying to say that nuclear would be cheaper (when has that ever happened???)

Next came the astonishingly fatuous report from the right-wing Civitas group, which tried to make out that wind power is "inordinately expensive" and that - yes, you guessed it - nuclear and gas would work out cheaper in the long run. It so happens that Civitas, and the report's author, don't believe in climate change and are fundamentally anti-renewables, so one has to wonder whether their findings were skewed in any way. Oh, and some of their source material came from those slippery anti-wind lobbyists of the Renewable Energy Foundation. QED.

Now, we get another way-out report from the right-of-centre Policy Exchange. Anyone want to hazard a guess at its findings?

Yep. Green policies are "unnecessarily expensive". The report's authors have dreamt up a figure ("Oooh, what shall we say? £400? An extra £400 per household by 2020. Does that sound scary enough?") and, on the basis of that we-just-made-it-up amount, argue that the "power of market processes" should be allowed to "innovate and discover" the best routes to a low-carbon economy.

You know, somebody really should tell the twits at Policy Exchange what the "power of market processes" achieved just four short years ago - the near total collapse of the global financial system. That's what happens when you leave everything up to the "power of market processes".

At last, though, the Department for Energy and Climate Change has had enough of all these wet-behind-the-ears hoorays publishing their useless "reports". They've pointed out that the figures produced by Policy Exchange are plain "wrong". Other groups, such as WWF-UK and, unsurprisingly, RenewableUK, have also lined up to point out just how stupid the Policy Exchange study is.

Of course, all these think-tanks exist to influence policy. It's interesting, don't you think, that three right-wing think-tanks have all produced what amounts to the same report - more nuclear, more gas, leave it to the market - in what is clearly a co-ordinated attempt to advance the interests of Big Carbon, the scary old nuclear industry and the lunatic climate sceptic fringe.

It's a good thing the government is striking back against these blatant efforts to derail the development of a decent renewables industry. Because, too often, governments are all too susceptible to this sort of mendacious posturing and misleading PowerPoint nonsense. If you want to see how both the previous and the present governments were tricked into supporting the construction of ten - yes, TEN - new nuclear power stations in the UK, just have a quick look at this document:

http://www.ukace.org/publications/Executive%20Summary%20-%20Corruption%20of%20Governance.pdf

That's the problem when lies are used to influence policy. You end up with policy decisions based on misinformation. Which is a Bad Thing, obviously.

For an even more startling example of the bullying, blackmailing, throw-your-dollies-out-of-the-pram approach of the political right, one need only look at Donald "Syrup" Trump. Just yesterday he was granted planning permission to build a five-star hotel on his grotesque golfing playground for the rich and the folicly-challenged on the coast of Aberdeenshire. Today, he has announced that he's stopping work on his Golfyland nightmare until he gets his way over stopping the European offshore wind development centre which is planned for the sea off the Scottish coast.

Now, Trumpy had previously admitted that the global financial downturn had impacted on his plans to make Aberdeenshire safe for self-obsessed idiots in silly trousers who are quite happy to see a natural habitat converted into a godawful golf course. And he's been opposing the £200 million pound offshore windfarm project from the start. Because, in Donald's warped view, what the world needs right now is not advances in clean, green energy. No. It's expensive golf courses and overpriced hotels. He's not thinking about the planet, he's thinking about his pocket. And now he's trying to hold Scotland to ransom.

As the saying has it: Trump by name, trump by nature.

Do people like Donald "Goofy" Trump, the climate change deniers at Civitas and the Telegraph, the raging anti-wind power monsters at the Mail, the not-exactly-honest pressure groups like Country Guardian, REF and Lawson's treacherous Global Warming Policy Foundation ... do they really believe we can't see what they're up to?

They're putting their narrow-minded and discredited ideologies, their personal greed and their reactionary fanaticism ahead of the local, national, international, longterm need. They're expecting us to believe their lies, demanding that we believe them, even though they're lying through their eye-teeth and only a fool would believe a word they say.

Some, maybe, are beginning to see the light. Take Karen Lumley, new-girl Tory MP for Redditch. Early last year she let the side down badly. She had been prepared to be photographed in front of the VVASP Lorry of Lies and didn't think to question why large sections of the VVASP artwork had been blacked out (because the Advertising Standards Authority had forbidden them to keep making claims about windfarms that were untruthful and couldn't be substantiated). She then stood up in the Wychavon planning meeting for the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm and read out VVASP's figures on local opposition to the scheme - figures which bore little relation to the actual surveys carried out by the parish councils. She had allowed herself to be used by the maniacal leaders of a dishonest, discredited protest group.

Interesting, then, to read what Lumley had to say on the ConservativeHome blog about the controversial High-Speed Rail Link (HS2). She accused those who were campaigning against HS2 of using statistics and propaganda that were "unfounded and deceptive". "Clearly the anti arguments need to challenged", she wrote. "The myths need to be proven wrong."

She then pointed out that a report produced by the Institute for Economic Affairs (another right-wing think-tank) was "not so much a report, as a repackaged and padded-out version of a Taxpayers' Alliance 'research' paper ... discredited in public by leading rail figures.

"The authors are far from dispassionate: one has a record as a long-time advocate for roads, the other is an active member of a local activist group with a house on the HS2 route. Both fail to declare their interests."

Karen Lumley then proceeded to debunk the myths published by the anti's and their pet "experts" in the right-wing-opinions-for-hire think-tank.

What prompted this Damascene conversion, we might well ask. At what point did Karen, former puppet of a nasty nimby group, realise that some vested interests might try to pull the wool over everybody's eyes? And when, exactly, did it occur to her that proper research by experts should be given more credence than the rubbish spouted by self-serving nimbies?

Ah well. There is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, etc., etc.

Now Karen Lumley just has to persuade the rest of her Tory confederates and their Lib Dems allies that certain think-tanks, certain reports, certain claims and certain American billionnaires really should be flushed down the toilet. As she herself wrote of the Anti-HS2 campaign: "The attitude of the antis seems to be one of 'throw enough mud and some will stick'. This trivialises a debate of national importance."

We couldn't have put it better ourselves.

(PS: we will shortly be publishing a study of our own. Actually, that's a lie. We shall be posting excerpts from a university paper which analyses the impact a proposed windfarm can have on a local community. This report has been graciously passed on to us by the author, who has witnessed the same old nimby nonsense at first hand. TTFN.)

SUCCESS FOR HIGH-SPEED WIND

2012-01-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

On the day that the government has wisely given the go-ahead to the High-Speed rail link (HS2), we take a look at what high-speed winds in Britain recently achieved.

The dingbat's favourite tabloid, the Daily Mail, rushed to announce a few days ago that high winds had wrecked three wind turbines in Yorkshire - "sweeping away any remaining illusions that strong winds simply mean more electricity being generated."

The three turbines in question were not part of any windfarm. They were installed by individual landowners as micro-renewables, generating electricity for their owners, the surplus of which is sold on to the National Grid.

Typically, the Mail then railed against the "constraint payments" made to windfarm operators when their turbines produce so much electricity that the grid can't cope. In those circumstances, windfarm operators are asked to shut down their turbines and are (rightly) compensated for lost revenue. The point being that - though the anti-wind loonies keep trying to persuade people that windfarms "don't work" - the reality of wind power in the UK is that it's almost too successful. It produces large amounts of electricity for next to nothing, and is much easier to control than conventional methods of generation. It's a lot quicker and safer to shut down a windfarm than a nuclear power station.

But if you work for or read the Mail, all that counts for nothing.

Just as the Mail was repeating its usual nonsense, the Reuters news agency released some interesting figures. The high winds which had harmed three small individual turbines in Yorkshire had also contributed to a massive increase in the amount of electricity generated by the UK's wind fleet.

For a start, on 28 December 2011 windfarms smashed the previous record for wind-generated energy in Britain. On that day, 12.2% of our electricity demand was met by windpower (the previous record was 10%). Not only that, but the UK's windpower capacity is projected to grow by one third this year, bringing it very close to parity with nuclear (according to the San Francisco Business Times renewable energy overtook nuclear as a power source in the US last September; God forbid that the States should turn out to be greener than our green-and-pleasant-land-fit-for-nimbies!!)

Even more amazing, the high winds had a huge impact on the load capacity of our existing turbines. Usually, the load capacity of a turbine is about 30% - meaning that, over time, it will achieve about 30% of the output it could theoretically achieve if the optimum wind speed was blowing 100% of the time. Now, 30% load capacity doesn't sound much, but it compares very favourably with the efficiency (pretty much the same thing) of coal, gas and nuclear. It does not, for example, mean that wind turbines only work 30% of the time. They typically generate electricity for between 70 and 85% of the time, although the variability of wind speeds mean that the average turbine will produce around 30% of its theoretical maximum.

On 4 January 2012, the UK's wind turbines achieved 66% capacity - more than double the average.

66% - !!!!!

So much for the Mail's nonsensical drivel about strong winds not meaning more electricity generation. In short, the Mail either has no idea how these things work, or it is simply ignoring the facts, or it is only interested in brainwashing its readers.

Given all this good news - a massive increase in wind capacity projected for this year, record-breaking contributions by wind to meeting our electricity demands, load capacity more than doubled during the recent gales - it seems a bit of an odd time for yet another right-wing think-tank to have produced yet another misleading report.

Civitas released a so-called study which claimed that there is "no economic case for wind power". This is as stupid as it gets. The report's author, Ruth Lea, wants us all to be paying a significantly higher price for imported gas. That, apparently, makes more sense.

Even more demented and detached from reality is the report's claim that windfarms actually increase CO2 emissions. Meat and drink to the nimby subculture, no doubt, but about as scientific a claim as pretending that the Earth is flat.

Unsurprisingly, the figures used for the rubbish Civitas report were all supplied by fervent anti-wind lobbyists, including those con-artists at the laughably misnamed Renewable Energy Foundation (Noel Edmond's uber-nimby hobbyhorse). It's a bit like the Adam Smith Institute publishing a report on the economic impacts of immigration and relying entirely on the BNP, the EDL and certain Premier League footballers for its source material.

If you're interested, the Guardian tried to get to the bottom of the insane anti-wind power claims published by Civitas, and you can read the results here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/jan/09/wind-turbines-increasing-carbon-emissions

Wade through all the data and you'll see that, as usual, the Civitas contribution to Britain's nimby nightmare is a hodge-podge of false facts, misleading comparisons, meaningless claims and absolute nonsense. Which is what you'd expect if hard-line anti-wind types like REF are behind the report.

They'd rather your fuel bills were skyrocketing forever (isn't that what "market forces" would require?) than a free and inexhaustible resource was cleanly, quietly and harmlessly harnessed, and to support their bonkers standpoint they are more than happy to misquote statistics, bend science and lie their heads off to you. You know, like nimbies do.

So - good news all round, really. Unless you read braindead rubbish like the Mail or the dimwit doggy-doos issued by Civitas - reports so crazy they're actually twitching.

Let's all raise a glass to our ever more successful wind fleet ... oh, and to the High-Speed rail link too, of course.

Nimbies be damned!

THERE ARE COMMUNITIES ...

2012-01-06T08:54:00.000-08:00

... and then there are REAL communities.

One way of telling them apart is to look at how the react to the issue of renewables.

A REAL community will want some of that for themselves. Take Fintry in Stirlingshire. A windfarm developer wanted to install a windfarm near the village. Did the locals go berserk, start telling each other silly stories, plaster the area with unsightly placards and object, object, object, object about it?

No. They arranged to have one turbine all for themselves. So the windfarm gets built, and one of its turbines provides an income for the Fintry Development Trust. This, in turn, has been ploughed back into the village - insulating homes, for example - so that everyone is benefitting massively from their far-sighted, forward-thinking and intelligent decision.

Now THAT's a community.

The other sort of "community" tends to be dominated by a few right-wing nutjobs. They tell lies. They want to be Hon. President, Secretary and Chair for Life of every pointless little committee going. To them, the village is their own personal fiefdom. Very often, they relocated there in search of some mythical rural idyll. They either bought an expensive house or built one there. And the moment anybody suggests a renewable energy project ...

KA-BOOM!!!!!!!

These people go mental. They stir up the "community" into opposing a totally sensible, harmless and beneficial development by spreading insane lies about it. They threaten, bully and terrorise their neighbours into doing as they're told, toeing the party line and going every bit as mental as they are. They undermine local democracy, take over parish councils and cosy up to district councillors on the golf course. They move heaven and earth - often illegally, always immorally - in order to get their way. They are a cancer in our society.

They are the Nimby Nutters of Olde England.

Thankfully, there are still some real communities out there. The number of community-owned co-operative renewable energy projects is growing, even in these straitened times. Read all about it:

http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/other_comments/1192092/the_communities_taking_renewable_energy_into_their_own_hands.html

You see, folks, that's what REAL communities are like. They don't allow themselves to be trampled over by nutcases. They don't fall for the grotesque lies spun by a few local bigheads. They don't go crazy over something that's perfectly safe and desirable just because the self-appointed Mr Big in the village tells them to. They see a golden opportunity and they go for it.

But here's the thing. How can it be that a windfarm will "kill the landscape forever", drive down property prices by anything up to 54%, destroy the local economy and prevent anybody from ever getting a good night's sleep in one village, while in another village a windfarm brings only benefits (economic, social, environmental, etc.)? How can that be?

How could the useless members of Wychavon District Council's planning committee fall for the moronic lies spread by Dr Evil and his godawful cronies in VVASP - and be prepared to regurgitate those obvious lies in the council chamber - when there are GENUINE communities in this nation of ours who have figured out how good renewables are and who know that the banalities spread by manic nimbies are just self-serving claptrap?

Doesn't it suggest that there is really nothing wrong at all about renewables - and that includes windfarms - unless you happen to be a nimby fascist with delusions of grandeur?

And that if you really do care for your community, you'll be getting a co-operative renewable project up-and-running for your village as soon as you can?

But if you have nothing but contempt for your community, you'll campaign on a platform of lies and intimidation against any renewable project that you just might be able to see because that's the kind of person you are?

Yep - that's exactly what all these community-owned renewables projects suggest. That renewables are great for the community. And nimby nutters aren't.

IS BASELOAD NECESSARY?

2012-01-04T16:03:00.000-08:00

Seasoned observers of nimby nitwittery will have noticed that anti-windfarm campaigns tend to follow a set pattern.

It all starts with your standard Chicken Little ("The sky is falling! The sky is falling!") hysteria. A few harebrained locals will try to convince everybody that -

Windfarms DESTROY the local property market (not true)
Windfarms DESTROY the landscape ... forever!! (very silly)
Windfarms DESTROY your health and well-being (erm - no, they don't)
Windfarms DESTROY 99% of household germs (now you're just making it up)

The idiot brigade will claim to have PROOF of all this, but a quick glance is usually enough to tell you that their so-called "proof" is wildly off-target, unscientific and totally wrong.

Things then tend to develop along three different pathways.

Some nutters will continue making extremely stupid claims for which they have no evidence whatsoever, which tend to defy the laws of physics, and which just go to show that there's one born every minute. So we start hearing that windfarms kill fish (how?), that they are transported on intergalactic cruisers (what?), that they spear small children (when?) and blow the blossom off the trees (duh!). They are also totally reliant on subsidies (what subsidies?), they never work, except when they work too well and have to be switched off (???), and nowhere else is even thinking about installing them (oh, grow up!!). This is because Britain is the only country in the world which (a) takes the reduction of carbon emissions seriously, and (b) does whatever the EU tells us to do without question. By this point you will have realised that the person who's spouting all this nonsense is a maniac and should be kept out of reach of sharp instruments.

Others disappear off into the hedgerows in search of a tiny endangered bat in the hope that this will prove to be a "show-stopper".

The third sort turn to the self-styled experts. They thereby manage to convince themselves that the government's established guidelines on windfarms and noise - ETSU-R-97 - are "outdated" and "unfit for purpose" (real acoustics experts say that the guidelines are holding up "robustly" and there is no need to update them). They also form the impression that windfarms are a waste of time because we will always need conventional power stations to take up the slack whenever the wind isn't blowing.

The proper term for this is "baseload". Now, the UK gets 40% of all of Europe's wind passing over it, so days when the wind isn't blowing are fairly few and far between. Still, what do we do about electricity on those days, eh? Eh?? EH??? Oh yes, windfarms - all well and good, in a monstrous, tree-hugging sort of way - but we'd still need baseload. So we might as well just invest in gas, coal and nuclear, and to hell with the planet.

Okay - first of all, the feeling that nuclear is a dead duck is growing, even in the good ole US of A. Hence this very interesting piece from the Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harvey-wasserman/2012-is-the-year-to-final_b_1180444.html?ref=fb&sr

That, of course, leaves only fossil fuels to make up for the purported deficiencies in wind power. Which means imported gas (the real cause of the massive hike in energy bills recently) and that great polluter, coal.

What a shame. Because, let's face it, away from the bizarre world of nimbydom, windfarms do an amazing job, quietly and harmlessly harnessing a natural resource that is free, abundant and inexhaustible. How sad that we cannot rely on them and will always be building new coal and gas plants to burn stuff when the wind takes a day off.

But then, what if the whole "we'll always need baseload" argument is actually wrong?

David Mills thinks so. A retired solar technology developer, Mills has recently presented evidence in both Australia and California that pretty much all the electricity they need could be generated by wind and solar. Indeed, the whole of the US could be powered by wind and solar thermal, with a little solar storage and some biofuels. In his view, the very idea that we must always have flatline baseload capacity (coal and nuclear to keep the lights on) is, frankly, the wrong way to look at the problem.

This article appeared in Australia's Climate Spectator a little over a year ago, under the heading "Is baseload power necessary?":

http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/renewable-energy-baseload-power-David-Mills-solar-wind

A fascinating update on the story appeared just a month ago:

http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/why-we-wont-need-coal

Mills's message is a striking one. "People say we need baseload plans," he has said, "but we don't." Indeed, with the right mix of renewables, the "whole concept of baseload becomes redundant", as another expert has observed: "It's worse than redundant, it gets in the way."

All this is a giant stake through the heart of the anti-wind argument. True, windfarms alone are not the answer (though they are a very, very big part of the answer). The trick is to combine inflexible supply (windfarms) with flexible supply (such as solar thermal with storage), and the whole baseload problem pretty much disappears. In fact, all this baseload that the nimbies insist we'll need is really a massive hindrance - a way of creating extra capacity we don't need while delaying the implementation of a system that will do just fine.

So, in addition to hoping that this is the year when the world finally gives up on nuclear, could it be that 2012 will also see us beginning to abandon our weird addiction to fossil fuels? If all our electricity needs can be met by wind and solar - no need for baseload after all - why on earth would we want to keep on burning coal for no good reason?

Because the nimby nutters said we would?

Well, you know what a bunch of liars they are!

FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH

2012-01-02T15:18:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the first Wind of Change blogpost of 2012!!!

It'll be an interesting year - mostly because we here at Wind of Change confidently predict that 2012 will be, will have to be the year in which the nonsense is finally brought to an end. Sure, there will still be fanatical nimbies who are "pro-renewables" but not in their "back yards" (i.e., more than half a kilometre away), and there will still be a few fools spinning anti-windpower myths. But there is also reality, and the reality is that oil is in decline, nuclear is on the way out, gas is getting too expensive, and a green future is the only sane and sustainable option.

Part of the journey towards sanity and thinking properly about the future will be an embargo on misleading newspaper headlines. Our old fogey friends at the Telegraph recently warned that switching to a low-carbon energy system will cost everyone in the UK an average of £5,000 a year. OUCH!! Cue the terrifying Bernard Hermann strings. Or, look at the figures: going green is actually one of the most cost-effective of the available options. Read more here:

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2134710/uk-switch-low-carbon-energy-cost-gbp5-person

Better news, though, for the UK's burgeoning wind power sector. In spite of the lunatics out there who routinely oppose everything that's good for Britain, good for their local communities, good for their children and the planet, windfarms are contributing more and more to our electricity supply. In the third quarter of 2011 (July to September) renewables generated 9% of the UK's energy, and most of that came from windfarms. Taking the first three quarters of 2011 together, offshore windfarms generated 64% more electricity than in the comparable period in 2010 and onshore windfarms generated 36% more. Just to be clear, these figures were released by the government's Department for Energy and Climate Change, and they give the lie to the idiotic nimby myth that windfarms "don't work". Even with the monstrous nimby deception merchants shouting their silly stories left, right and centre, wind power in the UK really is going from strength to strength.

Much of this information doesn't reach the general public - who, as the recent polls so prudently buried by the Murdoch press showed, are on the whole in favour of windfarms, would like to see more of them, and think that subsidies for windfarms are the right thing to do. Worse than the information-deprived man in the street, though, is the deluded nimby who insists on reading nothing but the lousiest anti-windfarm propaganda and has no idea about what is really happening in the glorious world of clean, green, inexpensive wind energy. That's because your average nimby lives in a bubble of his own making.

So, for those of you who feel that you have been misled by the nasty nimbies and their stupid stories, and would like to know more about the exciting developments that have been going on in the real world, here's a precis of last year's highlights, courtesy of the European Wind Energy Association's very useful blog:

http://blog.ewea.org/2011/12/another-look-at-eweas-breath-of-fresh-air-blog-in-2011/#more-2699

Worth noting: worldwide, nuclear is falling behind renewables (which is only right and proper), green energy is advancing the world over, the Danes never did lose faith in wind power, and yet another genuine scientist has poured scorn on the daft nimby claims that wind turbines can damage your health.

All in all, it makes for optimistic reading. If we could only see beyond the gibberish spouted by right-wing newspapers and certain cretinous Tory MPs, we would be in no doubt that renewables really are the future. Maybe not the entire future ... but then again, maybe they are. As the following article indicates, it is actually perfectly possible for us to, quote: Nix nuclear. Chuck coal. Rebuff biofuel. All we need is the wind, the water, and the sun.

http://www.dianuke.org/nuclear-free-carbon-free-world-possible/

Let that be the inspiring message for the year ahead. No more nimby lies. No more Big Oil and Bad Nuke lobbying. A world fit for our children, and their children - nuclear free and carbon free. It can be done. Most of the people living on this planet want more renewable energy. The EU's Climate Action Commissioner thinks that Europe will be 100% renewable by 2050.

We can do it. But only if we silence the liars and deniers first. So let's make that our mission for 2012. Happy New Year, one and all!!

A NIMBY ROBESPIERRE

2011-12-24T06:15:00.000-08:00

A little Christmas cheer for those of you who enjoy a good laugh.

The Duke of Gloucester has been given permission for four wind turbines to be built on his estate in Northamptonshire.

But in an interesting development which we've been carefully monitoring, the middle class mentalists of the nimby movement have been turning ever more radical. In the latest outbreak of nimby madness, a septagenarian nimby has suggested that the Duke - who is a cousin of the Prince of Wales - should be "lynched".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/8946617/Duke-of-Gloucester-criticised-over-wind-farm-plan.html

We're not yet sure whether the Telegraph supports such calls for the slaughter of our royal family - it all sounds a little bit French for them, really. But it's an amusing twist in the saga of nimby idiocy.

To these nimbies - who invariably pour out the same discredited bilge ("spoil the landscape", "ruin the tourism industry", blah-de-blah-de-blah) - anyone who wishes to harness the unlimited and free resource known as "The Wind" to generate cheap, clean, green electricity for the good of their fellow man is a "villain". Be they farmer or Duke, conscientious co-operative or multinational, they are all "villains", each and every one.

The truth, of course, is that the real villains are the demented, bigoted liars and thugs who routinely object in a kneejerk fashion to things they don't want, don't understand and are incapable of being honest about.

And when these frauds start calling for the lynching of members of the (extended) royal family, maybe the average Briton can begin to see them for what they really are. Fanatical extremists, as bad as the Taliban, only their fanaticism is based on nothing more but the most deluded and misguided self-centredness. They are the Enemy Within, the homegrown traitors who hate everything about their country while pretending to be trying to protect some aspect of it or other. They are the lowest of the low.

Come the revolution, it won't be the Duke of Gloucester who'll be first up against the wall. It will be the evil-minded, selfish nimbies who have done so much to harm their communities and to hold Britain back. Let's hope that their days really are numbered.

Merry Christmas, one and all!!!!

A CORRECTION (AT LAST!)

2011-12-20T08:57:00.000-08:00

Seems the Christmas spirit has even percolated through to these maniacal grinches at the Daily Mail. The Mail, as you're probably aware, is the nation's chief inciter of silly middle-class panics. It "adjusts" its coverage of anything and everything in order to whip up pointless frenzies of needless hysteria. It's the rabble-rousing rag of Middle England.

And it's now admitting that it was WRONG about the impact of environmental policies on household energy bills. It was WRONG because it deliberately sought to mislead its readers into believing that green policies - like the elusive "subsidies" for windfarms in the UK - were driving up the average consumer's energy bills. It has now issued a modest correction:

http://www.actionforrenewables.org/blog/archive/201112/daily-mail-quietly-admits-green-technology-isn't-costing-you-much-it-claimed

This is a major breakthrough. The Mail really does not like apologising for its cavalier attitude to the truth and all the giant great testes of misinformation it routinely publishes. So, what on earth has prompted this rare crisis of conscience? What can have forced the atrocious Mail to admit that it was having you on about the costs of renewables?

Maybe they've decided to take the Wind of Change New Year's Resolution - you know, the one about not telling lies about windfarms any more - and have already turned over a new leaf.

Now wouldn't that be something?

ANOTHER COVER UP

2011-12-19T07:00:00.001-08:00

There's lying - an art that nimbies excel in - and then there's covering up the truth. Once-respected British newspapers have been doing both.

We reported recently on the YouGov poll commissioned by the Sunday Times which revealed a clear majority of British people support windfarms. It seems that more than half of all Britons want to see more of them and only a modest fraction of those polled wish there were fewer.

Sadly, the Sunday Times assumes that most of its readership is composed of deluded and fanatical nimbies, and so it buried its own survey:

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2011/12/sunday-times-wind-farms/

Pandering to the barking tendencies of Britain's nimby minority is not exactly covering the news. Quite the reverse, in fact: it is an act of political propaganda designed to mislead the nation over a matter of the utmost importance. It is an act of treason, committed on behalf of an Australian-born resident of the United States of America whose grotesque media empire is making those who read its shoddy bilge and watch its viciously extremist news channels more and more stupid by the day. No state propaganda machine is as wildly out of control than Murdoch's Death Star of fake news and atrocious comment. And so, when it finds that the majority of Britons are enlightened and conscientious about renewable energy, it hides those findings and broadcasts yet another sickeningly misleading diatribe against renewables.

No wonder the nimby nutters of Olde Englande love the deranged dribblings of the right-wing press.

The news elsewhere is looking increasingly positive: Scotland is hailing 2011 as the "best year yet" for Scottish green energy, as well it might. £750 million worth of new green energy projects were switched on north of the border in the last twelve months, a worthy and magnificent achievement. South of the border, a survey carried out by the financial services firm Ernst & Young has revealed that businesses are showing increased confidence in clean energy technology but are losing confidence in the British government's monumentally inept approach to the green sector of the economy. Maybe the problem here is that so many government ministers are in thrall to the nuclear, oil and Murdoch lobbies, that David Cameron's claim to be promoting the "greenest government ever" has been exposed as cynical gobbledegook.

Wanna see a truly far-sighted green government? Look north. Scotland is leading the way.

Wanna see a government of muddled fools easily swayed by media demagogues and anti-renewables lobbyists? Look at Westminster.

They can't bury the truth forever, though. Let's all hope and pray that 2012 is the year in which even the crazed lunatics of Rupert Murdoch's evil empire and the craven hypocrites of the coalition government finally see the light, and stop dancing to the tune of the depraved, dishonest and utterly selfish nimbies who have been doing so much to harm our nation.

It might be our last chance to protect our "green and pleasant land" for future generations. Let's pledge to do everything in our power to follow Scotland's lead and tell the neo-fascist fringe of Tory ideologues, nimby maniacs and bigoted lobbyists what they can do with their self-serving lies.

Let's make 2012 the Year of Wind - for the good of everybody!!!

JUST SO YOU KNOW

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we learnt that the majority of people in Britain want to see more windfarms and think that government subsidies to support wind energy is the right thing to do.

Today, we learn that certain highly irresponsible newspapers in the UK have been lying about the costs paid by the consumer for renewable energy.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) is an independent body. In a report released today, the CCC analyses the dramatic increase in the average household's energy bills.

In 2004, the average home paid £604 for energy. Last year, that had shot up to £1,060. But contrary to what the running dogs of the right-wing press would have you believe, that was not the fault of renewables.

The CCC has broken down that massive £455 increase to show that rising wholesale gas prices accounted for £290 of that. Only £30 went to investments in renewable energy (of which windfarms form only a part). £45 went to covering the costs of energy efficiency schemes. In other words, the consumer is paying 50% more to subsidise energy efficiency measures than they are to all renewables, and nearly TEN TIMES as much to cover the increasing costs of importing gas.

As usual, we find that all the demented claims about renewables being "inefficient", "too expensive", "totally reliant on subsidies" and a "massive burden on the consumer" are all tommy rot. They are lies. The nimby diddymen love to keep spouting this sort of gibberish, but gibberish it is. If you want to know why your bills are going up, look at the increase in wholesale gas costs and don't keep blaming renewables because only an idiot does that.

Oh, and by the way, the average household in the UK is paying £240 per year towards the costs of decommissioning useless nuclear power stations. That's £240 from every household going to NOT generating any electricity at all!! In comparison with which, £30 towards creating a level playing field for all forms of renewable energy is a pittance. The average consumer is paying over £500 extra per year for more expensive gas and the closure of nuclear power stations. Windfarm "subsidies" account for a few quid each year.

So, in the light of the CCC's report, which merely sets the record straight, we at Wind of Change are offering a humble suggestion to the right-wing press and the nimbies who read that rubbish for a New Year Resolution. Let's all promise to make 2012 the year in which we STOP TELLING LIES ABOUT RENEWABLES, shall we? Let's start getting properly patriotic and actually support the vital drive towards a sustainable, low-carbon future. Let's tell the truth about renewables so that tin-pot dictators in the Shires can't keep pulling the wool over everybody's eyes.

Let's stop being idiots and stand up for renewables!!!

MOST BRITONS SUPPORT WINDFARMS AND SUBSIDIES!!!

2011-12-13T09:42:00.001-08:00

We all know that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are bad news for the planet. Methane, however, is worse - approximately 23 times as potent as CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

So this story isn't good news:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/shock-as-retreat-of-arctic-sea-ice-releases-deadly-greenhouse-gas-6276134.html

Oh dear.

Still, fortunately there are some groups which, having taken the science of climate change onboard, have some solutions in mind. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), for example, recently released a report examining how the UK could source at least 60% of its electricity from renewables by 2030:

http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/positive_energy_final_designed.pdf

Of course, the UK would be off to a fairly good start because Scotland has already committed itself to achieving 100% renewable energy by 2020. Realistically, the rest of the British Isles ought to be upping its game so that Scotland doesn't leave us standing (Scotland can already foresee a net income of £2bn and world-leader status in new-energy technologies, as long as Westminster doesn't foul everything up for them). And, given the scale of the climate crisis we face, 60% renewable energy for the UK by 2030 should be thought of as a modest ambition.

However, here's some more bad news. Amply covered by the Telegraph, among others, the right-wing Adam Smith Institute has paired up with the anti-renewables, climate-change-denying Scientific Alliance to produce a thoroughly bogus report about renewables not being economically viable. There's nothing new in this report - in fact, it's the same old misleading hogwash advanced by lobby groups and right-wing ideologues that we've all grown so familiar and fed up with (unless we're raving nimbies). And it's not just the renewables industry that has attacked the wayward propagandists of the Adam Smith Institute over this blatantly inaccurate and unscientific report. The government has, too.

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2131709/government-industry-attack-adam-smith-institute-anti-renewables-report

The big question is: how is all this playing out with the great British public? Well, as two recent YouGov polls show, the results are ... interesting.

For reasons best known to themselves, the Times and the Sunday Times have chosen not to publish some of the results of their YouGov survey, but you can see them here:

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/gm4jg0973n/Sunday%20Times%20Results%20111125%20VI%20and%20Trackers.pdf

First of all, the poll shows that a clear majority of those polled support the construction of a high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. So, that's one in the eye for those noisy anti-HS2 fanatics.

Then we discover that the majority of those polled - even among Conservative voters - feel that there should be MORE windfarms in Britain than there are at the moment. Yep, no less than 68% of those polled want to see more elegant, inspiring and impressive wind turbines quietly and harmlessly generating clean, green, cheap electricity.

Now, here's the really fun part. According to the Sunday Times poll, no fewer than 60% of those polled (Tory voters included) believe that the government is RIGHT to subsidise windfarms to encourage the use of wind power. No wonder these results haven't been published in the Murdoch press!! After all the insane exaggerations and blatant lies about windfarms and subsidies, it seems the majority of the Great British Public thinks that subsidies for windfarms are the RIGHT THING TO DO!!

What's this??? Can it be that the deranged anti-nowhere league which is currently marching, jackbotted and megaphoned, through this green and pleasant land of ours is simply an abusive and noisome minority of frauds and fools??? Could it be that most Britons can see sense and know that we need:

1) a High-Speed Rail Link
2) MORE windfarms
3) SUBSIDIES for those windfarms

Wow!

And then there's another YouGov poll, recently conducted for energy giant EDF:

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/o3ga459pt3/YG-Archive-EDF-final1005117UPDATED_v2-151111.pdf

This one's possibly more conclusive. The vast majority (72%) of those polled in 2010 were "FAVOURABLE" towards windfarms. That includes Conservative voters. By way of contrast, just 42% were favourable towards nuclear power stations and a measly 24% towards gas-fired power stations.

Now, to go back aways, VVASP lied - repeat: LIED - about the level of local opposition to the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm. They'd probably lie about the resuts of these YouGov surveys. But both polls are unequivocal: the majority of Britons are FAVOURABLE towards wind power, SUPPORT windfarms and believe that government SUBSIDIES for wind power are RIGHT.

It's not all good news, though. Constant right-wing propaganda is having an effect on these figures. In 2007, for example, 76% of those polled were favourable towards wind power. It's not the increase in the number of working windfarms which has brought this figure down to 72% because people tend to like working windfarms and only go a bit berserk about windfarms that don't exist yet. So the only explanation for the minor erosion in public support for windfarms is the incessant campaign of lies against them masterminded by weirdos and maniacs.

The same demented campaigning by dishonest, not-what-they-seem groups, like the so-called Scientific Alliance and the laughable Global Warming Policy Foundation, accounts for one of the most depressing figures in the EDF poll. Last year, for the first time in the surveys, more people thought that "It is not yet clear whether climate change is happening or not - scientists are divided on this issue" than "It is a serious and urgent problem and radical steps must be taken NOW to prevent terrible damage being done to the planet".

Seems the propaganda is working, in its insidious, drip-drip way. People are beginning to believe the anti-renewables, climate-change-denying lies. Thanks to the monstrous efforts of a tiny minority, the whole country is getting steadily stupider.

There's still hope, folks. But it's diminishing fast.

NEWS FROM BRIDGNORTH, or: THE NIMBIES' DIRTY SECRET

2011-12-11T01:51:00.000-08:00

In the real world, unnecessary aggressiveness coupled with bizarre, irrational and fantastical claims can be enough to get you sectioned under the terms of the Mental Health Act.

In the looking-glass world of nimbydom, it's called "protecting the countryside". Not protecting it for everybody, you understand - protecting it for the few who have bought a home (or a second, or a third home) in it.

A co-operative is proposing a community-owned wind development of two medium-scale turbines about three miles from the town of Bridgnorth in Shropshire. We've previously reported on the insanity of the claims being made by the anti-group (which has already learnt to repeat the nimby mantra of being "in favour" of renewables as long as nobody can see them). The gloriously mendacious "Stop Bridgnorth Windfarm" group announced that the trucks which carry wind turbine parts are "longer than an aircraft carrier". This is a very silly claim to make, not least of all because the turbine parts themselves are considerably shorter than any aircraft carrier. Someone, we are meant to suppose, is making lorries which are massively longer than is actually necessary.

But Wind of Change has now been informed that the liars of Bridgnorth have gone even further in their deep-rooted dishonesty. Not only will the turbine trucks be unrealistically long, but they will be trundling along the lanes around Bridgnorth for years on end and "most of the roundabouts in the area will have to be removed" to accommodate these apocalyptic convoys (which do not, in fact, exist).

That's just the start. Apparently, according to the Bridgnorth nimbies, wind turbines sound like a) a lawn-mower (they refuse to divulge whether this is a Flymo or a Qualcast); b) a chainsaw; or c) a helicopter taking off. Extraordinary, really, when you consider that no one has ever managed to record a turbine sounding like any of those things.

As usual, these innocent, community-owned turbines will ruin tourism in the area - just as other turbines have manifestly failed to destroy tourism elsewhere. They will lead to an increase in agricultural accidents and - horror of horrors! - provide an income for the farmer (which is "immoral", apparently). They will burst into flame and shower the populace with ice (?!?). Most terrifying of all, the electricity generated by these turbines might be used by people who don't even live in Bridgnorth!!

It's the end of the world as we know it.

Oh, and according to the raft of lies which is the protest group's website, wind turbines reduce local house prices by 40%. This is less than the insane claim made by VVASP in Worcestershire, that windfarms reduce local house prices by 54% - a claim they could only arrive at by deliberately misrepresenting the results of an RICS-sponsored study. Like all other studies, that report found no evidence of windfarms impacting adversely on house prices. It's yet another nimby myth that they do. Stop Bridgnorth Windfarm claim to have got their 40% figure from someone in Scotland (presumably, the same person who claimed that wind turbines sound like an aircraft taking off). Unfortunately, whoever this unidentified Scottish person was, they quite clearly don't live anywhere near a wind turbine or, indeed, planet Earth.

Overall, the maniacal nimbies of Bridgnorth really do seem intent on setting a new benchmark for nimby dishonesty. This is an interesting development. As if there haven't been enough mindless nimby myths spouted in recent years - with the connivance of right-wing newspapers that exist solely to frighten the middle-class with phantom bogeys - Bridgnorth has decided to invent a few more. More elaborate, more ludicrous ... and yet, nimbies being what they are, more perversely "believable". As our correspondent (who is neither for nor against the proposed turbines) has told us: "The word hypocrites keeps popping into my head for some reason."

Co-operatives, in the main, do not engage in anti-social activities. We pointed this out after the VVASP High Command visited a windfarm in Cambridgeshire and came back telling all sorts of silly stories about it. The windfarm was on land owned by the Co-Operative Group - Britain's largest owner of farmland - and the farm in question was awarded a Farmer's Weekly award in that very year, with a special commendation for the "beauty" of the farm.

But in the mad, mad, oh so very mad world of the nimby, a "co-operative" is presumably some sort of conspiracy dedicated to destroying the countryside, tourism, the property market and several roundabouts.

Our correspondent from Shropshire has pointed out to us that the hardcore of the Bridgnorth nimby loons actually live in the sort of houses "that could grace the cover of 'Country Life'" and makes the suggestion that the term NIMBY might be altered to "Not Near My Elizabethan Moated Mansion" (NNMEMM - it sounds a bit like the sort of noise a nimby makes when you challenge one of their absurd claims, but otherwise it doesn't really roll off the tongue).

Could this be the reason why Stop Bridgnorth Windfarm have gone further than anybody else to misrepresent wind turbines, mislead their neighbours and ride roughshod over such basic concepts as the truth and common decency? As our person in Shropshire has put it in respect of their "epic" nimbyism: "If Carlsberg made nimbyism, this would be it." Theirs is a sort of gold-standard nimbyism - more boorishly nimby than any other nimbies - and their extraordinary example has led us to formulating what we call the Wind of Change First Law of Nimbyism.

The purported hazards of a wind turbine are directly proportional to the average cost of houses in the area.

None of these hazards are real, of course, as anyone who has actually looked into the subject will know. They are invented hazards, fake bugaboos dreamt up by the weird minds of the nimbies and broadcast far and wide as if they had some credibility. But the point is this: the more expensive the housing is in an area where a turbine or two are proposed, the more vicious and dishonest will be the anti campaign.

Hence the Wind of Change First Law of Nimbyism. It certainly helps to explain why, when windfarms all over the country (and the rest of the world) have been getting on with generating lots and lots of clean, green, cheap energy at no risk to the surrounding population, places like Bridgnorth are being coerced into believing that they will suffer in ways that almost defy imagination.

It's got nothing whatever to do with the turbines. It has got everything to do with the evil mindset of the grasping, intolerant, demented types who have infested our countryside with their petty-minded selfishness and congenital thuggery.

Stop Bridgnorth Windfarm are proof of the First Law of Nimbyism. The more expensive their houses, the more extreme the lies they will tell about windfarms, and the more aggressively they will defend something they don't own against something they don't understand.

That's their dirty little secret.

IF THEY CAN DO IT, WHY CAN'T WE?

2011-12-09T09:07:00.000-08:00

Not all Lords are going out of their way to mislead the public about the climate crisis in the manner of Lord Lawson and his terminally dodgy "Global Warming Policy Foundation".

On last night's Newsnight programme, Lord Prescott pointed out how absurd it was letting "NIMBYs" decide where we can (or rather can't) put windfarms when wind is our "energy of the future". We in the UK get forty per cent of Europe's wind passing over us, and yet the swivel-eyed petty Hitlers of Middle England do nothing but tell idiotic lies to each other about wind turbines. Absolute madness!

Sadly, the madness shows no signs of abating. Thirty years of right-wing propaganda from Westminster and Fleet Street have created a generation of evil, so determined to cling on to their minor privileges with their cold dead hands that they are perfectly happy to betray all future generations and the vast majority of their fellow countrymen.

So we've decided - as it's Friday - to jolly things up a little. First, why not take a look at a whole array of new(ish) wind turbine designs. The Cretin School of Advanced Nimbyism can only huff and puff about wind turbines being "blots on the landscape" which are "destroying" our "green and pleasant land" (that's how hysterical our native nimbies are). But if you take a look at these, you'll see that wind turbines will soon be available in a range of shapes and sizes, and in pretty much any colour you fancy. You can even vote on which particularly design appeals to you the most:

http://www.oobject.com/category/beautiful-wind-turbines/

Yep - you read that right: "beautiful wind turbines". Which is what they are.

Having feasted your eyes on some truly innovative and spectacular turbine designs, and maybe got a taste of what a rich and exciting future there is in wind energy technology, now click on this next link:

http://inhabitat.com/german-village-produces-321-more-energy-than-it-needs/

It's a fascinating little story. A small village in Bavaria is currently producing 321% of the energy it actually requires and earning the equivalent of $5.7 million in annual revenue from its home-produced renewable energy.

So, even if you're a deluded follower of Lord Lawson, you can still appreciate the ECONOMIC argument for renewable energy. Just as the people of Texas have done.

If you're a demented fraud determined to oppose anything and everything for no good reason, then you still won't get it. Besides, you're probably loitering around some village hall and winding yourself up ready for the latest Anti-Whatever-It-Is meeting. But if you have a brain, then there's a chance you might recognise the genius inherent in any community which can generate - cleanly and harmlessly - more than three times the energy it needs and sell most of it on, making a massive amount of money for the community without really having to do anything.

That's a real community at work. Not a toxic community of Me-Me-Me warthogs, recently arrived in their 4x4s and desperate to exercise their misplaced sense of superiority. A real community doing intelligent, far-sighted, socially and environmentally friendly things. And making oodles of money for being good. Oh, and keeping the place looking pretty, too.

Now that, dear friends, is what we call a no-brainer.

"PATRONISING AND WRONG"

2011-12-08T12:28:00.000-08:00

If you're fundamentally selfish, and don't want to accept any responsibility - individual or communal - for the harm we have all done to the environment and the measures we must all adopt to limit the effects of our recklessness, then sooner or later you have to pretend that climate change isn't happening. Or, if it is, then it isn't our fault. No, sirree. So we don't have to do anything about it, right?

Ha! If only ...

It's just that sort of shifty thinking that mad groups like Nigel Lawson's "Global Warming Policy Foundation" are trying to encourage.

The BBC's highly-acclaimed Frozen Planet series came to an end with an episode in which Sir David Attenborough examined various kinds of proof that the Arctic ice is melting. He carefully avoided mentioning man-made climate change. All the same, the nutters attacked.

In its infinite wisdom, the BBC's Radio Times magazine invited Lawson to stick his oar in. This in the name of "balance" which, in all cases concerning climate change, means pretending that a few brainless statements have as much weight as a mass of detailed scientific evidence and data. It's oh so similar to the "debate" about wind energy and renewables in general. Lots of proper science completely drowned out by a few opinions falsely presented as "fact" and then foisted on anybody who'll listen.

Anyway, the Guardian has discovered that the BBC prepared a rebuttal to Lawson's stupid remarks. They had to be on their guard, because the loonies of the climate "sceptic" camp want everybody to believe that the BBC is guilty of "bias". Naughtily, you see, the BBC occasionally reports on the science. And that always infuriates the deniers. They're just like anti-wind nimbies, you see. Their opinion matters more than the evidence. If they had their way, the BBC (and all other media outlets) would be banned from covering hugely important issues like climate change and we'd all be none the wiser. As it is, any attempt by the BBC to report and explain the science leads to vociferous demands for "balance" and the "alternative" point-of-view. It's rather as if any programme about the Holocaust would have to be "balanced" by a noisy rant from the nutters who deny that the Holocaust ever happened.

Although the BBC haven't bothered publishing it, the response to Lawson's idiotic denialism they commissioned from Mark Brandon, an Open University polar oceanographer and scientific script consultant to the Frozen Planet series, was unequivocal. Lawson's attempts at undermining Sir David Attenborough, the BBC and the science of climate change were just plain wrong, "patronising in tone" and "the usual tired obfuscation and generalisation".

The BBC haven't dared to confront Lawson with the facts but the Open University has published a piece calmly explaining - using science - why Nigel Lawson was so stupefyingly wrong. It's here:

http://www8.open.ac.uk/platform/news-and-features/the-science-behind-climate-change-explained

The sad thing is that, for as long as wealthy but delusional twerps like Lawson and his climate change denying mates keep pumping out their inaccurate nonsense - like the "Renewable Energy Foundation" with its constant misleading attacks on windpower - the longer those few selfish types who don't fancy glimpsing a wind turbine from time to time can continue to convince themselves that nothing needs to be done. If there's no such thing as man-made climate change, then we don't need renewables, so we don't need a windfarm a couple of miles away from the gazebo. What Lawson and his drones are preaching is a great big dangerous lie, which helps to fuel all those other lies about windpower, recycling, sustainability, etc., etc.

We've said it before: the problem with one lie (climate change isn't happening) is that it leads to so many others (we don't need windfarms/windfarms don't work/it's all just a subsidy scam ...)

So here's an idea. Let's stop telling lies. Shall we, nimbies everywhere? For the good of everybody, and most of all our children?

Wouldn't it be lovely? - if the climate change sceptics and the anti-wind loonies and all the others who think they're more important than anybody else all just stopped telling fibs.

Then we might start getting somewhere.

In the meantime, here's Tony Juniper's response to the poorly-researched BBC Panorama programme from the other week about green energy. Makes you wonder in which direction the BBC really might be "biased".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28jjWyaeNUI&feature=youtu.be

WHO'S STEERING THIS SHIP?

2011-12-06T09:30:00.000-08:00

Through much of the nimby madness of the Battle for Lenchwick Windfarm, the frothy-mouthed sclerotic terrorists of VVASP were praying for a Conservative victory in the 2010 general election.

They weren't taken in by David Cameron's everso slimy claims about leading "the greenest government ever". One would also hope that they weren't so completely bonkers that they actually believed their own guff about windfarms being part of some madcap leftwing conspiracy organised by Gordon Brown and the EU (although one can't be too sure - there were a lot of people believing a lot of very mad things back then). No. They wanted a Tory government - a) because most of them are Tories anyway, and b) because if you're looking for craven hypocrisy and outright opportunism, look no further than the Conservative Party of Great Britain.

Individual Tory MPs feel free to play both sides of the windfarm debate. Take Neil Carmichael, for example. The Tory MP for Stroud (sic) is smarmying up to his nastier voters by opposing a windfarm in Berkeley Vale. Meanwhile, the same Tory MP is actively trying to get a windfarm built on his own farm in Northumberland. He'd make money from it, see? So it's one rule for down south and another for up north - or, if you prefer, two different kinds of blatant self-interest: be against windfarms where there are votes in it for you, but be for windfarms where you stand to make a profit from them.

As we know only too well, other Tory MPs (such as the not-terribly-bright one for Redditch) are perfectly happy to stand up and spout lies handed to them by their local nimbies in the hopes of retaining their majority. Yes - lies. Falsified figures about public opinion. Lies.

Even Cameron himself has been known to spout the odd nugget of anti-windfarm gibberish to appease the Daily Mail readers, even though he's perfectly familiar with the convenient truth about windfarms (his father-in-law has one on the family estate, dontcha know?)

So the nasty nimbies of Lench reckoned they'd be onto a safe bet if the Tories got in at the last election. A little hypocrisy goes a long way, and a public servant who is prepared to lie to the planning committee, well, that's money in the bank to the nimbies.

But recent findings are showing just how out-of-control the coalition government really is. Thanks to a number of Freedom of Information requests submitted by Caroline Lucas (a real MP), we now know that the oil and nuclear industries have almost completely infiltrated the coalition government:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/dec/05/energy-companies-lend-staff-government

More than fifty employees of the oil and nuclear industries have been working for "free" for periods of up to two years in the government departments responsible for energy. Not one of these "seconded" employees works for the renewables industry.

It is hardly a surprise, then, to discover that the government co-operated with nuclear power companies to "control" the UK news coverage of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima earlier this year. Nor that the government shared intelligence with nuclear power companies regarding its legal battle with Greenpeace. Nor that an unprecedented alliance of environmentalist and countryside groups has attacked George Osborne for putting the government "on a path to becoming the most environmentally destructive government to hold power in this country since the modern environmental movement was born".

Astonishingly, at a time when even insurance companies are beginning to respond to the problems of climate change (Boston Globe 30 November 2011) while hundreds of the world's biggest companies (including Tesco, Shell, BSkyB and Lloyds Bank) demand a global agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the UK's Met Office releases the latest detailed and really rather scary studies of climate change in 24 countries (http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-change/policy-relevant/obs-projections-impacts) and the BBC is about to screen Sir David Attenborough's Frozen Planet episode about the perceptable realities of climate change (the one that viewers in America are not allowed to watch), the renewable energy industry in the UK is struggling.

Increasingly, apart from a few barking exceptions like Nigel Lawson, the world is waking up to the enormous problems that lie just over the horizon. But what is our government doing? Letting the most polluting, most expensive and most dangerous of all the power industries dictate our energy policy.

Maybe that's why the nimby nutters were so desperate for a Tory government. After all, a bunch of myopic, money-minded, thick, selfish liars is bound to want a similar bunch to be their "democratically elected" representatives.

Who cares what it costs us all - the country, the future, our children, the planet - as long as our view of the Malverns isn't affected in any way? Just keep the lies and the backhanders coming, folks, and we can all go down together.

VICTIMOLOGY

2011-11-28T07:29:00.000-08:00

The world of the nimby is an upside-down one.

They claim to be trying to "save" our "green and pleasant" land from the "curse" of windfarms. This is not to say that they are trying to protect the environment in any way, but rather that they are seeking to preserve the "landscape" - i.e., the view from the end of their driveways. And yet, every responsible agency recognises that the real threat to our environment, which includes the rural landscape, is posed by global warming and the attendant problems of climate change, to which windfarms are part of the solution.

In other words, rather like the American general who famously believed that it was necessary to destroy Vietnamese villages in order to save them, the nimby fringe is seeking to "save" the countryside by destroying it.

Much the same can be said of the rural communities into which most of these nimby loudmouths have recently moved. In order to "save" their communities (from windfarms which have a proven track record of benefiting local communities), they are willing to destroy those very communities by setting neighbour against neighbour, spreading unnecessary fear and confusion and driving down the local property market with their obscene and hysterical placards.

But perhaps nowhere is the paranoia of nimbydom, with all its logical inconsistencies, more apparent than in the determination of the nimbies to cast themselves as the victims.

Victims of what, you might well ask? Well, usually they try to present themselves as the victims of some terrible conspiracy. This involves energy companies (including the small, eco-friendly ones and the co-operatives), national government and the EU. Oh, and probably those parts of the media which do not constantly broadcast a shrill nimby message of inaccurate propaganda. And anyone else who disagrees with them (like the UN and the RSPB).

This myth of victimhood is remarkable for a number of reasons. Look at any nimby campaign - and the behaviour of VVASP (Vale Villages Against Scottish Power) in the Lenches is a typical, if somewhat extreme example - and you'll soon notice that the real aggressors are the nimbies themselves. They are the ones publishing lies with the sole intent of misleading and scaring other people. They are the ones bullying their neighbours into conformity with the "consensus" or silence if they happen to know what they're talking about. They are the ones holding noisy demonstrations, making false claims and misrepresenting the facts.

It could be argued that adopting the role of "victim" is all part of the inherent dishonesty of their campaigning tactics. They want people to form the impression that a small bunch of peace-loving villagers are being crushed under foot by powerful, nebulous and unaccountable forces. It's all nonsense, of course, but you could be forgiven for thinking that this is all part of the anti-progress, anti-common sense, anti-everything game.

But it's not as simple as that. The neo-conservative ideology that came in with Thatcher and Reagan and just refuses to go away excels in the paranoid artform of victimology. In the parallel universe inhabited by these reactionary fools, the aggressor is always the victim. There are, for example, those on the British right who like to believe that Britain is the only country currently doing anything to curb CO2 emissions by forcing non-existent subsidies down the throats of energy companies in order to crowd the landscape with windfarms that "don't work". It takes an enormous leap of faith and a blithe willingness to ignore all the reliable evidence to believe any of that. But that's just the point. In this weird age created by neo-conservative loonies, faith or opinion count for a great deal more than hard fact and actual evidence.

Indeed, the very word "fact" has been up-ended by the nimbies and their right-wing ideologues. Take the VVASP campaign again - it relied entirely on opinions which it claimed were "FACTS". The real facts - objective, demonstrable facts - were shouted down. What one deranged lunatic chose to believe, or simply wanted everyone else to believe, became the new FACT. Anything else, such as evidence, data and the personal testimonies of those who knew better, was descried as some sort of propaganda.

The reality is that the creation of an upside-down world in which the aggressors are the victims, opinions become FACTS and real facts are dismissed as proganda is essential to the nimby mindset. By and large, they are rather privileged people (of course they are: they've been able to afford to move into desirable rural areas, where many of them keep their second homes, which they visit only at the weekends, and by doing so they price the real local people out of the market). Quite how this degree of privilege (which, of course, they insist is solely the result of "hard work") equates with victimhood is hard to determine. Especially when they go on to victimise their new neighbours by imposing their own form of nimby martial law on the area.

The weird thing, though, is that these people actually do think of themselves as victims. Forget the fact that almost everyone else is suffering much more than they are, or that their acts of belligerence, intolerance and aggression create yet more suffering, and that their insistence on fighting anything which might affect the view from the upstairs windows of their second home will have grave consequences for the next generation ... no, all that matters to these selfish, self-important nimby types is that THEY are the REAL victims.

Sadder still, those communities which have ended up hosting windfarms have almost invariably accepted that they were wrong about such nimby myths as "noise" and the government's guidelines - ETSU-R-97 - being "out-of-date" and "unfit for purpose". They very quickly realise that real operational windfarms (unlike the mad dreams of the nimbies) are actually quite enjoyable. They bring tranquility to an area, enhance the landscape, and prove to be a financial boon to the immediate neighbourhood (all of these statements have been made by Britons living in close proximity to windfarms). Kids, in particular, love them. All the nimby lies turn out to have been nothing but lies - self-serving lies designed to prevent necessary, desirable and beneficial change.

Ultimately, this proves that one of the biggest nimby lies of them all is that anti-windfarm protesters are "victims". How can you be the victim of something that will bring real benefits to your local area while doing no quantifiable harm to anyone or anything?

How can you claim to be trying to "protect" the countryside (where you bought your second home a year or two ago) from something that will do more to protect the real environment than anything you will ever do yourself?

The answer to these questions can only be that telling lies, misrepresenting the facts and posing as something you are quite definitely not are all second nature to the nimby class in this country.

And yet we're letting these delusional, hypocritical, vicious and aggressive liars dictate our energy and climate change policies in the UK.

No wonder the rest of the world is advancing while we're pretty much staying put. Seems the nimbies are not just false victims - they're genuine traitors, too.

SUBSIDING SUBSIDIES

2011-11-25T06:57:00.000-08:00

According to the new patron saint of nimbies, Philip the Intolerant, windfarms are "absolutely useless" and "completely reliant on subsidies".

You know, if you try asking a nimby about these subsidies, they tend to go a bit blank. Lots of waffle but no answers.

You'd think, would you not, that if the British government were so keen to subsidise wind power it would also be doing something to straighten out our crooked planning system, so that a small bunch of local loudmouths with honesty issues couldn't derail these important developments. Think about it: why would the UK subsidise windfarms if it can't be bothered to support them through the planning process?

Actually, there are no direct government subsidies for windfarms. There are no subsidies for windfarms during the planning stage, nor during the installation stage.

When a windfarm becomes operational and starts producing electricity, then - and only then - does it qualify for ROCs (Renewable Obligation Certificates). These are payable only on the basis of the amount of electricity actually generated (so windfarms have to "work" in order to qualify for these "subsidies"). And it's not a subsidy because it has nothing whatever to do with the taxpayer. The entire energy industry is reponsible for paying these ROCs (to all renewables, not just wind), which are funded by a small supplement on energy bills. So where's the subsidy?

Hmmnn ... interesting, isn't it? If windfarms really were "completely reliant on subsidies", then there would surely be some subsidies for them to be completely reliant upon. So when you find out that there aren't any - only a system whereby windfarm operators are compensated for the fact that other energy sources (gas, oil, nuclear) are or have been so heavily subsidised - then you do have to ask yourself, "What is all this nonsense the nimbies keep talking about subsidies???"

Another interesting fact about "subsidies" is that generally, nimbies are very happy to receive subsidies for their own things - such as the grants awarded to fund the Lenches Sports and Recreation Club - but totally opposed to subsidies for anybody else's things (such as ensuring energy security and low carbon energy sources for future generations). It's something of an age-old problem. The arch-reactionaries of Nimbyville want socialism for themselves and capitalism for everybody else. Subsidies for the things they want and a complete absence of subsidies for the things that don't appeal to them.

Which should make them very happy with the lack of direct government subsidies for windfarms.

Still, that doesn't explain why the nutty nimby fraudsters keep banging on about the non-existent subsidies for wind power, does it? So what's going on?

It's a fact of life that if you tell one lie, you usually end up telling another, and then another, and then another one on top of that. Nimbies start out with the lie that windfarms "don't work" (or, in the language of St Philip of Little England, they're "absolutely useless").

At which point an intelligent observer might ask why so many parts of the world are investing so heavily in wind energy. If windfarms are "absolutely useless", why are countries like the USA, China, Australia, India, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Denmark, France, and so on, and so on, installing so many of them?

This must have stumped the manic nimby nonsense-mongers, until one of them came up with the magic answer:

Subsidies!!!

Windfarms are only built because of subsidies (which don't exist)!

Not the good subsidies, you understand - the sort that pay for all those lovely exclusive middle-class things that the nimbies want - but BAD SUBSIDIES, like the sort that go to asylum seekers, the jobless, or injured war veterans.

Unfortunately, the market doesn't seem to agree with these two-faced nimbies. Renewable energy is now the world's fastest growing energy sector. Which is a good thing, because without renewables, we are going to be in serious trouble.

Take a look at this:

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2127695/iea-renewables-fastest-growing-energy-sector

Now ask yourself, how long has nuclear power been receiving huge subsidies? Why do governments subsidise the fossil fuel-based energy sector to the tune of $409 billion a year? And how impressive is it that relatively new renewable technologies are already achieving grid parity (i.e. cost effectiveness) in comparison with the dirty dinosaurs of gas, oil, coal and nuclear?

Like every other argument advanced by the lunatics of the NF (Nimby Fringe), the subsidies argument is nothing but hogwash.

Governments and markets all over the world have recognised a crucial fact: renewables are the primary energy resource of the 21st century and we'd better hurry up with them or else.

Which unfortunately leaves the nasty nimbies of Middle England barking at the moon and dragging us all down into the hell of their own narrow-minded selfishness and their insane willingness to terrorise their neighbours, just so that the view from their bathroom window is not in any way affected by the appearance of an elegant wind turbine quietly turning away in the distance.

It's sad, but true: nimbies are sick people. They're a danger to themselves and to everybody else. They should be locked in a room with Prince Philip and not let out, even when they're banging on the door and begging for forgiveness.

DUPLICRACY - HOW IT WORKS

2011-11-23T17:05:00.000-08:00

We saw recently how the Duke of Edinburgh had been doing his bit to preserve the duplicracy of lies when it comes to one of the most pressing problems we face in this country. But that was mere foolishness on the Duke's behalf. It was the kind of kneejerk prejudice that is spawned by ignorance. He opened his mouth and out came a load of poppycock.

Shame. But then, he is getting on a bit.

So now we turn our attention to some more dangerous groups - the sort who openly practice the arts of duplicity in order to maintain the duplicracy which keeps people here in the UK in a state of bewildered ignorance (like Prince Philip).

We've mentioned the hideously misnamed Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) before. You'd think that they were somehow involved in advancing the case for renewables, wouldn't you? But no: in the upside-down world of the duplicracy, REF seem to believe that all forms of renewable energy are equal, but some are more equal than others.

This appeared recently, and it's well worth a read:

http://www.eaem.co.uk/news/renewable-energy-foundation-front-biofuel-and-energy-intensive-industries-and-anti-wind-campaig

An interesting article, we're sure you'll agree. The Renewable Energy Foundation was founded by Noel Edmonds, who likes racing cars and helicopters. And its chairman and trustees all look suspiciously like the sort of people who - how shall we put it? - who might be quite eager to damage the reputation of wind energy. Having a go at the competition, you might call it. Lobbying for industries which don't do much to help our environmental problems is another way of putting it.

Then again, you could argue that simply by calling themselves the Renewable Energy Foundation and leaking biased, one-sided and woefully inaccurate information about windfarms comes under the heading of LYING. Posing as a charity - something which the Charity Commission has already had to have a word with them about - this group of oily industrialists feeds anti-windfarm claptrap to the right-wing press. Nimby groups up and down the country (some of which also play fast and loose with the rules governing charities) lap up REF's misleading nonsense. They quote REF's latest anti-wind gobbledegook and your average punter thinks, "Oooh, that came from the Renewable Energy Foundation, a serious-sounding organisation which by the look of it is in favour of renewables ... so it must be true!"

Well, folks, it isn't. REF is squarely at the heart of the duplicracy. It's a front for the very interests which are trying to destroy the wind energy sector.

Ever been had? If you believed anything you were told which came from the "Renewable Energy Foundation", then yes, you were.

Moving on. Here's a statistic. Climate Scientists who doubt that climate change is man-made: less than 1%. Members of the public who doubt that climate change is man-made: 60%.

60% of people don't believe the scientists. The scientists have been in a state of panic about rising global temperatures and the imminent problems that will cause for some time. But there are many dupes out there who actually think that there is some "uncertainty" as to whether climate change is even happening at all!

(Pretending that there is "doubt" about something or other is a standard nimby tactic. Remember the Beeston and Clifton wind turbine awareness group, which has set itself up to keep Nottingham people in the dark about wind turbines? They tried to make out that there was "conflicting" evidence about the impact of wind turbines on house prices. There isn't. But it is a duplicratic trick to make out that there is. If you can't prove your point, pretend that the jury is out. Confuse matters. Make false claims and then pretend that everybody's doing it. Nimby SOPs.)

Even the BBC is beginning to cave in to the dictats of the duplicrats. Sir David Attenborough's highly-acclaimed Frozen Planet series now exists in two forms. The United States has chosen to buy the slightly shorter version of the series, which omits the programme dealing with climate change. Mustn't upset the Tea Party Republicans, Fox News or the Christian Right - even if it is Britain's most revered and respected broadcaster presenting the facts in his calm, considered way. Duplicracy, see? Let Noel Edmonds fund an outrageously disingenuous 'foundation' dedicated to supporting anti-windfarm groups and the "noise consultants" who work for them, but on no account let Sir David Attenborough tell us about what climate change is doing.

One of the worst offenders for misleading the right-wing press and the public alike about the LOOMING CRISIS of climate change is Nigel Lawson's egregious Global Warming Policy Foundation. This godawful group exists solely to spread lies about climate change.

Even Energy Minister Chris Huhne has been moved to write to Lawson, telling him his bunch of duplicitous idiots is "misinformed" and "perverse". In terms of parliamentary language, that's pretty strong. What he meant, in plain English, is that they are a mixed-up, messed-up, dangerously deluded pack of liars.

Read all about it here:

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2127189/huhne-blasts-lord-lawsons-misguided-climate-sceptic

Note that various stories given out by Lawson's crap-meisters and lovingly published by right-wing papers have then had to be corrected because they were untrue ("relying on overstated figures"). Go further down and you'll see that Lawson is related to Christopher Monckton, whose weird neo-fascist assaults on the truth go down so well in certain parts of the States and Australia.

Now, the whole point about science is that it should be queried, tested, checked and occasionally challenged. That's how science works. But then there's the Flat Earth approach, which chucks all science out of the window if any of it conflicts with its brainless absolutism. Nigel Lawson was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Margaret Thatcher and so he believes in rewarding the wealthy and pursuing unrestricted "economic growth" regardless of the costs. He doesn't want to believe that the irresponsible behaviour of the wealthy and the "economic growth" unleashed by an unregulated "free" market is causing catastrophic problems which are imperilling the very future of human society. And because he doesn't want to believe that his own actions have contributed to an unprecedented global emergency, he doesn't want you to believe in climate change either.

So he sets up a group which looks like it might be concerning itself with the evidence of global warming and the sort of policies we need to deal with those effects, but does the absolute opposite. He LIES to you about climate change. He tries to pretend that there is some "doubt".

That's duplicracy, that is. That's those with wealth and short-term outlooks masquerading as impartial experts and spreading lies so that they can go on behaving irresponsibly, making sure that the obvious, necessary, and indeed rather desirable solutions are not applied. Lying through their teeth to confuse you.

Welcome to Britain in the 21st century, where those with the financial resources to do so are determined to fool you into sacrificing your childrens' futures.

This is the age of duplicracy. The rule of the lie. The rise of the nimby.

NIMBIES ACQUIRE ROYAL PATRON

2011-11-22T14:32:00.001-08:00

That old North-South Divide just keeps on widening, folks.

Inspite of local opposition, the Scottish Energy Minister, Fergus Ewing, has given the go-ahead for the 33-turbine Strathy North windfarm in Sutherland. It will generate enough electricity to power twice the number of homes in Inverness and pour some £3.5 million into the local community (yes, the community that objected!), in addition to creating about 100 jobs. It will also help towards achieving Scotland's goal of achieving 100% of its electricity from renewables by 2020.

Fantastic.

Just don't tell the Duke of Edinburgh. The good ole boy has not abandoned his predilection for insulting Johnny Foreigner. One of the latest victims of his atrocious lack of politesse was Esbjorn Wilmar, who introduced himself to Phil at a reception in London. As soon as the Duke heard that Mr Wilmar works for Infinergy, building and operating wind turbines, the gnarly old codger let rip. Apparently, the Duke of Edinburgh thinks windfarms are "absolutely useless" and "completely reliant on subsidies". Oh, and they "never work" and they're a "disgrace".

Now, maybe the Duke has got it in for onshore windfarms. The Crown Estate doesn't seem to have too many qualms about offshore windfarms. And perhaps the old boy had been chatting to his eldest son and wanted to get a bit of social-conscience-environmental-stuff off his chest. Then again, maybe he just reads the Daily Heil.

But Philip's ludicrous outburst only highlights the growing gap between Scotland (where renewables are going from strength to strength) and England (where nimby nutters rule). As the Duke of Edinburgh, of all places, we might have expected a more enlightened attitude - one based on what windfarms are actually doing, as opposed to a complete ignorance of wind power reality - but that might be too much to hope for. Prince Phil excels in being casually offensive. It's what he does. Otherwise, he's "absolutely useless" and "completely reliant on subsidies".

The Duke's witless remarks sparked a very interesting investigation of windfarm facts on the Guardian website:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2011/nov/21/prince-philip-windfarms-useless

It's worth a look because it does delve into the FACTS behind the Prince's GUFF. Best of all, though, it includes a link to a very useful document. We'll put the link here for you:

http://www.cse.org.uk/downloads/file/common_concerns_about_wind_power.pdf

It's a report published by the Centre for Sustainable Energy and it examines some of the "common concerns" about windfarms.

Now, before any passing nimby goes a bit berserk because the report is published by the Centre for Sustainable Energy (as opposed to, say, the cynically misnamed Renewable Energy Foundation), let's be clear. The report is based on the latest peer-reviewed scientific and academic studies. It is probably the best resource for factual information - i.e., the sort that nimbies can't stand - about windfarms.

For example, it gives a good, clear and concise overview of the research into windfarms and property prices, thereby showing up the criminal irresponsibility of nimby groups who like to make out that windfarms are disastrous for the local housing market.

If only the Duke of Edinburgh had bothered to read something as informative as the Centre for Sustainable Energy's publication before shooting his mouth off. If only ...

Sadly, though, what passes for a "debate" about windpower in England is nothing of the sort. You get a few old farts talking idiotic claptrap. And then, too often drowned out by the wailing of the nimby fringe, there are the facts. Or "Scotland", if you prefer.

TRUTH & LIES

2011-11-19T09:49:00.001-08:00

We had such a positive response to our use of a quotation from Thomas Paine recently that we decided to treat you to another quote. This one's from Voltaire. We want to remind all those head-in-the-sand nimbies out there that a thing called the Enlightment happened. It ushered in the Age of Reason. The nimbies won't know much about that because they don't believe in reason or enlightenment. They believe in prejudice, lies and DO AS WE TELL YOU OR ELSE!!!

The first part of Voltaire's quote undoubtedly applies to the dreadful nimby movement which is allowing fanatics and demagogues to dictate their prejudices to all around them. We've seen recently how a handful of anti-wind nutters are trying to persuade their neighbours in Shropshire that the "Lorries carrying wind turbine parts are longer than an aircraft carrier." That, dear friends, is an absurdity. It is so untrue - so painfully, maniacally untrue - that only a complete idiot would believe them. But sadly, there are idiots aplenty in this country of ours. Some poor folk will trust their neighbours on this. They will endeavour to believe the (obvious) lie that vehicles longer than aircraft carriers will deliver wind turbine parts to their destination and probably damage your petunias in the process.

Another absurdity preached by the Shropshire loons is that wind turbines sound like aircraft taking off (we noted that the nimbies of Bridgnorth seem to have the hots for aircraft). Well, here's some lovely proof that the barking progress-deniers of Salop are lying through their sharpened fangs. No wind turbine sounds like an aircraft taking off. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seUDPNcpnWI&feature=youtu.be

The windfarm shown here is a prime example of the positive benefits windfarms can bring to the countryside and the community. It's worth a watch for those of you who have not yet been fortunate enough to have a tour of an operational windfarm. Of course, there will be nimby lunatics who try to claim that the sound on this video has been artificially engineered somehow or other, by some process currently unknown to science, so that the turbines sound so blissfully quiet. But the truth is that windfarms are quiet - surprisingly so. And kids love them.

So the "making you believe absurdities" part of the story is plain for all to see. Anti-wind nimbies lie, and their lies aren't even very good lies. They're ridiculous. Which means that you'd have to be ridiculous yourself to be taken in.

Another example? Okay. Here's a mad group from the Nottingham area. Nottingham University is eager to install a couple of wind turbines which will do precisely what they're meant to do: generate lots of lovely clean, green energy, thereby saving a fortune and cutting down on CO2 emissions (which, in case you've been living in a nuclear bunker for the past decade or two, is what we are all meant to be doing). Typically, a few fruitcakes are trying to stop this perfectly sane and sensible development, and they're using all the usual dishonest tactics to further their grotesque ends:

http://www.no2turbines.com

Now, let's not bother with their hysterical attempts at investigative journalism regarding Yes2Wind. Let's just go to their "Why Should I Care?" link and click on "Property Prices".

Whoosh! Dear oh dear, what an astonishing outbreak of phoney do we find there? "There is a great deal of conflicting evidence regarding the impact of wind turbines on property prices", or so they tell us.

In fact, there's no conflicting evidence. There is the evidence - which is, as numerous surveys show, that windfarm proximity does not tend to have any long term negative impact on house prices and, if anything, benefits the local property market. And then there is the sort of gibberish that the nimbies come out with.

Take a look: they've even quoted that part of the RICS report which VVASP quoted as "evidence" that windfarms drive property prices down. VVASP were told by the Advertising Standards Authority that they could not continue using that same quote to make that same claim because it wasn't true! But the nimbies of Nottingham do not care that they are deliberately misleading their neighbours, making claims that other nimby groups have been banned from making. They want all and sundry to Believe an Absurdity.

Now, some of us know only too well what the Absurdity-Believers are capable of. And maybe Atrocities is a strong word. But when, as per VVASP, they form mobs, browbeat and intimidate their neighbours, deny open debate and forbid free speech, force democratic bodies to dance to their lunatic tune, and ruin their own communities by creating unnecessary fear and division, well, that kind of comes under the heading of "Atrocities". Atrocities all inspired and fuelled by Absurdities (or lies, as we prefer to call them).

And then there's the greater Atrocities, which are to do with the planet (our real home, as opposed to the expensive monstrosities with views of "unspoilt" countryside which the nimbies think of as their exclusive homes) and with future generations. Lying your head off in order to prevent urgent action being taken and thereby stopping harmless, beneficial developments which will improve matters considerably for the current generation and those yet to come ... that's an atrocity.

The children of the future will not thank you for having lead such a perverse and deluded crusade against the solution. Why should they? You preached absurdities in order to make others commit atrocities. And that's how you will be remembered.

Of course, it's always extremely difficult to figure out why these headcases continually argue against something that is so good for the environment (near and far), so good for local business, tourism and the property market, so good for kids (remember, VVASP kept trying to drop weird hints about the proximity of the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm to a primary school, even though they could not prove that the turbines would pose any kind of threat whatsoever to the children), so good for everybody, in fact. Why would any sane (?) individual oppose - so fanatically, and so dishonestly - such a worthwhile thing?

This might suggest an answer:

http://blog.ewea.org/2011/11/wind-turbines-have-become-a-symbol-of-clean-energy/

That's it. Wind turbines are symbolic. Of the future. Of a better world.

And that's why the fascist fringe, the self-important nimby nutters of the world, are so dead set against them. All the Absurdities about noise, health, house prices, subsidies, intermittency, blah blah blah are simply sideshows - bogus excuses for opposing a Good Thing. The real reason they don't like them is because wind turbines remind them of their own failure to protect the countryside they claim to love and the children they pretend to be worried about.

Wind turbines simply remind these fools that driving gas-guzzlers, commuting stupid distances because you want to work in a city but boast that you have a place in the country, and all those other insanely wasteful activities are wrong.

In the mad world of the nimby, it's better to tell loud lies about the solution than admit that there's problem. And if that means tricking your neighbours into committing atrocities, well, so be it.

MARKET FORCES

2011-11-14T11:08:00.000-08:00

We've heard it all before. Wind power is "Too Expensive". Wind turbines are "Inefficient". You know the rest.

What is so odd about these pronouncements so routinely yelled out by the anti-wind mafia is that they take no account of the way things work. Technology develops (especially when there is a pressing and growing need for it to do so) and markets adjust. So that when the nimbies cry out that wind power is "Too Expensive", not only to they fail to explain what that means (too expensive compared with what?) but they also try to give the impression that this is a fixed thing that can never change.

Well, a report just published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows how fast things are changing. With the costs of wind power falling rapidly (in the US, for example, wind turbines are now thirty per cent cheaper than they were three years ago) and improvements in design increasing the load capacities of modern turbines, wind power is now rivalling fossil fuel-based generation. Read all about it:

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2124487/onshore-wind-reach-grid-parity-2016

Basically, this means that it's getting more and more difficult for the nimbies to justify their sweeping statements about windfarms being "too expensive" and "inefficient", on the grounds that they are neither. They are becoming as cheap as the alternatives. Indeed, if the hidden costs of carbon emissions are factored in, wind power is already as cheap as, if not cheaper than, gas. And wholesale gas prices have been shooting up, lately, so wind power is extremely likely to become much cheaper while gas-fired power stations are only going to get much more expensive. That's called market forces. The nimbies want you to believe that windfarms are part of some woolly-minded green socialist conspiracy run out of Brussels. The market is deciding that they're not.

Meanwhile, a study carried out for Ofgem has considered the strange imbalance in the costs of accessing the National Grid in different parts of the UK. In short, the peculiar pricing structure that currently exists benefits southern England while making it more expensive for renewables in northern Scotland to access the grid. The study reveals that levelling the playing field would reduce the "costs" of windpower still further while undermining the case for new nuclear power stations in the UK. (See BBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-15711200)

Once again, we find that the so-called subsidy argument that the nimbies keep blowing out of their holes doesn't stand up. What's really been happening is that the UK government has been subsidising power stations (fossil fuel and nuclear) in southern Britain and making renewables more expensive because of issues which have nothing to do with real, inbuilt costs and everything to do with skewing the market. Make access to the National Grid the same across the whole of the UK, and the "costs" of renewables go down.

It seems that, one by one, the fake and phoney arguments against renewables in general, and windfarms in particular, are falling like dominos. Which probably means that we're going to be hearing some even more ridiculous claims from the nimbies in future (such as "Lorries carrying turbine parts are longer than aircraft carriers").

GETTING THE WIND UP

2011-11-13T06:20:00.000-08:00

As we reported earlier this year, when Wychavon District Council met to consider plans for a windfarm at Lenchwick in Worcestershire, all bar one of the councillors voted against.

The one who was happy to approve the plans was familiar with windfarms. The others were not. They even considered their visit to an operational windfarm as irrelevant when it came to weighing up the merits of the Lenchwick proposals. Apparently, a successful, soon to be expanded windfarm of ten 100-metre turbines could not be compared with a potential windfarm of just five 125-metre turbines. Five wind turbines would have a much bigger impact than ten, obviously. It was, quite simply, not comparing like with like.

Those councillors who had read the nimby literature with which the protesters of VVASP had saturation bombed them lined up to reel off all the usual myths. There was the all-too familiar competition to see who could make the most rabid and implausible claims about windfarms. It seems likely that the councillors had decided beforehand who would lead on what piece of nonsense - "You do the silly one about people in Cornwall having to move to the Midlands to escape the horror of the turbines; I'll do the old phoney one about subsidies". That way, each councillor could deliver his or her own example of nimby doublethink and there would be no unseemly repetition.

One of the falsehoods spewed out by a councillor who should have known better was the hoary old yarn about Denmark.

Denmark, of course, has been a world leader in the development of wind energy. So nimbies in the UK and elsewhere are forever trying to make out that Denmark has failed. The result is the strange assumption that the Danes have somehow or other given up on wind power.

Some have been keen to quote Aase Madsen, Chair of Energy in the Danish Parliament, who branded windpower a "terribly expensive disaster". The problem there is that Madsen, who represented the far-right Dansk Folkeparti, left Danish politics in 2005.

A more up-to-date source would be the new Prime Minister of Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. In October of this year (2011), Thorning-Schmidt announced that wind power would provide 50% of Denmark's electricity by 2020.

Fifty per cent is a lot. The European Commission envisages nearly 50% (actually, 49%) of Europe's electricity coming from wind power by 2050: wind will be the "biggest source of electricity in the bloc by 2050, outstripping both coal and nuclear power." Denmark will be way ahead of the game, though, anticipating a fossil fuel-free electricity generating system by then.

By the end of last year, Denmark's 3,752 megawatt installed capacity meant that wind power was meeting 25% of Denmark's electricity needs. That, it would seem, is set to double over the remainder of this decade. As the Danish Wind Industry Association was proud to announce, "The ambitious targets place Denmark in pole position on renewables among the developed countries".

In 2005 - the year in which the right-winger Aase Madsen left Danish politics - Denmark was sourcing 17.9% of its electricity from wind power (at that time, no other European country had broken the 10% barrier for wind energy). So, somehow or other, during a time when (if the nimbies were to be believed) the Danish people were donning sackcloth and lamenting their poor choice of renewable energy - a "terribly expensive disaster" - the Danes actually managed to increase their wind energy output significantly and are committed to raising it enormously.

Quelle surprise!! While English nimbies (and the councillors who represent them) were kidding themselves and each other that Denmark was a glaring example of a country which tried windpower and didn't like it, the Danes have kept on going for more and more windpower.

When you think that important planning decisions in the UK have been based an a total misunderstanding of how another country is dealing with the issue, you do have to ask yourself some deep and searching questions. Like: how can a council member on a planning committee be so wrong? Where the hell did he get his "facts" about Denmark's supposedly embarrrassing windpower misadventure, and why did he not bother to look into this before confidently misleading the rest of the room? And is such an individual the sort of person who really should be entrusted with important decisions, when he can't tell the difference between a nimby lie and a European wind energy success story?

Could it be that the false "facts" about Danish windpower came - like so much other nonsense - from the anti-wind crazies, the deliquents of VVASP, who exercised mob-rule over their own communities and imposed a blanket ban on the real facts so that only their laughable false facts were heard?

Probably.

And this is just one example of a fake, inaccurate, made-up and demonstrably untrue "fact" being used to justify opposition to a very sensible, desirable and necessary development.

Let's be clear. The real facts are that Denmark remains a world leader in renewable energy, and in windpower in particular, and the notion that the Danes had a change of heart about windpower is just yer typical nimby lie. The Danes are way ahead of us now and they will be for the foreseeable.

Whether or not the nimby nutters and the councillors who strive so hard to please them will accept the facts or keep regurgitating their own gibberish remains to be seen.

AND THE WINNER IS ...

2011-11-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

"Winner of what?" we hear you ask. Well, Winner of the Best Nimby Whopper This Week, of course!

As ever, it's been almost too close to call. But, step forward the Belligerent Bigots of Bridgnorth, who are opposing a community wind energy project with all the contempt for the facts and their fellow man that characterises your average nimby protest.

So, wait for it ... Are you sitting comfortably? Here goes:-

Lorries carrying turbine parts are longer than an aircraft carrier.

We think that a pause for applause is called for.

For a little more information about the project to which these zombies are opposed, and the zombified reasons they have given for their zombified opposition, go to: http://www.sharenergy.coop/crida/thescheme/opposition. If you fancy a giggle, that is.

For now, though, let us just contemplate the VVASP-scale mendacity and idiocy of the award-winning statement above. "Lorries carrying turbine parts are longer than an aircraft carrier." Maybe the cretinous nimbies are hoping that the majority of Britons will soon have forgotten how big an aircraft carrier actually is (three cheers for the defence cuts, eh, folks?). But, for the record, the Ark Royal is 210 metres in length. The lorries which transport turbine parts to windfarm sites are, at most, 30 metres in length.

So, the truly, outrageously INSANE comment of the Bridgnorth protesters really should be revised to read:

Lorries carrying turbine parts are, at most, one-seventh of the length of an aircraft carrier.

But no, in the mad, mad world of the nimby (otherwise known as the Land that Time Forgot), it doesn't matter what you say, just as long as you reinterpret wind energy as the Devil's work.

Let us not imagine that the statement to which we have awarded the Wind of Change prize for nimby Lie of the Week is a rogue occurence. Rather, it is on a par with practically every other nimby pronouncement (and the same goes for the artificial arguments being deployed against other vital infrastructure projects, like HS2) - an absolute lie dressed up as a fact with the intention of fooling those of a nervous disposition.

Because, let's face it, the vision of something longer than an aircraft carrier trying to negotiate your narrow lane or street is quite alarming. Fortunately, it's blatantly untrue, when you think about it. But they don't want you to think about it. They want you to believe it. Crazy, hunh?

(The same bunch really do have a thing for aeroplanes: they're also trying to pretend that wind turbines sound "like an aircraft taking off" - which just shows that these protesters are barmy, and if they're not certifiable, then they are deliberately telling GREAT BIG LIES to their neighbours. So, which is it? Mad or bad? You decide.)

No, the sad fact is that lies are the nimby currency. Here's another rather sad example. We reported recently on those Leicestershire villagers who, plagued by nimby liars, formed some rather bizarre prejudices towards their local windfarm. Then, when the windfarm was installed and started operating, those same villagers were willing to admit that they had been wrong (or, rather, misled by deranged nimby fanatics) - see the article here: http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/wrong-turbine-noise-admit-protesters/story-13713002-detail/story.html.

It's a hugely reassuring, heartwarming piece. Those who had been forced by the usual redfaced crazies into believing all manner of nonsense about a forthcoming windfarm discovered, much to their delight, that having a windfarm nearby is not a pain at all - in fact, it's a pleasure.

The article was accompanied in the same local newspaper by an editorial opinion piece:

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Leicester-Mercury-Opinion-Wind-farm-positive/story-13713025-detail/story.html

In its way, this piece is even better. It's unusual to find a local paper which supports windfarms (they usually pander to the prejudices of their Daily Mail-type readers), but here we find an editor praising those good villagers who have admitted that they were wrong ('misled' - ed.) about the turbines and welcoming this development as having been good for the area and a potential bonus to other communities. Why? Because a community which now knows, and is prepared to admit, that the nimby maniacs who tell lies about windfarms were wrong can only be good for the country as a whole (too late for the muppets of Wychavon DC and their VVASP puppet-masters, of course, but there's still hope for others).

Look at the bottom of that pleasant op-ed piece, though, and you'll see that two of the usual fruitloops latched onto the story instantly, spreading their sickening bile. One of them might seem rather familiar to anyone who's been following the Action for Renewables blog in recent months (www.actionforrenewables.org). Quite simply, a good article appears in which locals explained that they had been wrong to argue so fervently against their proposed windfarm on the basis of false facts and the swivel-eyed nimbies, predictably, lose their rags.

A measure of the contempt in which these nimby nutters hold their fellow man. First, they lie to you. Then, when you see through their lies, they go berserk. The willingness of the Leicestershire villagers to admit that they were wrong (misled!!) is offensive to the fanatical anti-windfarm fringe. Don't those villagers realise that they were meant to obey orders without question, believe whatever idiotic lie they were told (lorries longer than aircraft carriers!) and shut up about the realities of windfarms, never, ever admitting that they're actually quite nice and attractive and harmless and quiet?!?

That's the nimbies for you. People of Bridgnorth, beware! They're lying to you now, and when you find that the "forest of turbines" - well, two actually - turn out to be both charming and harmless, they will shriek and shout at you if you so much as mention that fact to anyone.

In the meantime, anyone spotting a lorry that is longer than an aircraft carrier is warmly encouraged to contact us here at Wind of Change immediately. We'd love to see what it looks like!

IT'S A GAS, GAS, GAS!!!

2011-11-09T10:11:00.000-08:00

One of our regular correspondents has been telling us about a day he spent at a documentary production company back in the 90s. The head of that independent documentary company had previously been in charge of the BBC's Panorama slot, and he freely admitted that the editorial team at Panorama would say: "Right - who are we going to get, this week?"

This week, Panorama "got" renewables. Specifically, offshore windfarms. And boy, have they stirred up a hornet's nest!

First fact: the Panorama programme modelled its argument on an energy report drawn up by KPMG. This report has not been published yet, and there is some doubt as to whether or not it will be (see: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2123108/wind-power-sector-slams-flawed-kpmg-energy-report). The KPMG report seems to have argued that renewables will force energy bills up, leading to increased levels of fuel poverty, and that new nuclear and gas-fired power stations would be cheaper.

This is a very odd claim, and one wonders whether KMPG's findings are in any way related to the fact that it has recently secured lucrative employment advising the Russian gas giant Gazprom on its gas pipeline exporting gas to Western Europe (http://www.globalgastransport.info/archive.php?id=2358). Or, to put it another way, while a company is making money out of a Russian gas pipeline, can that same company be trusted not to try and push gas as the "best" form of electricity generation in the UK?

It's a valid question, because Ofgem currently recognises that no less than 56% of the average consumer's bill is based on the cost of wholesale gas. In other words, half of your energy bills cover the costs of importing the gas which is burned to create electricity. That cost is set to rise, probably dramatically, as international demand for gas grows (in Japan, for example, where their nuclear embarrassment has led to a "dash for gas"). Already, wholesale gas prices for this winter are 40% higher than they were last winter, and those costs will be passed on directly to the consumer.

By contrast, renewables (that's ALL renewables, not just wind) account for no more than £20 per year on the average bill for domestic energy use. The average domestic gas bill, meanwhile, increased by roughly £170 last year. So which is the most expensive source for electricity, at least as far as the consumer is concerned? Well, it's gas, obviously.

Which KPMG are trying to argue is "cheaper" than renewables.

Go figure.

Second fact: the Panorama programme was presented by Tom Heap, who happily describes himself as an "Eco-Sceptic" (http://tomheap.com/?page_id=196). In plain English, this means that Tom Heap does not much care for environmentalists or anyone who is growing increasingly concerned about climate change and our irresponsible attitudes towards sustainability. In this, Heap seems to be at odds with the global scientific consensus and the International Energy Agency, which is now warning that we are rapidly running out of time to deal with the terrifying problems of climate change (http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2123758/world-headed-irreversible-climate-change-iea-warns). In the face of these scientific warnings, Heap's one-sided approach to pressing issues is astonishingly irresponsible.

Usually, the BBC is constrained by the slightly difficult concept of "balance". It is this very "balance" which often confuses important debates - for example, even though the vast majority of scientists agree that climate change is happening and it's probably down to humankind's activities, the rules of "balance" mean that some crackpot has to be interviewed to represent the opposing viewpoint of a tiny and deluded minority.

But Heap didn't bother with balance at all in his Panorama puff-piece for the fossil fuel industries (gas and nuclear). Not one activist, campaigner, expert, representative, lobbyist or scientist was allowed to argue the case for renewables. Not one.

So - a reporter who does like the green movement bases a totally one-sided piece based on a skewed report written (but not yet published) by an accountancy firm with an interest in fossil fuels. In the circumstances, there's hardly any wonder that Heap and the Panorama team did not dare to interview anyone from the pro-renewables side of the argument. If they had, the "reporter" and his silly claims would have been made to look extremely stupid. But, as we've noted elsewhere, the anti-renewables loonies don't like debate. It scares them. If you trying to defend an indefensible position, do not open it up for debate. Simples.

Fortunately, it looks like many individuals, groups and organisations are preparing detailed complaints to the BBC over this outrageously lousy piece of reporting. The question is, will it make the slightest bit of difference? The BBC has colluded in a rather blatant attempt to shackle the UK energy consumer to a generation source that is not renewable, will only go up in cost and will do nothing to help curb global warming - and for whose benefit?

Answer: KPMG and its clients, of course.

DUPLICRACY

2011-11-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

For those who chanced to see it, it was a chilling moment.

January, 2011. Outside a District Council offices in the English Midlands. A lone supporter of a windfarm planning application explains to a local TV news reporter that the planning committee meeting which is about to start will be the first open debate about the proposed windfarm in over two years. An anti-windfarm protest group had actively prevented any form of intelligent, rational, informed debate from taking place. That sole supporter was instantly jeered, heckled and insulted by the crowd of 100+ anti's, all gathered around him in a semi-circle, all wearing their screaming yellow T-shirts and brandishing banners.

It went out live on the lunchtime news. The mob-rule, which residents of the village of Church Lench had complained of, was momentarily visible for the whole of the region to see. Anyone who expressed a divergent opinion was shouted down. There had been no debate. The majority of the protesters were protesting against something they did not understand because their leaders had ruthlessly misinformed them, heightening their ignorance, and had systematically obstructed any real facts from getting through.

That is how the anti-windfarm minority conducts itself. It refuses to allow any form of debate. Rather, it heckles, hectors, harasses and harangues. It doesn't want to discuss. It merely shouts.

This is becoming a major problem. If you visit an anti-windfarm (or anti-renewables) website and try to leave a pro-wind comment, the chances are that the "moderators" of that site will block it. If you visit a pro-wind (or green business) website, you will find that deranged souls have been trolling that site, plastering their nonsensical, unsubstantiated and waywardly inaccurate anti-wind power claims all over it.

One would hope that those who want to get the latest news about developments in the world of renewables would be able to do so without risk of harassment or having to wade through the sick dribblings of the anti-wind loonies and the demented climate change deniers. No such luck. Question those mentalists on their own websites and they'll silence you. But on pro-renewables websites, the same mentalists consider it open season.

This tells us a lot about the state of play in the great windfarm "debate". Keep an eye on what's happening around the world and you'll quickly realise that renewables are the primary energy source of the 21st century. That's what's happening. But there are some very twisted souls who don't want that.

Some are no doubt working for the fossil fuels/nuclear lobbies. Some are just opinionated weirdos who won't shut up. Some got a bee in their bonnets over a local windfarm application and now see it as their mission to oppose wind turbines anywhere and everywhere. Some just read useless right-wing scare-sheets and believe all the rubbish they're told. But they all have one thing in common. They believe that their opinions are right and that no one else should be entitled to one.

It's interesting to see how the nimbies exploit the notion of democracy. If a windfarm is refused planning approval, they declare a victory for "democracy" (regardless of the fact that they themselves are in the minority). Alternatively, should a local council go with the science, the evidence, the clear and pressing need and the majority opinion, these same witless dupes announce that "democracy" has counted for nothing.

Their notion of democracy means one thing and one thing only: it's what they want, irrespective of what everyone else wants.

To achieve their ends, they wilfully undermine all forms of democracy. In the battle of Lenchwick, parish councils were attacked: one was forced to resign and was replaced with representatives of the fraudulent protest group VVASP. Independent parish councillors were warned that they were "not allowed" to express their opinions in public, while the VVASP parish councils could make their feelings known whenever and however they felt like it. Public money was appropriated under false pretences and diverted into a political anti-windfarm campaign. The district council was tricked by these same single-issue "parish councillors" into hiring a noise consultant who regularly works for an anti-windfarm lobbying organisation. Local surveys were grossly misrepresented, and the falsified figures read out at the planning meeting by a pet Tory MP. Lies were published, and when those lies were successfully challenged, more lies were told. Any local resident who went "off message" and pointed out a fact about windfarms - such as, they're not noisy at all - was victimised. Some were threatened.

Lies, falsification, thuggery and mob rule have no place in democracy. You either believe in free speech or you don't. Anti-wind nimbies don't. They'll demand it for themselves, but they'll prevent others from exercising the same rights.

They'll interfere with green websites to spread their deluded nonsense but they won't allow any genuine facts onto their own websites, in spite of their duplicitous claims to be giving out "comprehensive information". They'll tell lies about local supporters, windfarm developers, governments and scientists, but they won't allow the other side of the story to be told. They'll squeal to the local papers and the police if their grotesque protest signs are removed from public property, while at the same time removing and destroying any pro-windfarm signs that might appear in appropriate places.

The whole windfarm debate is not a debate at all. It's a one-sided slanging match conducted by idiots who don't want their neighbours to hear the facts. They make up facts which aren't true and then accuse the other side of lying. They pretend that they are the victims of a multi-national green conspiracy while they victimise their own neighbours for expressing honest opinions. They will purposefully undermine local democracy and then declare a victory for local democracy.

Any country which allows this sort of behaviour to succeed is in big trouble. Naturally, the Tories pander to these lunatics because the majority of them are Tory voters. But in doing so, they are sanctioning the mindless destruction of democracy by an unscrupulous minority of fanatics. Those MPs who thoughtlessly offer support to these fascist mobs and their despicably selfish and deceitful ringleaders are guilty of undermining what little we have left in the way of democracy.

Perhaps the tide is turning. Even climate change skeptics are finally realising that, yes, the Earth is warming up - see here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/opinion/dr-mullers-findings-on-global-warming.html?_r=3

That's a good thing, because it shows that, after too many years of denial, even the skeptics are beginning to acknowledge the truth. The next step is to accept that we need to be implementing strategies to curb the worst effects of global warming. And that means two things: sustainability and renewables.

The arguments against windfarms are fading thick and fast - largely because those arguments were bogus and dishonest in the first place. Anti-windfarm protesters fall into two categories: those who are merely opposed to change in any form whatsoever, and those who have been terrorised by the first bunch into believing a pack of lies about windfarms. We should feel sorry for the latter group and do our best to enlighten them with the evidence. The first bunch are the real enemy, for it is they who systematically destroy local democracy and their own communities in order to force others to obey them.

We have a moral duty to oppose these deluded fanatics at every turn. Okay, so we in the pro-wind camp are not afraid of open debate, while our nimby opponents are terrified of open debate. Okay, so we believe in free speech while the nimby nutters in our midst absolutely oppose it. And okay, so we champion democracy while the anti's seek to destroy it, because that's the only way they can force their petty-minded, greedy, stupid, arrogant views on everybody else.

Because they refuse to play by the rules, we have to be ready, willing and able to stand up to their meaningless lies, their bullying tactics, their evil intentions. They demand free speech for themselves and deny it to everyone else. So we must exercise our rights to free speech in order to come down hard on their crazy insinuations, their false evidence, their scaremongering gibberish.

We can't expect them to debate the issues with us. They don't want a debate. It would make them look foolish. They can only prevail if no one gets to hear the genuine facts.

Which is why we must lose no opportunity to expose them as the unprincipled liars they are, again and again and again. Free speech is a precious thing. We mustn't let them abuse it on order to shut down the debate.

BLOWING OUR OWN TRUMPET

2011-11-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

They're a very smallscale operation, but the good folks at Yes 2 Wind do a very good job. Their website is improving all the time, and if there is one thing that is definitely needed it is a source of reliable information about windfarms. The only hope is those who seek reliable information can get to it before the fanatical disinformation artists of the anti-renewables fringe get to them.

One of the innovations on the Yes 2 Wind website is their "Windypedia" section - a kind of Wikipedia for windfarm-related issues. And we here at Wind of Change are extremely proud to have been involved with this.

Basically, all that time spent trying to set the record straight, after our local nimbies had poisoned the well of truth by spreading so many hysterical lies about windfarms, has in fact been very useful. While it was all too easy for Big Chief Nookie to spread false information about the impact of a windfarm on local property values, those of us with a working conscience had to put a bit more effort into finding out the facts.

All that hard work and research can now be put to good use, so that - with any luck - not quite so many people will be misled by self-serving propagandists.

This link takes you to the Yes 2 Wind page about house prices, with a major contribution from ourselves on the "Expert" page:

http://www.yes2wind.com/faqs/property-values/do-wind-farms-affect-property-values#

This might not be the last word on the subject. There is a university paper currently being drafted which looks at the issue in detail, and its preliminary findings indicate that any impact on house prices is actually caused by mindless nimby idiots and not by actual windfarms. As the report's author has put it, "they're shooting themselves in the foot".

Interesting, isn't it, that during these times of austerity and economic uncertainty, the money-minded maniacs of the anti-windfarm brigade are harming their own finances, as well as those of their all-too trusting neighbours?

PROTESTERS ADMIT THEY WERE WRONG

2011-10-31T07:19:00.000-07:00

It's the same old story. Fanatics trick people into believing that windfarms are "noisy". Those people then put pressure on their local authorities to block windfarm developments. But if the windfarm gets built, those same people soon discover an important fact:

WINDFARMS ARE NOT NOISY!

As these former protesters in Leicestershire are now admitting:

http://thisisleicestershire.co.uk/wrong-turbine-noise-admit-protesters/story-13713002-detail/story.html

We've said it before. Every windfarm that gets installed and starts operating is another challenge to the lies of the fanatical anti-wind brigade.

Noise. It's one of the main reasons Wychavon District Council gave for refusing planning permission for the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm. Next time, we'll just have to point them towards the good people of Leicestershire, who were similarly tricked and misled - only now, they know better.

A CALL TO ARMS

2011-10-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

Hi folks!

Wind of Change has been a bit quiet lately. This is because there was some extremely bad news back in the summer. ScottishPower Renewables decided not to appeal the planning decision which, thanks to the crazen boobs of Wychavon District Council, denied the community a valuable and attractive resource - namely, one rather magnificent windfarm.

The reasons given for the Council's decision were nonsensical. Given that polls consistently show that the majority of Britons support wind power, and that the majority of people in Worcestershire want windfarms, and that the most ardent supporters of wind energy are those who live near windfarms, and given the study commissioned by the local authority that Church Lench was the ideal site for a windfarm, it seemed a little bit strange that the misinformed council members should have decided that a few reckless and dishonest nimbies were right.

In other words, surveys, polls, scientific studies, common sense and the weight of evidence counted for nothing. But the fanatics of VVASP with their falsehoods and hysteria were right.

You could say that four people managed to deprive thousands of cheap, clean, green electricity. They even prevented their neighbours from benefitting through the mini property boom which usually follows on from the installation of a windfarm. They lied, hectored, harrassed, harangued, posed, postured, screamed and shouted. And rather than defending democracy and representing the people, the elected members and the wretched sock-puppet of an MP stood foursquare behind the narrow-minded, the misguided, the brainwashed and the corrupt.

ScottishPower Renewables know that there is a great future for renewables in Scotland, whereas anywhere south of the River Trent instantly turns into a seething cesspit of middle-class nimbies all spouting the same idiotic nonsense whenever a windfarm is mentioned. So, understandably, SPR decided to devote its energies to fighting the good fight in a sane and intelligent country. Okay, so there are a few little Englanders who have infiltrated Scotland and are up to their usual tricks - intolerance, belligerence, arrogance, etc. - but by and large, Scotland is showing the way, while England lags behind, moaning and whinging about everything.

As a measure of how well Scotland is doing, output from windfarms grew by a massive 120% in the first half of this year. At the same time, hydroelectric schemes increased their output by 75%. This meant that, even in an unusually dry and calm year, Scotland's renewable sector met more than THIRTY PER CENT of the total electricity demand from homes and businesses in Scotland.

That deserves a fanfare.

Okay, so what has England been up to in the meantime?

Well, the liars have been out in force, with the result that the notoriously cumbersome planning system is collapsing under the weight of nimby crap. In the UK as a whole, approval rates for new onshore windfarms in the UK fell to 42% in 2010-11. In England, it was as low as 26%, and the process is taking ever longer, thanks to the lies and grubby tactics of the VVASP types. The average amount of time it now takes for a vital energy infrastructure project to get planning approval has risen from 24 to 33 months.

There is no good reason for this. Politicians are largely to blame - like the Tory MP who is currently opposing a windfarm proposal in his Stroud constituency while, up in Northumberland, where he actually lives, he is actively trying to get a windfarm on his own land. That kind of hypocrisy is killing Britain.

There is no sound reason whatsoever for the middle-class anti-wind rebellion in England. There are lots of fake and phoney reasons, mostly to do with the idea that when you buy your nice little place in the country you reserve the right to prevent anything at all from ever happening anywhere nearby. Which is foolish, selfish, undemocratic and plain stupid. But that's nimbies for you.

Wind of Change was going to wait for another developer to come along and challenge the frauds, the fools, the liars and the thugs of our local nimby fraternity. After all, Wychavon will have to live up to its responsibilities some day, and the issue of sustainability and renewables is not going to go away.

Furthermore, even though nimby nutters have managed to make it almost impossible for Britain to meet her obligations and do the right thing for present and future generations, windfarms are still getting planning permission. And every windfarm that starts operating is another indictment of the fraudulent and dishonest methods of the nimbies. They can only get away with pretending that windfarms are "noisy" when the majority of their ovine neighbours don't know anything about windfarms. The more windfarms there are, the more the dimwits will struggle to tell lies about them.

But the figures are appalling, really. The rest of the world is steaming ahead with renewables. In Britain, we're just squabbling about them. There is no debate on the issue - just a bunch of liars on one side trying to confuse, addle, terrify and mislead the public, while the developers of renewables are being prevented from guaranteeing our energy security. The Mad Hatters of the nimby fringe really do want more nuclear accidents, more expensive electricity, coal imports from countries that use child labour, massive payments of taxpayers' money to corrupt regimes, more pollution, more blackouts, more national humiliation ... just so that they need not glimpse a wind turbine from the window of their spare bedroom. How insane is that?

Well, here's the news: the WWF has announced that the UK could secure up to 90% of its electricity needs from renewables by 2030. No need for new nuclear. Wind, solar, wave, tidal could pretty much do it all. Cheaper than the alternatives. Cleaner and healthier than the alternatives. Here's the report:

http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/positive_energy_final_designed.pdf

Yes, it's possible. But it will require a government that puts Britain's interests first, rather than the self-interest of a few idiots who simply can't tell the truth.

So Wind of Change is back. We can't let the lunatic fringe continue to dictate matters of the gravest national importance by constantly spreading lies. We - the patriots of Britain, the lovers of the land, the caring, conscientious ones - must stand and fight these self-centred lunatics. We must oppose the fascist tactics they use to get their way. We must press the case for the common interest, the greater good, the planet and our children.

Let's hold the government to account. And let's counter the lies of the nimbies with the truth.

The battle starts now.

PRESS FREEDOM

2011-07-11T03:22:00.001-07:00

When the prime minister, David Cameron, announced last week that proper regulation of the press in the UK will be introduced in the wake of the phone-hacking scandals, two newspapers got straight on the phone to 10 Downing Street to whinge their heads off about the proposed regulatory body.

Those papers were the Mail and the Telegraph. Why, we might wonder, are those two right-wing papers so opposed to any form of meaningful press regulation?

Well, the Mail was heavily criticised by the Information Commissioner a few years ago for its eagerness to acquire confidential personal information by illegal means. But, more importantly, neither paper wants to see an end to its freedom to publish made-up, inaccurate and grossly misleading stories.

It's no coincidence that both the Mail and the Telegraph have a shameful track record of publishing absolute nonsense concerning green energy, renewables and, in particular, wind power. Even today, Chris Huhne MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, was obliged to respond to a hysterical campaign of lies, launched by those two offending newspaper groups, regarding "green taxes". The Mail and the Telegraph are trying to pretend that the costs of renewable energy are going to lead to a 30% hike in electricity bills. Not true, but why let simple facts get in the way of a story guaranteed to get middle class hackles raised?

Proper regulation of the press is just one of the desirable outcomes of the Murdoch debacle. Basically, the UK has become a country which feeds on lies, false stories and outrageous propaganda. Bring in proper regulation, and it will be difficult for papers like the Mail and the Telegraph to continue their demented anti-renewables stance. At least, they'll have to base their stories on facts, and not total garbage.

That can be nothing but good news for supporters of wind energy. Under the Murdoch reign of terror, it has become commonplace in Britain for he who lies loudest to win the argument - a tactic deployed by nimby groups like VVASP in place of balanced, reasoned and evidence-based campaigns. By indulging in absolutely irresponsible anti-windfarm proganda, right-wing rags have given dishonest nimby groups no end of fake ammunition. That cannot continue once real regulation of the press has been introduced. The nimbies will be deprived of the fountains of lies which have allowed them to mislead themselves, each other and everybody else who will listen to them.

This means that a golden opportunity to turn Britain back into a country in which sensible, sober debate is possible, and in which lies will be exposed for what they are. That can only be a good thing. Starved of their regular drip-feed of anti-windfarm gibberish, groups like VVASP will be forced to base their anti-windfarm arguments on reality, and not the fog of lies published by treacherous and wayward right-wing rags. And once an anti-windfarm campaign is exposed to the clear light of reality, it quickly emerges as selfish, foolish and wrong.

The events of the past week should be welcomed as a big step closer to a Britain governed by facts and rational debate, rather than lies, bullying and thuggish insanity.

Good news for windfarms, then.

WHO'S FOOLING WHO?

2011-07-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

Just yesterday we speculated on the bizarre, topsy-turvy debate of nuclear versus renewables.

How, for instance, certain propagandists are so eager to accuse windfarms of things that, in fact, it is nuclear that is really guilty of.

Some of the more barking anti-wind propagandists go to the extreme of conjuring up a fantastic conspiracy, at the centre of which is those arch-magicians at the Department for Energy and Climate Change. Those are the scary civil servants who are somehow brainwashing some of us into thinking that wind turbines are actually quite beautiful. They're the dangerous cabal behind all windfarm promotion in the UK (and, presumably, beyond). They have got into bed with the windpower industry and are forcing us all to go down the renewable road.

Hmmnn ... Sound realistic to you?

Well here's something. It's not the renewables industry that the British government is conspiring with. It's nuclear. Read this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/30/british-government-plan-play-down-fukushima?CMP=EMCGT_010711&

Once again, we find that all the naughty things the maniacs out there like to attribute to the windpower industry are totally misplaced. It's the nuclear folk who are up to no good.

You really do have to wonder about the motivations of those "useful idiots" and crazed, deluded, utterly dishonest anti-windfarm campaigners. Are they really trying to dispose of a safe, clean, green alternative to the nuclear nightmare?

Looks like it, doesn't it?

LET'S HAVE MORE OF THAT!!

2011-06-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

Something rather odd going on.

"Wind of Change" understands that Mr Jeremy Vine was discussing the plans for the new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK on his BBC Radio 2 lunchtime programme. Our sources inform us that Mr Vine received a number of phonecalls from people living in proximity to the planned reactors.

Overall, everybody seemed rather enthusiastic about the new power stations. Fukushima hadn't bothered them? Oh no - you see, the thing about nuclear is that it's clean!

That's right. 'Clean'. Nuclear is the new renewable.

Meanwhile, any mention of windfarms in the media or on the 'net sets off a mini-Fukushima of its own. Windfarms, it seems, are the new nuclear.

Read a right-wing newspaper or read up online and you'd be forgiven for thinking that windfarms are pretty toxic. They are awful, inexcusable, utterly worthless eyesores that ruin your health. They stop people sleeping at nights, produce absolutely no electricity (except when they produce too much), they catch fire, fall over, frighten the horses and massacre bats by blowing their lungs to pieces.

By one recent estimate, snarled by someone on a website, wind energy is 3 - 15 times as expensive as nuclear. Yes, somebody actually made that claim. Because wind turbines are made out of precious metals and cost money. Nuclear, of course, is practically free.

Unless you count half a million years of hazardous waste. And the massive subsidies. And presumably the uranium doesn't come cheap.

But it's odd, isn't it? Even people who claim to be living near proposed nuclear power stations just can't get enough of them (nuclear's so clean, you see? It's like the new renewable) while anyone mentions windfarms and - whoosh! - there's an army of 'experts' out there ready to pounce.

The world, dear friends, has turned upside down.

This, it turns out, is a rather English thing. Scotland has decided on no more nuclear power stations. Fukushima went slightly pop, there was a meltdown and we're still not quite sure how bad the problem is. In Germany, this prompted a government decision to listen to the public and wind down the whole nuclear power thing. Switzerland came to a similar decision and Italy voted in a referendum to put a stop to their nuclear power industry.

A serious drought and rampant wildfires in the southern United States have caused a few jitters. The Los Alamos nuclear power facility is surrounded by wildfires and many people have been evacuated from the region.

Today, we hear that a nuclear power station in Scotland has had to close down because jellyfish have clogged up its water intake (without water, a nuclear power station is basically the world's biggest dirty bomb waiting to go of: think of your car engine running out of water and overheating, then think of the Apocalypse - that's the idea).

But the thing about nuclear is that it's so reliable. Which is why Britain's newest power station spent most of last year generating absolutely nothing. Nada.

When nuclear power stations suddenly go off-grid - happens quite a lot - then the Grid really has to deal with a sudden loss of electricity input. And then the buggers can be off-line for months.

At least the wind is fairly predictable, and windfarms produce electricity most of the time. And we don't all have to run for the hells in terror if a fire breaks out nearby. And if one does go pop, 80,000 people don't have to move away, possibly forever.

Bringing a nuclear power station back online a few months ago caused a sudden rush in the Grid's input and it a few turbines had to stop turning for a while to compensate for the overload. What happened? The right-wing press tried to make out that it was all the turbines' fault!! That was the occasion when they went from producing 'nothing' to producing 'too much' in one fell swoop. But if you think about it, it was actually the nuclear power station that went straight from producing nothing to producing too much. The wind turbines were just carrying on as normal. So who gets the blame?

There is a serious propaganda war going on out there at the moment. A huge number of lies are being spread about windpower. An enormous stinking great landfill of lies.

At the same time, there's a great deal of subtle and not-so subtle pro-nuclear lobbying going on. Can this really be unconnected to the anti-windfarm gobbledegook that is seemingly everywhere at the moment.

The nuclear industry is in this to win - there's a lot of money at stake here. There's also a completely fake and phoney line being spun out there that wind power relies entirely on government subsidies. Without all those huge and tasty subsidies being thrown about by HMG no one would even think of putting up a wind turbine. It's not true. But there is one industry which has always relied on MASSIVE government subsidies and is eagerly hoping for more. The nuclear industry.

It's so clean, you see? Nuclear, that is. Except that there's nothing much cleaner than the wind (though not around in Fukushima at the moment), and barely any waste at all at the end of the day - a concrete plinth, if that. Instead, say, of an environment of life-threatening danger which will last longer than any human civilisation. Funny - our local raving nimbies claimed that a windfarm of five turbines would KILL THE COUNTRYSIDE and CHANGE THE LANDSCAPE FOR EVER. A windfarm couldn't do that if it tried. A nuclear reactor could.

Sudden shutdowns. Crippling expense. Everlasting lethal waste. Radioactive leaks. Half a million years. Plutonium. Weapons. Terrorism. Natural catastrophe. Jellyfish. Three Mile Island. Chernobyl. Leukemia. Meltdown. Shortages. Yeah, let's have lots more of that.

People who campaign against windfarms are absolute tossers.

THREE CHEERS FOR FINTRY!!!

2011-06-22T12:42:00.000-07:00

There are times when one can get a little weary of hearing all the familiar, nonsensical anti-windfarm blather from self-appointed experts who take their so-called "facts" from nimby groups and the grotesquely misnamed Renewable Energy Foundation.

And then there are those moments when the clouds part and a golden ray of truth shines down.

One of those moments is mentioned here:-

http://www.greenenergynet.com/blog/community-energy-film-wind-change-released

Basically, those wonderfully far-sighted, community-minded people in Fintry have made a video about all the brilliant things they've been able to do because they welcomed their local windfarm and even arranged for one of the turbines to be owned by the community itself.

And the title they've come up with for their video is just superb. Best title ever. We're sure you'll agree.

The sad thing is that anti-windfarm videos spread round nimby groups like a particularly nasty virus, whereas a fantastic pro-windfarm video - based on the experiences of those who actually know what they're talking about - is unlikely to be seen by the majority of people whose heads have been messed with by groups like VVASP and REF. Which really doesn't help matters very much.

But still, always good to know that some real information, and not just the usual nimby lies, is out there.

Meanwhile, here's a two-minute video you might appreciate, if only to prove that, unlike our anti-wind friends, supporters of wind power have a sense of humour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mTLO2F_ERY

Enjoy!!

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

2011-06-13T10:36:00.001-07:00

is eternal vigilance, or so we're told. It's also a matter of understanding what we mean by freedom. In the wrong circumstances, one person's "freedom" is another's enslavement, in which case it isn't freedom at all.

We currently face an epic crisis in this country. It's not just the looming "perfect storm" of peak oil, climate change and ever-decreasing natural resources. It's the crisis of democracy.

In the BBC's "Windfarm Wars" documentary, protesters against the Den Brook Windfarm plans met the news that their legal appeal had failed with the suggestion that democracy had somehow been overruled, and "people power" had counted for nothing.

Of course, that phoney argument depends on a very narrow interpretation of the word "democracy". Such a flexible notion of what democracy might be is typical of the nimby movement. VVASP, for example, proclaimed a triumph for "democracy" when planning permission was refused for the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm. And yet various surveys have shown that the majority of Worcestershire residents want windfarms. So Wychavon's rejection of the windfarm plans was in reality an undemocratic triumph for a very small number of biased, bigoted and brainwashed protesters.

Even at the local level, VVASP had to "reinterpret" the outcome of local polls in order to claim a majority of opinion on their side. Parish council polls showed that a clear minority of local residents were prepared to express opposition to the windfarm plans. The practised liars of VVASP managed to convert the results into an "overwhelming majority" of opposition, and because the new MP for Redditch is so craven and dim it was VVASP's doctored and grossly inaccurate figures that were read out at the planning meeting.

The Den Brook Windfarm saga is even more alarming. There, one man is effectively standing in the way of progress, the common good, the nation's need and the will of the vast majority. Mike Hulme's continued attempts to stall the development have developed into a fanatical obsession. Egged on by the propagandists of the Renewable Energy Foundation (motto: "What's Renewables Got To Do With It?"), Mr Hulme has repeatedly proven that democracy can be totally overturned by a handful of single-minded obsessives.

In such an atmosphere, lies become currency. Real freedom has no need to tell lies. The artificial, right-wing "freedom" of the nimby movement is based on and sustained by lies. It cannot therefore be freedom, except in the narrowest definition of the word. And the hypocritical "freedom" desired by such selfish people is, in reality, the destruction of Britain's best interests.

Elsewhere, democracy is working rather well. Germany, responding to the democratic will of the people, is winding down its nuclear industry. Italy looks set to follow suit - once again, the love of right-wing politicians for the nuclear nightmare has not been shared by the majority of voters.

But in Britain, where a dangerously out-of-control right-wing press continually makes up stupid stories about windfarms, and nutty rural immigrants try their hardest to believe these obviously stupid stories, democracy hangs in the balance.

The majority of Britons want renewables, and windfarms score very highly in most surveys. But a tiny minority, fed on misleading and inaccurate propaganda, don't want them. Which means that the UK is lagging behind (or, at least, England is - Scotland has been infinitely more sensible in this matter).

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. It behoves every single one of us to keep a watchful lookout for the sort of lies regularly published by the Murdoch press and the Daily Heil. As the "Windfarm Wars" documentary proved, if just one man relaxes his guard and begins to believe the lies spun by groups like REF, the outcome is a disaster for true democracy, and the entire country is effectively held to ransom by fanatics.

Freedom includes energy security. For future generations, it will also mean freedom from the worst ravages of climate change.

Which is why anti-windfarm nutcases and their cheerleaders in the fascist press must be recognised as the enemies of freedom. The view from their spare bedroom window is all that matters to these maniacs. And to protect their precious views, all of us must surrender our freedoms. We must accept a twisted form of democracy in which the minority dictates. We must fall for every myth and lie about windpower going, even when the stories don't make sense. We must ignore our consciences, along with scientific evidence and the testimonies of thousands who know what windfarms really are, and campaign against the greater good on behalf of a tiny fringe and their warped fixations.

Basically, we must do as we're told by a crazy bunch of liars, fools and frauds.

Is that what we really want?

THE FAIL STRIKES AGAIN

2011-06-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

A lifetime ago, that august periodical known as the Daily Mail openly declared its admiration for a certain German Chancellor who went on to murder millions, simply because they were Jewish, black, gay, gypsies or disapproved somewhat of his fondness for invading other people's countries.

Treachery seems to run through the sclerotic arteries of the Daily Heil. That's why it regularly pays thirty pieces of silver to a deranged and slavering mutt known as Richard Littlejohn (we think the surname is really a nickname), so that he can unleash his peculiar brand of right-wing drivel on the British public from his home in Florida.

Given the immense problems we face - climate change, peak oil, energy security, etc, etc - it must be considered an act of treason not just to oppose sensible and urgent renewable developments but to shriek gormless lies about them just to keep the nimby readership of the Heil in full tut-tut mode. Which makes Littledick one of the biggest traitors of them all.

His barking rant in today's hate-Mail is typical. First of all, he wants to blame the rising costs of gas and electricity to the consumer entirely on the renewables industry. Forget wholesale prices and global shortages in natural resources, or the fact that Japan, embarrassed over its nuclear catastrophe, is now competing for natural gas imports - let's just pretend shall we that the real problem is windfarms. That's right. Don't attack the problem - blame the solution!

To begin with, this article questions whether Littlehampton and his pack of mongrel journalists are even right about the scale of the price increases:

http://fullfact.org/factchecks/energy_bills_prices_climate_change_taxes-2758

Now, we don't expect Littlebrain to get his facts right. After all, why break the habit of a lifetime? And, of course, his fatuous 'opinion' was instantly flagged up by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a group of nutters, led by Nigel Lawson, which exists to deny climate change, rather as the Renewable Energy Foundation exists to promote the use of fossil fuels.

Even so, Littlehope's grotesque excuse for a journalistic article does what all the right-wing papers do: trots out every false fact and disproven myth it can. Reading that sort of gibberish is very much like being at a nimby meeting, or one of VVASP's notorious rallies. Science and sense go out of the window. Lies are the currency.

Of course Littleman trots out the usual hogwash about windfarms never actually generating electricity (this usually comes in the same breath as the one about them being built only to generate subsidies, but since the Renewables Obligation Certificates are only awarded on the basis of the amount of electricity generated that argument doesn't really stand up). And then he gets all hot under the collar because some windfarm owners were paid money earlier this year to shut down their turbines.

This, said Littlewilly, was because it was an 'especially gusty night' - the windfarms 'were producing too much electricity and there was no capacity to store it.' In other words, in the mad, mad world of Littletwat and his barking believers, windfarms don't produce electricity, except on the one occasion when they produced too much.

You couldn't make it up, could you? Well, actually you could. Or rather, if you were Richard Littlecapacityforrationalthought, you did.

The problem was not that it was an 'especially gusty night' on 5/6 April 2011. The problem was that a thermo-nuclear power plant was being brought online after a rather typical period of outage (the myth that nuclear is reliable simply doesn't stand up, either).

It was not an 'especially gusty night', but it had rained heavily in Scotland, so that the hydroelectric facilities were all working at full pelt. Now, Scotland is a net exporter of electricity (all those windfarms, see?), but that night the main power lines to England went down.

Put simply, Scotland had more electricity on hand than it knew what to do with, couldn't sell it to England because the lines had gone down, and couldn't power down the nuclear reactors because that's a huge palaver.

The simplest, easiest and safest solution was to shut down a few turbines till the problem was over. As ever, the turbines proved to be more reliable than other sources (as with Japan - a nuclear meltdown, but the turbines stayed working as usual). Obviously, having gone to the trouble of installing the turbines, the windfarm owners were due compensation for the electricity that they would not be producing while everyone else flapped about like Keystone Kops.

What Littlewit and his fellow morons in Heil-land and elsewhere keep trying to hide is the fact that, once again, wind turbines saved the day.

But then, with an idiot like Littlejohn, working for a paper of traitors, what do you really expect?

THE PRIMROSE PATH

2011-05-31T08:04:00.000-07:00

With good news often comes bad. And so, closely following Germany's announcement that nuclear power is simply too dangerous to continue with, we now hear from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2010 reached a higher level than at any other time in history.

The global economic crisis had brought a slight dip in carbon emissions, but emissions increased globally by 5% last year, making it unlikely that governments will hit their internationally-agreed targets for reductions in emissions.

As Private Frazer would have said, "We're all doomed! Doomed!"

Of course, we are all responsible for humanity's failure to control its historic levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The situation was aptly summarised by one of the youngsters in the Lenches who, having listened too much to the wayward nonsense spouted by VVASP, argued that the government should be encouraging us to reduce energy consumption. And so it should. And so it has been. For years. The fact that a local teenager was unaware of this indicates the scale of the problem. We all know we should be reducing our demands, and yet few of us can be bothered to do so. We expect the government to tell us these things - and then completely ignore the messages. Worse, we whine, whinge and moan about the government telling us what to do, and then pretend that they never told us in the first place.

We stand at an interesting moment in time. Future generations will be entitled to wonder how he responded to the growing evidence of a monumental crisis. Did we react reasonably and responsibly, in a forward-thinking and enlightened way? Or did we stick our fingers in our ears and go "La, la, la, la, I can't hear you"?

More to the point, when practical, attractive, sensible and beneficial solutions were proposed, did we embrace them or did we tell loud lies about them, plastering placards over anything that doesn't move and organising campaigns of disgraceful dishonesty?

Did we think about those who are to come, or did we get trapped in our own narrow vision? Did we let our petty prejudices and privileges dictate the shape of the future?

VVASP did - and dozens of evil groups just like them. They all regurgitate the same mindless propaganda, they all quote the same dodgy sources, and they all stand in the way of progress that is not only desirable, it is urgently-needed and ultimately inevitable.

Returning to the BBC's "Windfarm Wars". As Roger pointed out in a comment to yesterday's post, the figure at the centre of the anti-Den Brook windfarm movement is losing the sympathy that might have been extended towards him earlier in the series.

His case is far from unique. When a windfarm development is first proposed, there will be those who overreact with a display of kneejerk nimbyism. It's got nothing to do with a windfarm as such - it's just that these people are fanatically selfish, self-centred, and live in a strange world, believing that things should never change (not that they've now got what they want).

Others will be slower to leap onto the nimby bandwagon. We saw that locally with the Lenchwick Windfarm proposals. Some in the area weren't particularly bothered - until something or someone got to them.

This demonstrates the insidious nature of nimby protests. They'll find your weak spot and exploit it. It might be the value of your property. Regardless of the fact that the evidence is quite clear - houses near windfarms tend to go up in value quicker than those elsewhere - the evil-minded bastards of your local nimby group will lie to you, telling you that your property will be worth nothing when the windfarm goes up.

Noise is perhaps a bigger issue. Even the worst-worst case scenario proposed by unbalanced noise "experts" (mentioning no names) would be no worse than installing a modern domestic fridge-freezer unit at the bottom of the garden of the nearest property to the windfarm and then standing in your bedroom listening for the 'noise'. But the nimbies are liars, one and all, and they'll tell you that it will be "deafening".

We now know that Mike - the "Windfarm Wars" most confused character - was being manipulated by the fraudulent operatives of REF. He was worried about noise. He could have approached people who actually live near windfarms - not just the only couple ever to have claimed to have been forced out of their home by the proximity of the windfarm (their parents remained in the house, they seem to be spending an awful lot of time there themselves, and they reckoned they could "hear" the windfarm when it wasn't even operational - make of that what you will).

Up and down the country, communities have grown to love their local windfarms. Did the bewildered Mike go to visit any of these communities? No. He went where REF told him to go, and therefore got an astonishingly warped idea of what windfarms are. The first couple he spent time with didn't even have a wind turbine anywhere near their house - how was that visit meant to clear up his concerns?

Isn't it better to visit windfarms which do exist, and to talk to as many people nearby as possible, than to go to places where there aren't any windfarms yet because a jumped-up bunch of mindless nimbies have deployed every shocking tactic they can come up with to avoid any change to "their" view.

(Interesting moment when Mike said he wanted to strangle the windfarm developer when she pointed out to him, quite rightly, that he didn't own the view. But then, nimbies always respond to genuine facts with demented outrage and speckles of sputum.)

Mike is symptomatic of what happens when sick nimby propaganda goes unopposed. A fundamentally sound and sensible individual goes a bit insane and starts believing whatever the frauds and fools want him to believe.

He will, sadly, become one of history's enemies of the people. He preferred lies and hearsay to facts and the future.

Carbon emissions are rising. And it's people like him - and the dangerously irresponsible maniacs of the nimby movement - who are most to blame. They did everything in their power to oppose the solution. Because it might spoil their view, or because they might catch the occasional sound of a turbine if they happened to venture a little closer to the source.

We must make sure that future generations are aware of this. There were some of us who tried to leave the world a better, cleaner, safer place. And then there were the acronyms: VVASP, REF, and all the other enemies of mankind. To them, the "view" they did not own was more important than everything and everybody else. It was worth betraying your neighbours, your children and your grandchildren for.

Let that never be forgotten.

HOPE

2011-05-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

There are times when we here at Wind of Change struggle to keep up with the lies, fanaticism and chronic inconsistency of the anti-windpower movement.

Take Frieda Hughes, famous only for being the daughter of a poet laureate, and her fatuous piece in one of the Murdoch rags the other week. Quoting a couple of ignorant workmen who visited her home, Hughes was happy to conclude that windfarms don't really work and are only there as subsidy-magnets erected by huge corporations.

The subsidy argument is probably one of the most tiresome of those advanced by the witless drones of the nimby lobby. That they continue to do so just goes to show that they are either incapable or unwilling to get their heads round the basic facts of the Renewables Obligation Certificates.

Unlike nuclear, which has always received colossal subsidies from governments (why don't the nimbies complain about that???), the renewables industry only receives subsidies on the amounts of renewable electricity that are actually generated.

The nimbies - being fundamentally fraudulent and dishonest - like to pretend that the government is throwing cash at electricity companies to put up turbines where they won't generate electricity. That is an argument of stupendous mindlessness, because turbines which don't generate electricity don't receive subsidies.

Let's be honest, hunh? Any electricity firm that was only interested in government subsidies would not bother with renewables, which tend to be delayed by red-faced nimby liars for as long as the courts will allow. No - they'd go nuclear, where the real subsidies are.

But twits like Frieda Hughes refuse to recognise this. And so do all the other swivel-eyed nimbies who voted for Thatcher and the privatisation of the utilities and who now go all frothy-mouthed and weird at the thought of privatised electricity companies making money.

ARE THESE PEOPLE COMPLETELY INSANE?

Yes.

Frieda Hughes also claims to have "reams" of information which "proves" that windfarms don't work. Surprisingly, she ignored all that in order to quote some bloke who did a bit of work at her house. Less surprisingly, this mass of misleading information comes from those propagandists who call themselves the Renewable Energy Foundation.

The BBC documentary "Windfarm Wars" recently let on that one poor chap who didn't quite understand the noise issue relating to turbines was elbowed into taking legal action by the REF. And then, lo and behold, the same bewildered individual met a couple who had resorted to the usual phoney arguments in order to oppose a couple of turbines in Norfolk. And guess what? After years of nimby campaigning, one half of the said couple had become a director of REF!!!

So when nitwits like Frieda Hughes quote the Renewable Energy Foundation as a "reliable" source of information they conveniently overlook the fact that REF was set up by, funded by and continues to employ passionate (i.e. self-serving) anti-windfarm goons!

Another usual suspect featured in the BBC documentary was self-styled acoustics expert, Mike Stigwood. He spends most of his time getting money from moronic nimby groups to try a stop windfarms which might be visible from some directions, and he has pioneered one or two unorthodox ways of quantifying the noise which windfarms don't make.

Sadly, Wychavon District Council were tricked by our local nimby nutters into hiring Mike Stigwood, with the result that wholly inaccurate claims were made about noise, much to the satisfaction of the loonies in VVASP and very much to the detriment of everyone's best interests.

For a brief moment, then, the BBC "Windfarm Wars" documentary showed the greatest obstacles towards an intelligent, harmless and sustainable energy future in England - a handful of warped nimbies and their pet noise "expert".

So it is with no small pleasure and delight that we report on the latest news from Germany. Currently, about 23% of Germany's electricity is produced by non-renewable, massively unreliable and breathtakingly dangerous nuclear power stations.

All of those nuclear power stations - ALL of them - will be phased out in Germany by 2022. The Germans have finally recognised that we have a collective responsibility to wise up and not create enormous everlasting timebombs of hazardous waste. Click here for more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13592208

Looks like Germany will be going renewable. Just like Scotland, which has pledged to be 100% renewable by 2020.

So where does that leave Little England? Probably all grovelling about in the REF dirt with Frieda Hughes and the rest of the bottom-feeders.

WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT

2011-05-25T12:26:00.001-07:00

Now here's an interesting conundrum for our elected representatives to figure out.

The results of the Worcestershire Viewpoint Survey (November 2010) have just been published. They include a whole section on renewables.

Click here to see the full report (section 6.9, starting on page 45, is the part we're on about):

http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/cms/pdf/110301%20Worcestershire%20Viewpoint%20November%202010%20Analysis.pdf

With one notable and well-informed exception, the district councillors responsible for making planning decisions in Wychavon lined up to pour out mounds of nonsensical bilge regarding the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm back in January. The debate was so unenlightened you could have been forgiven for wondering what century you were in. The councillors had allowed themselves to be swayed by the vile, outrageous propaganda and thuggery of VVASP into making a host of stupid anti-windfarm comments.

What the Worcestershire Viewpoint survey shows, however, is that the majority of people in the county are very much IN FAVOUR of windfarms and other large-scale renewable energy developments.

In fact, a staggering 28% of Worcestershire residents seem to "STRONGLY SUPPORT" the development of windfarms in the county. That's right: 28% expressing "STRONG SUPPORT".

As opposed to a measly 8% who are "STRONGLY OPPOSED".

Moving towards the centre ground, no less than 33% - a third of Worcestershire residents - merely "SUPPORT" the development of windfarms here. Just 10% "OPPOSE" such developments.

16% of residents don't really care either way and 5% don't know what they think.

So, let's put all that into context:

An incredible SIXTY-ONE PER CENT (61%) of people in Worcestershire either support or strongly support the development of large-scale windfarms in the county.

A pathetic EIGHTEEN PER CENT (18%) are opposed (just 8% being 'strongly' opposed).

There are even more people (21%) who either don't know or don't care than there are against.

Shouldn't these figures give the antediluvian and oh-so-easily-manipulated district councillors of Wychavon something to think about? Do they really, truly, honestly believe that they were serving the interests of their constitutents, their district, their county and future generations by barking out all the amazing drivel they'd been told to say by the frauds of VVASP?

Or might they begin to wonder whether the fact that the clear majority of people in Worcestershire want to see windfarms generating clean, green energy in their county means that councillors should stop listening to demented, self-serving nimbies and do what the majority of their voters want, for a change?

After all, democracy doesn't exist just to be bent to the will of a few, VVASP-style. It exists for everyone. It bases its decisions on what the majority wants. And the majority in Worcestershire wants windfarms.

Interestingly, 54% of those surveyed also wanted local public services to "Provide guidance on the benefits and impacts of renewable energy". Which is precisely what Wychavon District Council failed to do. They were too busy reading crazy emails from VVASP and avoiding their responsibilities.

Maybe now they'll think again.

WINDFARM WATERWORKS

2011-05-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

First, some good news of sorts. Pressure continues to build on the so-called Renewable Energy Foundation to come clean.

We've encountered the Renewable Energy Foundation previously in these blog pages. The REF is symptomatic of the fatuous anti-windfarm movement in the UK, in that it claims to be one thing when it is quite transparently something else altogether (click here for a recent Guardian piece on the shady organisation: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2011/may/18/renewable-energy-foundation-wind-farm)

Of course, like others who protest against windfarms, the REF pretend that they are not against windfarms as such. No, they just continually brief maniacal right-wing newspapers against onshore wind energy. But they're not against windfarms. No sirree.

Last week's episode of "Windfarm Wars", the BBC documentary covering the seven-year battle over the Den Brook windfarm in Devon, showed the REF in their true colours. One of their spokespersons attended the public inquiry into the Den Brook proposals in order to argue against the windfarm.

Makes you wonder which windfarms the REF might actually be in favour of, doesn't it? They say that they're not against windfarms, and yet they're funded by anti-windfarm fanatics and all they ever do is campaign against windfarms.

If that sounds duplicitous and dishonest, it's simply in keeping with the anti-windfarm lunatic fringe in the UK. Basically, they don't have any good, honest, reasonable arguments against windfarms, so they make up silly, dishonest and fraudulent ones.

As it happens, the BBC's documentary series is doing a reasonable job of showing up the idiocy of the anti-windfarm movement. Into the battle last week waded a journalist, who had recently moved to the Den Brook area. Showing the usual disregard for the facts, Zoe Kenyon abused her journalistic privileges by writing an astonishingly stupid piece. It was she who made the claim that windfarms pose a danger to children (oh? how come, exactly?) and proved that she really hadn't even tried to get to grips with the issues. And then she turned out to be a coward, as well as a fool, by refusing to discuss the cretinous claims she had made with a local farmer.

Like the other anti-windfarm protesters in her adopted area, Kenyon demonstrated a gross inability to be fair, unbiased, honest and realistic. As the Den Brook campaign moved into its public inquiry phase, protesters lined up to address the planning inspector and to burst into tears because they were so fond of the landscape.

To be honest, the landscape around the area in question was hardly special, definitely not 'spectular' and, like so many other parts of the country, manifestly not 'unspoilt'. So why did these frauds take it in turns to weep crocodile tears and basically have a childish tantrum in front of the planning inspector?

The answer gets to the heart of the anti-windfarm debate. It's got nothing to do with preserving the landscape. The landscape, whether 'spectacular' and 'unspoilt' or not, will still be there when the turbines go up, while they generate electricity, and long after the windfarm's days are over.

No, the reason these people were indulging in hysterics and phoney tears in the hope of swaying the inspector - rather like children hoping that some well-timed blubbing will get them what they want - has got everything to do with privilege.

The protesters had almost all moved into the area in recent years. They had bought themselves a place in the country - qua Kenyon - and, like our own local maniacs, genuinely seem to believe that, by doing so, they had bought the whole valley. So nothing is ever allowed to change in the slightest degree as long as they're looking at it.

The claim that they are trying to 'protect' an 'unspoilt' landscape is so bogus it's laughable. What they're trying to protect is nothing more than their own sense of superiority. Because they bought a place in the country, they honestly believe that they are better than other people, and that they can be excused having a windfarm nearby because they think they own the view.

The debate therefore concerns those who believe in collective responsibility versus those who can think of nothing but themselves. The latter have to bend over backwards to deny the realities of climate change and to pretend that windfarms 'don't work' - both utterly untenable positions, but let's not expect logical consistency and grown-up arguments from the anti-windfarm brigade.

What this means is that these people, along with their pet journos and propagandists in the REF, are willing to betray everything and everybody, to sell us all, not to mention future generations, downriver in defence of their own petty privileges.

They won't lose anything from having a windfarm in the area (especially those ludicruous hoteliers who convinced themselves, probably thanks to some deeply dishonest VVASP-style campaigners, that their business and their lives would be 'ruined' by the windfarm), and the likelihood is that they will all benefit financially.

But it's not about energy security, sustainability, or the future of the planet, is it? No, it's about those who on principal hate anything that benefits others, those who think that having a house in the country means that you own the country, those who want our farmers to go out of business just so that they can look out over a field and call it 'unspoilt', those who react to sensible, positive, harmless developments by turning on the artificial tears.

Fortunately, the planning inspector was intelligent enough to see through these hysterical displays of fake emotion.

Let's suppose that the Lenchwick Windfarm case goes to appeal. Anyone want to lay bets on how many members of VVASP will breakdown in tears at the planning inquiry as they struggle to defend something they don't own against something that will do no harm?

After all, if your moronic anti-windfarm myths won't do the job, what's left to try but a strategic emotional breakdown? At least it makes you look like you really care. And maybe the adults will fall for it, against their better judgement. You never know.

HELLO ROGER

2011-05-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

Well, would you Adam and Eve it? This, as it happens, is the 250th Wind of Change blogpost.

Yes, folks, in the two years that this blog has been doing its best to keep you up-to-date on the naughty behaviour of the anti-wind nimbies of VVASP, the progress of the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm, and the case for renewables in general, we have notched up 250 blogposts! Astounding!

It would perhaps be relevant to summarise the first two-and-a-half years of the battle for Lenchwick, but in answer to Roger's recent comment we might simply state that we are currently waiting to hear whether ScottishPower Renewables' legal team recommend appealing against the decision by Wychavon district councillors to deny planning permission for the windfarm on the slender grounds that a few hysterics, busybodies and thugs don't want it.

If SPR do decide to appeal - and let's hope that they do, partly because the planning inspectorate is less easy to corrupt with craven lies than a district council, and partly because the self-serving peddlers of those idiotic lies really do deserve to be exposed for the specimens they are - and if the Den Brook case is anything to go by, we in the Lenchwick area can look forward to many more months of misleading drivel and two-faced hogwash from VVASP.

As Roger pointed out, the antis of Den Brook seemed rather mild in comparison with our local loons (although the television documentary showed very little of the anti campaign, and is yet to broadcast the sort of nonsense that nimbies rely on to fool themselves and others). The hypocrisy of the nimbies over their placards, though, was familiar enough - just like VVASP, the nimby nutters of Den Brook defaced and destroyed other people's signs and then cried foul wen it happened to them.

Fortunately, though, the sort of vandalism inflicted on the wind-measuring mast at Den Brook (on private land!) was not, to the best of our knowledge, repeated at Lenchwick. Seems that our local hoodlums were content to betray their neighbours and their children's futures but to limit the amount of criminal damage they actually committed.

Anyway, we must wait and see whether there will be a new phase yet in the war between truth and lies. To be honest, ScottishPower Renewables might be considering the fact that Scotland is going for 100% of its energy from renewables - how enlightened is that? - and might therefore be tempted to tell the frauds of Middle England to go boil their heads. Scotland can then generate all its energy needs in sustainable ways while we here in England wait for our lights to go out because we are surrounded by morons who believe what they read in right-wing newspapers. Either which way, it looks like SPR will have the last laugh.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Sustainable Energy has published an extremely useful document addressing "public concerns about wind power". As Den Brook, Lenchwick and countless other places have proved, it only takes a few liars to confuse all the issues relating to wind power. A more grown-up and civilised society would engage in reasoned debate about our energy future - the very thing that VVASP did everything in its power to prevent. Naturally, when many ordinary people are bombarded by witless nonsense by self-centred nimbies, the realities of the matter are likely to get rather muddled.

The Centre for Sustainable Energy has therefore prepared a detailed, factual, measured and scientific report on the various claims made by anti-wind loonies. This could prove to be a vital resource, because all too often in these situations reliable information is lacking (or is just blown out of the water by the crazy talk of the likes of VVASP).

The CSE report can be downloaded here:

http://www.cse.org.uk/downloads/file/common_concerns_about_wind_power.pdf

(or go here for the relevant web page: http://www.cse.org.uk/news/view/1535)

If nothing else, this eminently sensible and honest report will go some way towards showing up the antis as the congenital liars so many of them are. By refusing to allow local people to find out the real facts, and by abusing and threatening those who did, VVASP made sure that only their insane propaganda got out there. Even the local council failed in its obligation to provide accurate and reliable information about renewables, leading to a bizarre situation in which the ignorant and deluded took it upon themselves to "educate" their district councillors.

Now, while protest groups might splash out on remaindered copies of "The Wind Farm Scam", a biased and inaccurate survey of the issues relating to windfarms, in order to brainwash their elected representatives, those who have more than a nodding acquaintance with common sense can find out some of the answers to their concerns.

It's a step forward, no doubt. Just one more step on the road towards a renewable and sustainable future, and a large nail in the coffin of the demented anti-windfarm fringe.

LUDDITES

2011-05-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

At any time of major change there will be those desperately trying to turn back the clock. It happened at the dawn of the industrial era and it's happening now, as we move into a post-industrial future.

Those who opposed the development of machinery were sometimes called Luddites. Today, the Luddites are those who loudly oppose developments which, while doing little if any harm, will benefit many, not just now but well into the future.

It could be argued that the original Luddites were trying to protect their jobs and livelihoods. Not so today's bunch. They're only trying to protect certain vague privileges. As last night's first episode of the BBC documentary series "Windfarm Wars" made clear.

Basically, certain people who move into country areas genuinely do seem to believe that they have bought the whole valley. Those who've always lived there don't seem to object to sensitive and sensible renewables developments.

Last night's programme was like a big case of deja vu for anyone who has had to put up with the yobbish behaviour of anti-windfarm protesters. Of course, the battle for the Den Brook Wind Farm went on for about seven years, and the protesters there were in some ways making things up as they went along (i.e., creating placards which read: 'Save Den Brook Valley' - but from what, and for whom?)

The difference in Lenchwick is that our local hoodlums only had to google what other disreputable nimby groups had said. So, in return for no actual research, VVASP had a clutch of ready-made dishonest arguments with which to mislead themselves, each other and the local council.

The council's deliberations in the Den Brook case were also tiresomely familiar. Today, we know a little better, of course - the UN's International Panel on Climate Change, for example, has declared that the entire world could be powered by renewables; Germany and Japan have gone off the nuclear dream and Scotland's aiming for 100% renewables by the end of this decade. But back in the early years of the Den Brook campaign it was still possible, apparently, for dimwits to convince themselves that wind turbines don't really produce electricity.

And then there was the noise issue - that idiotic canard: the one that irresponsible groups like VVASP, which are really only platforms for the self-interested, self-righteous and self-important to sound off from; the lousy, discredited argument that twits like to keep repeating on the grounds that, while it may not be true, if you say it often enough a few fatheads will believe you.

The sillier arguments haven't yet appeared in the Den Brook debacle. Next week, apparently, a woman will be heard shrieking that wind turbines pose a danger to children, although she is incapable of explaining how. VVASP took a more sly and despicable approach by merely hinting that the Lenchwick Windfarm might, in some unlikely and unscientific way, cause problems for the local primary school.

But then, most of VVASP's ratfink claims were either entirely bogus or simply unfounded "hints" that it might all turn out to be terrible. A sort of, "It'll be too late once the turbines are up, so better to alarm ourselves and everybody else with unrealistic scenarios than to consider the science, the reality, and the pressing need for these things."

The idiocy of these moronic anti-windfarm campaigns is that nobody wins. Okay, a bunch of selfish fools might get to postpone a vital, healthy and rewarding development for a few years - although in the process they are forced to lie to everybody and completely destroy their local community because what they want is more important than what everybody else needs.

So they use every atrocious Tory-party tactic to make sure that no one benefits, at least until common sense prevails, but that usually comes only after years of viciousness, dishonesty and pathological foolishness, and an awful lot of money being wasted, just so that these enemies of the people get to bask in their own sense of self-importance.

At the risk of spoiling the ending, we can tell you that Den Brook Wind Farm got the final go-ahead last year, after yet another craven attempt to stop it was rejected by the High Court. So - seven years of lies got the protesters nowhere. But they did manage to delay a project which, while doing no harm, would power at least half of the homes in the district, as well as yielding over £30,000 per annum for a community fund and giving a local farmer a much-needed additional income.

We could say, then, that in the end, everyone (or almost everyone) won. Only the pompous, hard-faced and utterly untrustworthy blackguards of the anti-windfarm protest lost out, although in reality they lost nothing but their reputations. But the cost overall was huge - and let's be clear: none of the arguments advanced by the antis had any substance, so all that time and money wasted was wasted for no good reason whatsoever.

Let's hope the same will one day be said of Lenchwick. After a long, anti-social, dishonest and despicable campaign, the leaders of VVASP will see their reputations in tatters. They lied, and they will be held to account for that. But everybody else will finally get to enjoy the benefits of a windfarm.

And roll on next week's episode. It's high time the nation as a whole got to see how sick and how silly anti-windfarm protests tend to be.

HERE WE GO

2011-05-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

And so we brace ourselves for the upcoming BBC documentary, "The Wind Farm Wars". Expect to be reminded of all the lies and lunacy that anti-windfarm protesters use to justify their insane short-sightedness, selfishness and downright stupidity.

The four-part documentary series was recently postponed for "legal reasons". Just a guess, but if things panned out anything like they did here in Worcestershire, certain local councillors would have made total idiots of themselves, repeating the lies of demented groups like VVASP and proving how easy it is for a bunch of jumped-up, red-faced, utterly dishonest nimbies to hijack democracy. And then, with the local elections coming up, certain councillors didn't want the entire country to know how happily they'll lie on behalf of their constituents (like certain MPs, who mindlessly trot out nimby figures without bothering to check them first - tut, tut, tut!). Anyway, like we said - just a guess.

Meanwhile, of course, the Japanese are unhappy about their government's reliance on nuclear power, so the Japanese prime minister has promised a massive investment in renewables.

Of course, if he talked to some of our homegrown British maniacs, be they dangerously berserk right-wing pundits or the morons who read their bilge, he might get the impression that "renewables don't work". Yep. In fact, they don't work so much that Alex Salmond promised that Scotland would produce all its energy (that's right, 100%) from renewables by 2020 - and this was before he won a landslide for the SNP! Maybe renewables work fine just about everywhere, except in certain middle-class parts of England, where talking crap is all the rage.

As usual, the cretinous and petty-minded Little Englanders are out-of-touch, wrong on all counts but still willing to lie their heads off to get their way. We all know that nuclear power is a dangerous thing (anyone see that documentary a week or two about Finland and that enormous hole in the ground they've been digging so that they'll have somewhere to hide their nuclear waste for the next 100,000 years?) But faced with contributing to a clean, green energy future at absolutely no cost to themselves, fools and frauds will suddenly discover a deep-seated belief in nuclear, or coal, or steam, or dung, or ANYTHING, just as long as they can stop a harmless windfarm happening.

Thanks to one of our good friends, you can do your bit to remind people that nuclear is a nightmare (in contrast to renewables, which are wonderful). The image above shows the completed car sticker that you can get simply by contacting Mike. Here's what he says:

"Worst Case" Nuclear Car Stickers - 20 cm x 6 cm in size.
All enquiries to Mike at nuclear@meltdownrisk4.me.uk.
Costs are £2 (two pounds) per sticker (includes post + package),
or £10 (ten pounds) for SIX stickers (incl. p+p).
Ideally, everyone should buy six,
keeping the free one for themselves and passing on
or selling the remaining five.

So, don't hang about. The Green Party has already endorsed these fantastic stickers. Caroline Lucas MP has one.

Now there's an MP you can trust - not like those self-serving toads who support dishonest and deluded anti-windfarm protesters.

NUCLEAR? R U KIDDING?

2011-04-25T03:59:00.000-07:00

Sorry, folks. Things have been a bit quiet lately, one way or another. There's still news coming in, of course. Those out there who blindly support nuclear power, arguing that it is the sensible alternative to renewables, might like to know that even before its horrendous accident, the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan was considerably less reliable that the German wind power industry. It's true: for years, Germany's burgeoning wind power industry was achieving solid and rising outputs while Fukushima was all over the place. And then came the tsunami.

This is the real problem with all those dupes of the nuclear industry who claim endlessly, boringly and woefully inaccurately that a) wind power is just too unreliable, what with the variability of wind and all, and b) nuclear isn't unreliable (or hazardous, or anything like that) and is obviously so much cheaper than wind, and so we should just go nuclear and forget about renewables altogether (be especially wary of all those 'experts' out there who try to make out that nuclear is 'renewable' - it isn't!).

The simple fact (or, as bogus groups of anti-everything frauds like VVASP would put it, FACT) is that nuclear is amazingly unreliable, massively expensive, and when it goes wrong ... well, what more do we need to say? Interesting that, while the Fukushima nuclear plant was knocked out of service, none of Japan's wind turbines went wrong. So which is the safer, greener, more reliable option?

At the top of this post you'll see an image - basically, a work-in-progress - for a car sticker which one of our regular contributors is creating. If anyone is interested in ordering one (or more) for themselves, please contact us at the usual email address (wind-in-the-orchard@hotmail.com). It currently looks like these stickers will be in colour and will retail at about £2.50 each.

Keep reminding those anti-wind hoodlums and numbskulls out there that the option they'd prefer (as long as they don't have to live anywhere near it) - nuclear - is more than dangerous, less than reliable, and, like, well stupid compared with lovely clean, green wind.

Happy Easter, everybody!

TOO COSTLY?

2011-03-17T06:42:00.000-07:00

Recently, we reported on a visit to a working windfarm which included the chance to stand inside a turbine mast. The conclusion of which was that anyone who says windfarms are noisy is lying their head off for some strange reason of their own.

Windfarms are not noisy. FACT.

So now we turn our attention to another fatuous claim made by that bunch of serial liars known as VVASP, and all the other clone groups set up to oppose perfectly sensible, clean, safe, quiet and elegant windfarm developments.

VVASP, with their usual lack of any regard for reality, claimed that, in addition to being 'TOO NOISY' (duh!!!) were also 'TOO COSTLY'. One might be entitled to enquire, 'On what grounds? Too costly compared with, what, nuclear?'

(Funny how VVASP, who were so keen to find photos of turbines on fire, don't seem so keen on publicising photos of the nuclear reactor explosions in Japan on their website.)

What VVASP meant, or thought they meant, is that windfarms produce expensive electricity. What else could they have meant? No one in the Lenchwick area was going to be paying for the turbines, and in fact the windfarm would bring in a fair amount of investment to the district, boosting property prices, paying rent to the landowners and attracting visitors. So what VVASP must have been trying to get away with saying is that windfarms themselves are somehow more expensive than other forms of electricity generation.

Not so. A study recently published by Eirgrid, the Irish grid operator and SEAI (the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland) came to a fascinating conclusion. Looking closely at current wholesale prices in the Irish electricity system, the report found that wind energy actually lowered wholesale prices by some 70 million euros. That almost entirely cancels out any subsidies and other costs involved in renewable energy generation. And with fossil fuel prices going through the roof, it's nothing but good news. Wind energy is remarkably cheap, compared with other sources, and it's getting comparatively cheaper all the time.

So the lesson is, windfarms produce inexpensive energy. Once again, VVASP have proven that either they don't know what they're on about, or they were deliberately misleading absolutely everybody by broadcasting the exact opposite of the truth.

Ah, but then again, maybe VVASP wanted us all to think that windfarms are costly in terms of jobs. After all, that's the message that the right-wing fundamentalists (or is that just 'mentalists'?) and climate change deniers at the Telegraph have been trying to get across this week.

Consultants at the Scottish firm Verso Economics had issued a report which claimed that the huge investment being made by the Scottish Executive in renewables was costing jobs. Or, rather, it didn't. What it said was that the subsidies which Scotland was making available for renewable energy generation was taking money away from other parts of the economy. So the idiots and fanatics at the Telegraph, including arch anti-climate change demagogue James Delingpole, were able to make out that, in addition to having been 'a disaster in Germany, Denmark and Spain' (lies, lies, lies), the renewables industry was costing the UK a terrifying number of jobs, with every 'green' job created destroying some 3.7 jobs elsewhere.

Amazing! It would be a cold day in hell when the Telegraph, so intent on spooking Middle England with its demented anti-windfarm stories, campaigned for public money to be used in job creation schemes - even though that's precisely what its utterly misleading and untruthful claims about renewables and jobs seems to be saying. Basically, they argued that putting money into renewable energy projects, as Scotland has been doing so enthusiastically and so successfully, took that (public) money away from other schemes which might - just might - create more jobs. The Telegraph, for once in its existence, really was advocating the use of public money to create jobs, just as long as they're not 'green' jobs.

Well, heigh-ho - proof that the Telegraph and its bonkers climate change deniers could not have been more wide of the mark also emerged this week. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics revealed that unemployment has continued to rise in the UK, going up by 2,000 in Wales, 4,000 in Northern Ireland and a shocking 38,000 in England. The only part of the UK to have bucked that trend is Scotland, where unemployment DROPPED by 16,000.

Somehow or other, while investing in renewable energy projects (which according to the right-wing maniacs cost jobs) Scotland has managed to reduce unemployment. It's obviously doing something right. While England, home to the cretinous anti-windfarm fringe and their braindead propagandists at the Telegraph, is losing jobs by the bucketload. And not because of investments in renewables.

So, if anyone tries to tell you that windfarms are too costly, what are you going to say?

How about, 'Get a grip, wise up and stop spreading lies, you ignorant pile of donkey dung'? It's about time somebody told the self-serving cretins of VVASP and its sister organisations where to get off.

TOO NOISY?

2011-03-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

It's a rare privilege to be able to stand inside a wind turbine mast, and yet one of our correspondents was able to do just that this weekend.

The opportunity came after the annual general meeting for shareholders in the Westmill Windfarm near Shrivenham in Oxfordshire. Bizarrely, our trusted friend tells us that the meeting was almost indistinguishable from a nimby rally, except that the Westmill shareholders were well-mannered and knowledgeable. They were, however, mostly middle-aged and ... well, yes, they looked just like the identikit nimby mob that protests against windfarms up and down the country.

The Westmill Windfarm has been up and running since 2008, with some two-and-a-half thousand shareholders all willing it on. The project so far has been a success, and the Westmill Sustainable Energy Trust (www.weset.org) has since been set up to benefit people in the area and to co-ordinate educational activities for schools (hundreds of children have already had the chance to enjoy and to learn from the five turbines at Westmill). A solar park is now being planned for the same site.

After the speeches, the financial reports, etc., there was a visit to the windfarm. The approach to the turbines is along a 500 metre track. Our correspondent reports that he began to be aware of the sound made by the five turbines when he was about 100 metres away. They were all turning briskly, but - as usual - hardly making any noise at all. Even directly underneath the blades, all that could be heard was a soft, rhythmic heartbeat. Anyone who says that's noisy is a liar.

But the biggest surprise came when he and eight others climbed a steel staircase and entered through a metal door to stand inside the mast, just thirty metres or so below the nacelle (hub) and gear mechanism. The operational manager of the site explained how the turbines worked. Even inside the turbine, the sound of the machine did not impact on conversation at all. There was no need to raise one's voice in order to speak to the others in there.

This is the umpteenth report we've had from people who have visited windfarms, or who have holidayed by windfarms, or who have houses beside windfarms, and who all insist that there's hardly any noise at all - and that's when you're right there, next to the turbines, underneath the blades or even inside one of the masts! Which just goes to prove how fraudulent the demented anti-windfarm campaigners are with their false and misleading claims about windfarms being "noisy".

It's one thing to pretend to have visited a notorious anti-windfarm whinger, and to pretend that you heard the noise which that people has been bleating about for ages, just as one of the nasty nimbies of VVASP did at the planning meeting in January. It's another thing altogether to have visited windfarms, walked around the turbines, and even been inside one, and to come back admitting truthfully that there wasn't any noise, even on a windy day.

Put it another way: you can be honest, and say that no, windfarms are not noisy. Or you can make up stories about how noisy they are in order to fool other people (including local councillors and certain clueless politicians). But that's extremely dishonest and shows that you're happy to put your own selfishness ahead of the public good.

So, you heard it here, folks: once again, an honest visitor to a windfarm is happy to tell you that the so-called "noise" cannot be heard more than about 100 metres away, while even inside the mast it's hardly what you'd call noisy.

What a pity, eh, that decision-makers can't be bothered to check these things out for themselves, but choose to rely on the dishonest, self-interested, downright fraudulent testimony of nimby groups like VVASP. And a pity, too, that irresponsible right-wing papers continue to provide such nimby groups with all the lies they need to keep confusing themselves and the public.

Visit a windfarm. Then you'll discover just how un-noisy they are.

THE NIMBY BACKLASH

2011-03-02T09:02:00.000-08:00

A year or so ago we were able to report that the independent advertising regulator had slammed VVASP for publicising unsubstantiated and untruthful information about the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm.

In short, Vale Villages Against Scottish Power had told people that the windfarm would change the landscape "forever", that the "constant noise" would creates migraines and sleep disorders, and that houses in the immediate area could lose up to 54% of their value. These foolish and maniacal claims were based on extremely poor quality research and were nothing more than scare-mongering lies published by a self-interested nimby group in order to spread fear and alarm. So, quite rightly, the ASA took issue with them over this. Making false claims in print is something they're very much against.

However, nimbies are what nimbies are. That is, they are unreasonable, vindictive and obsessed with proving their fatuous points.

Someone recently complained to the ASA about an advertisement run by Good Energy, the "UK's only dedicated 100% renewable energy supplier". Good Energy had pointed out that while other companies also generate electricity by means of fossil fuels and nuclear, they themselves stick rigidly to an energy mix that is "100% renewable". Bless 'em.

So what could possibly be wrong about that? Well, if you're a deluded anti-wind pro-nuke nimby nutter, EVERYTHING.

Especially the fact that Good Energy does NOT supply 100% renewable energy to customers. No, that energy goes into the national grid. Where it gets mixed up with all sorts of electricity produced in the Bad Old Ways. Therefore, once Good Energy has generated its electricity 100% renewably, that electricity ceases to be 100% renewable as soon as it enters the national grid.

The ASA have upheld that complaint. And maybe they're right to do so. A consumer might have fallen into the trap of thinking that every step along the way from turbine to television set was renewable, with never a hint of anything dirty happening en route. They might have, but we suspect that most electricity consumers would have worked out what Good Energy were saying (they use only 100% renewable sources) and left it at that. It must have taken a real pedant, an absolute renewables refusenik, to make the complaint. It was petty and a total waste of the ASA's time.

VVASP spat feathers when they were caught out lying to people about the horrors of windfarms (tumbling house prices! imminent mental illness! a landscape changed forever!). In the mad world of the nimby, spreading lies like that is utterly permissible ("We're only a volunteer group!" they screamed - "Why didn't the ASA punish ScottishPower Renewables for making us tell such tall stories?"). At the same time, saying that your electricity sources is "100% renewable" is not acceptable. Even if they are.

Another way of putting this is: nimby groups and anti-windfarm nutters can say whatever they want, convinced that their mission excuses - nay, allows them to tell lies (all for the "greater good", supposedly). But windfarm developers are not allowed to make any claims at all.

The ASA is a great organisation. What a shame that nimby idiots insist on abusing the existence of a regulator in order to score points against the renewables industry, especially when there are so many real liars about, spreading their silly stories about wind turbines to confuse the unwary.

LITTLE ENGLAND

2011-02-28T08:27:00.001-08:00

There are two ways of looking at the anti-wind nimbies, and in both cases one is advised to do so from a distance.

The first acknowledges that the short-term selfishness of anti-windfarm nimbies simply plays into the hands of those lobbyists for the nuclear and fossil fuel industries. Anti-windfarm groups really do lap up the misleading stories presented to the right-wing press by forces opposed to the development of clean energy. This results in a feedback mechanism. Lobbyists for nuclear power leak anti-windfarm myths, which are then enthusiastically spread about my anti-windfarm campaigners who would rather spout silly stories and blatant lies than do some proper research. The outcome is a populace which has some really very strange ideas about wind power and a handful of MPs who are eager to speak on the subject when they don't have a clue about it.

The alternative approach recognises that nimbyism is now the British Disease. And so David Cameron fulminates against the numerous protesters against the proposed High-Speed Rail Link between London and Birmingham. In so doing, Cameron emphasises the chaotic thinking at the heart of the coalition government. While Eric Pickles promises to put decision-making in the hands of tiny covens of local busybodies, the government is obliged for good economic reasons to put the country's interests ahead of those of a few diehard nimbies who don't want to see progress if there's a chance it might spoil their views.

We have argued before that there is little to differentiate the self-serving anti-wind nimbies from the equally head-in-the-sand anti-HS2 nimbies - or any other nimby, for that matter. Interestingly, all these groups insist that they're not nimbies. They all advance the same atrociously inaccurate and unsustainable arguments, they're all opposed to something Good on the grounds that they might have to look at it, but none of them admit to being nimbies. Each group believes that it has a God-given right to stand in the way of progress, guaranteed by the fact that they - uniquely - are not nimbies. Ha!!!

Listening to the facile nonsense of the anti-wind lobby, you could be forgiven for imagining that the UK is alone in the world, and that only in Britain is a conspiracy of government, multinational corporations and green activists determined to foist windfarms and other forms of renewable power on a land of tinpot nimbies. Not so. The rest of the world is charging ahead with renewables. Why? Because we have to. So while the nimby nutters try to foster yet another false impression (only in Britain is wind power being pursued so single-mindedly), the rest of the world forges ahead. Just as our European neighbours did with High-Speed Rail.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has published figures which indicate that global investment in clean energy is set to reach $240 billion this year (up 20% on 2010). The main thrust behind this massive advance is coming from China, India and Brazil.

We already know that the US has been investing heavily in green energy (just don't mention climate change in Texas, where they see their windfarms as economically sensible, rather than ecologically vital). China, too, is getting into wind power in a big way. So does this mean that the world's emerging super economy is falling into the same traps as Britain by being hoodwinked by green business interests?

No. What it means is that the world has woken up to the need for renewables, and countries such as China, India and Brazil are responding to the challenge with admirable gusto.

Meanwhile, back in The Shire, the cretinous Daily Mail readers of Middle England are opposed to all this. Well, that is, they're opposed if it impinges to the slightest degree on their miserable existence. If they bought a house in the country - even just a second home - they refuse to allow an inspiring windfarm or an exciting high-speed train to go anywhere near it. They imagine that they bought the scenery when they built their detached eyesore. And so, just to shut them up, we have to play the game of pretending that they're not nimbies.

Britain needs to wake up, fast. The rest of the world is rapidly leaving us behind, as our more witless fellow countrymen do everything in their power to prevent Britain from realising its potential. Worse, they lie openly and brazenly in order to achieve their empty-headed aims, the myth-mongering nimbies of VVASP being a case in point.

It's embarrassing, really, isn't it? Emerging economies are massively increasing their investments in green technology and driving the development of a global green economy. But here in England, little, short-sighted, selfish England, all that has to stop.

Just to please a bunch of ignorant, greedy, dishonest and foolish nimbies.

AGE OF STUPID - UPDATE

2011-02-22T08:19:00.000-08:00

A while back we reported on the film The Age of Stupid, starring the excellent and much-lamented Pete Postlethwaite.

The film is a genuine wake-up call. Set in 2050 or thereabouts, it wonders why, when we knew all about the dangers of man-made climate change, we did so little to ameliorate matters.

(Part of the reason, of course, is that short-term economic interests and political ideologues did everything in their power to stop us doing anything to prepare for a sustainable future - hence the prevalence of fanatical nimby groups, the lobbyists who posed as members of the public to rant on green websites and genuinely useless MPs who actually preferred nimby lies to scientific fact. Heigh-ho.)

We pointed out that the deluded nimbies opposing a windfarm development in Bedfordshire, as featured in the film, looked and talked rather like our own lunatic nimbies in Worcestershire. Having lied to themselves, each other and everyone else, over and over again, these nasty nimbies succeeded in stopping the proposed Airfield Windfarm. Then one of them - a woman whose grasp of reality matched that of certain people in our immediate area - insisted that they were all doing everything they could to support renewables.

Yes, just like VVASP. All in favour of renewables. But NOT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That simpering airhead became one of the unlikely stars of The Age of Stupid. Indeed, if YouTube were a dictionary, there would probably be a clip of her demonstrating what 'Stupid' is. She epitomised the calculating dishonesty and absolute absence of logic which pervades the anti-windfarm movement.

Well, here's the good news. Piers, the windfarm developer who had struggled against the Bedforshire nimby nitwits, who had received threatening phonecalls from supposedly decent people, who had been trounced by a bunch of liars, may yet have his day.

At the request of the Secretary of State, the High Court has quashed the planning inspector's decision to refuse permission for the Airfield Windfarm. The Secretary of State pointed out that the planning inspector had failed to take into account the fact that the five residents who would have been closest to the windfarm were all in favour of the development.

Looking back, then, a rent-a-mob of nimby fools and fanatics held up a valuable, vital development, partly by swapping the usual idiot stories about windfarms with each other, and their leader then issued the usual PR crap about being all in favour of renewables while celebrating the defeat of the Airfield Windfarm application ... but the windfarm may yet go ahead because the adverse decision was patently the wrong one!

Let's hope that, having seen themselves as they really are (in The Age of Stupid), those nasty nimbies will want to keep their heads down from now on. If only Team Stupid had filmed some of our nasty Lenchwick nimbies frothing at the mouth, lying their heads off and bullying anyone with a conscience - then they too might have been revealed as the public enemies they so patently are.

Fingers crossed, then, that the Airfield Windfarm will finally get the go-ahead, having been thwarted by nimby nutters for far too long.

And fingers crossed, too, for another project being developed by the same wind energy company (Nuon Renewables). This is the majestic Pen y Cymoedd windfarm, an amazing 250-megawatt project which will be the largest windfarm in England and Wales, injecting £1 billion into the local economy, with an additional £1.8 million being made available annually to a local community fund. Plus a £3 million habitat restoration project and a £300,000 mountain bike trail.

That's the sort of grandscale thinking we so desperately need in this country right now. Otherwise, if selfish nimbies continue to oppose every development (High-Speed Rail Link, Hartlebury Incinerator, Lenchwick Windfarm) we might as well give up and go back to the Stone Age, because our European neighbours are already way ahead of us on all these counts.

Still, two of the local councils involved in the Pen y Cymoedd windfarm project have already given the go-ahead. So not every local authority is as backward-looking, misinformed and thoroughly Age of Stupid as Wychavon.

There is hope for us yet.

KEEP OFF THE ASTROTURF

2011-02-21T04:02:00.000-08:00

What looks green but is in fact absolutely artificial?

Answer: Astroturf.

You know the stuff. It's used for all-weather sports pitches. It's plastic, but it looks a bit like the real thing.

What you might not know is that, since 1985, "astroturfing" has had another meaning altogether. It was in that year that a Texas-based Senator used the term to refer to a fake kind of "grassroots" movement.

Typically, what the US pioneers reaches us sooner or later. So, what exactly is "astroturfing"?

Basically, it's a cynical attempt by PR consultancies and lobby groups to create the semblance of public pressure. Early forms of it were developed in the States to lobby on behalf of the tobacco industry. Since then, similar campaigns have been used to oppose climate change legislation. One example concerned a supposedly amateur film, entitled "Al Gore's Penguin Army", which appeared on YouTube. The Washington Post revealed in 2006 that the "amateur" film actually came from a Washington-based PR firm working for ExxonMobil and General Motors.

Where astroturfing becomes most suspect is when the lobbyists pretend to be something quite the opposite of what they really are. Less than two years ago, another Washington-based PR firm sent out letters which appeared to come from organisations such as NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). This was in fact an attempt at undermining the Clean Energy and Security Act. Needless to say, NAACP and its sister organisation Crecendio Juntos had nothing to do with the letters.

Now, it's not just the US that has specialised in this sort of misleading behaviour and black propaganda. China has been up to it for some time, too. But what's interesting to note is that it is seemingly invariably a right-wing exercise in manipulating public opinion and political decision-making. So when a group calling itself the "Save Our Species Alliance" turned out to be a front created to lobby on behalf of the timber industry against the Endangered Species Act, no one should have been too surprised.

Here in the UK, the renewables industry is being opposed by a group calling itself the "Renewable Energy Foundation". This group is cagey about its funding (like so many astroturfing organisations). But let's face it, when a right-wing newspaper quotes the "Renewable Energy Foundation" it sounds as if this is the voice of the renewables industry, or at leat an organisation that has the best interests of renewables (and the country as a whole) at heart.

It doesn't, of course. In reality, it is lobbying against renewables in order to force the government to invest more in dirty fossil fuels and nuclear. Which, in the long term, and given the problems we face, is madness.

But it doesn't stop there. Astroturfing is more than just posing as something you're not. It also involves stooges posing as ordinary members of the public in order to bombard websites and local media with misleading nonsense. This is meant to look like a massive public outcry - the essence of a grassroots movement. But remember, astroturf has no roots. It's completely fake.

The sad fact, though, is that it's having an effect, as the atrocious Leadsom debate in Westminster the other week made clear. Republican Party-style trickery is beginning to affect the debate about renewable energy in the UK. Or rather, to derail it altogether by making sure that inadequate and foolish politicians spout endless garbage, supposedly on behalf of their constituents but in reality on behalf of those industries which want to see renewables stopped altogether so that they can poison our earth, air and water and get paid by the tax-payer to do so.

No doubt, like us here at Wind of Change, you find the arrival of disgraceful astroturfing tactics in the UK a depressing and disturbing development. You will also quite possibly begin to wonder about the kind of media outlets which foist the idiocies promoted by these astroturfing lobbyists on the public. You'll find it hard to believe that clean green energy can have become the victim of unprincipled right-wing attacks by cynical lobbyists. And you'll realise that the anti-windfarm nimby movement is essentially just a cover for their dangerous activities.

This makes it all the more important for people to hear the truth about wind power, and about renewables in general. Because astroturfing lobbyists (like the laughably misleading Renewable Energy Foundation) exist to lie about the best hope for our energy future.

And they use the morons of VVASP and similar groups to do their dirty work.

As the Arctic Monkeys said, "Don't believe the hype." Submit their claims to scrutiny. You'll find that, time after time, the anti-windfarm dunces are lying.

Lying to keep the oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries in state-funded profit, and to deny our children a future.

HOW COME ...?

2011-02-18T04:25:00.000-08:00

In the whacky world of the nimby, the laws of physics don't seem to apply.

Many moons ago, we discussed one prime piece of idiocy voiced by a local nimby. When told that a conversation can be held at normal volume immediately underneath the blades of a busily working windfarm, this particular nitwit said:

"Ah yes, but sound waves travel outwards, so wind turbines get noisier the further away from them you are."

This is a rather typical nimby tactic - just say something stupid, and the person you are talking to will shut up and gawp hopelessly or spend just long enough trying to figure out what the hell you're on about that you can then move away and bother somebody else. Or (worst scenario) they'll laugh at you, because what you just said was so blisteringly, pulverisingly silly that the only reasonable reaction is to giggle.

Sound obeys the inverse square rule. Close to a sound source, that's where you hear the noise. It drops away extremely quickly as you move away. And that's a physical law. It's immutable. As far as this universe goes, that claptrap about windfarms getting noisier as you move away from them is sheer balderdash.

But these nimby myths have been spreading, egged on by dangerous groups like the Renewable Energy Foundation and the right-wing papers which publish their misleading remarks. They've even got as far as our democratically-elected representatives.

Turning, once again, to the silly debate held in Westminster last week, we find that Andrea Leadsom MP preferred just to repeat the nimby nonsense she'd heard than to do some actual research. As a consequence, most of what she said made no sense whatsoever.

Take this, for example:

"Turbines also have an aural impact. They are audible at a great distance - potentially, as far as two miles, depending on the landscape. I have been given some wonderful descriptions of the sound. It is described variously as like an aircraft continually passing overhead, a brick wrapped in a towel turning in a tumble drier, someone mixing cement in the sky or a train that never arrives. Wind turbines are often noisiest at night, and the sound is constant. One cannot get away from it and it does not stop."

Some alarming images, there ("someone mixing cement in the sky" sounds pretty apocalyptic), and just the sort of thing to get the Telegraph hot under the collar. Of course, the best way to determine whether any of this is true or not is to stop listening to nimbies telling you about it and go to a windfarm. At night, if possible. See if you can hear this brick-in-a-towel-in-a-tumble-drier. You might be surprised.

Anyway, rather than check this out, Andrea Leadsom went for an even more interesting nimby manoeuvre. When a fellow MP (who actually had a bit of a grasp of the science) pointed out that Leadsom had oversold the negatives, Andrea replied:

"I slightly take issue with the point that my hon. Friend made about the amount of time that wind turbines are actually working. The latest statistics show that, on average in the UK, they operate between 25% and 30% of the time."

Her fellow MP pointed out that "The figures across the board show that the turbines operate about 70% to 80% of the time."

So who's right? Well, guess what - the latter. Wind turbines work about 80% of the time. But wind being variable, their load capacity is about 30%, meaning that, over a whole year, the average turbine will produce 30% of what it could produce if it were able to work full pelt all of the time. This compares well with conventional power sources and is considerably more "efficient" than the average motor car.

But Andrea Leadsom didn't understand any of this. She made the usual nimby mistake of confusing load capacity (30%) with the amount of time the blades spend turning round. In short, she didn't know what she was on about.

Even so, how can the notion that wind turbines only work for 25-30% of the time (or, more realistically, 70-80% of the time) square with the idea that the noise they make is constant - "One cannot get away from it and it does not stop." How can that be? Was Leadsom trying to imply that, even when they're not actually doing anything wind turbines sound like aeroplanes constantly passing overhead? Is that possible?

No, of course it isn't. It's nimbyism. Like VVASP's early claim that the "constant noise" of wind turbines cause hair loss, premature ejaculation and worldwide famine. Even though wind turbines "don't work".

Leadsom also ignored her own government's figures and proceeded to claim that "wind energy costs about two and a half times the price of nuclear energy and twice the cost of traditional fuel sources." Her own government disagrees, because it's not true (think about it - how on earth could wind energy cost two and a half times as much as nuclear? How? Come on, how?). Leadsom also slipped in a odd remark which seemed to imply that the "fuel" used by wind power is expensive.

Anyone been paying over the odds for the wind lately?

But perhaps her crowning moment came after she had complained that the UK receives no benefits whatsoever from the manufacture of wind turbines. Another MP stood up and pointed out that wind turbines were manufactured in his constituency. Here's what Andrea Leadsom said next:

"That is music to my ears, and I hope that we will progress with that and go on to manufacture even more wind turbines and other sources of renewable energy in this country."

Hang on a sec - wasn't she supposed to be against wind turbines? Wasn't that why she called the debate in the first place? And yet now she wants Britain to be manufacturing more of them?

This is what comes of having no idea what you're on about.

A debate about wind power is a good thing, surely. But it has to be honest and it has to be informed. VVASP always refused to hold a debate because their cretinous lies would be challenged. Andrea Leadsom calls a debate and talks a lot of nonsense. How does that help Britain's future?

We've got to put a stop to all these nimby lies, once and for all. I mean, for heaven's sake - even MPs are beginning to believe them now. Of course, if they got off their complacent backsides and asked some intelligent questions, they wouldn't spout so much hogwash.

But we as a nation deserve better than this. We deserve an informed, sensible, rational, evidence-based debate. Which is what Leadsom massively failed to deliver last week.

STRANGE DAYS

2011-02-17T12:59:00.000-08:00

Here's a sobering read:

http://oilandglory.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/02/14/the_coming_misery_that_big_oil_discusses_behind_closed_doors

The oil giant Shell has revised its recent forecast about energy consumption. The financial crisis of 2008 reduced demand, but that has risen again. This means that Shell's prediction of a massive oil squeeze followed by a decade-long economic slowdown is back on track.

In short, as the above article puts it, "Shell suggests that one might consider running for the hills, oh, sometime around 2016 or 2017 before everyone else shows up."

Shell's prediction of an imminent energy "zone of uncertainty" can be found here:

http://www.shell.com/home/content/media/news_and_media_releases/2011/scenarios_signals_signposts_14022011.html

Behind the looming sense of panic is the peak oil crisis. Basically, we're consuming more and more oil and discovering less and less.

And if the dates 2016 or 2017 have a certain ring to them, that's when Ofgen in the UK has predicted electricity shortages because of our failure to respond effectively and to allow more renewable projects, like onshore windfarms.

Looks like the middle of this decade could be rather interesting, as rising demand, falling energy availability, inadequate measures and the shabby public response to renewables conspire to create interesting times.

So it's odd to discover that green energy websites are now being trolled by fanatical anti-windfarm types, leaping on every bit of good news in order to spread the muddled messages of the so-called Renewable Energy Foundation. The government announces the new deal on community benefits from windfarms and REF and their army of misleaders call it a "bribe". Pro-wind campaigners arrive in Caithness and the local nimbies shriek "dirty tricks". Some 25-30 coalition MPs gather at Westminster Hall to spout all the usual anti-windfarm guff and stupid myths promoted by the nuclear lobby and their nimby dupes.

All that seems utterly insane in the face of the energy crises predicted by Royal Dutch/Shell (and BP, and ExxonMobil). The experts are all warning us of approaching disaster, and yet Conservative MPs, nuclear lobbyists and crazy nimbies are doing all they can to blur the issue and stall any attempt at averting the crisis.

Replying to the braindead parliamentary debate on windfarms last week, Charles Hendry (Minister of State for Climate Change) remarked that "Everything changes when oil is $100 a barrel."

Today, Brent crude hit $104 a barrel.

All of which means that everything is changing. Fast. If ever there was a time to embrace renewable alternatives before it's too late, that time is NOW.

So what are we to make of all these nimby nutcases with their foolish anti-windfarm myths? Their infiltration of green energy websites and their constant misrepresentation of the realities of wind power?

More to the point, what we will think of such nutters in a few years time, when the energy crisis really bites? Were they actively safeguarding our interests, or were they sniping at the very developers who could have got us out of the mess?

It's not too late to take precautions. Onshore windfarms are the best, cheapest, proven solution to at least some of the problems that are coming our way.

Anyone who campaigns rigorously and dishonestly against them is a fool and a traitor. They should be named and shamed. Starting with our local self-serving nimbies in VVASP.

ANONYMOUS STRIKES AGAIN

2011-02-16T03:41:00.000-08:00

LEECHES. Parasites. That's what they are. And NOW one of them has attached itself to a member of BLoW.

This is the price you can find yourself paying if you STAND UP for renewables. Some nutcase will decide that you need "EDUCATING". You will become the OBJECT of their personal ATTACKS. They will vomit their IDIOCY all over you.

The MANIAC whose latest opus is featured here clearly imagines that a member of BLoW (who only got involved in the windfarm campaign when the nutters of VVASP roundly ABUSED him at a public drop-in session organised by ScottishPower Renewables) was somehow personally responsible for the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm.

The selfsame MORON seems to be of the DEMENTED opinion that "COMMON SENSE" prevailed at the Wychavon planning committee meeting (when a more intelligent assessment would be that NIMBY LIES and political ARM-TWISTING were what led to the disastrous decision).

Apparently, this WEIRDO thinks that the "PUBLIC will always WIN - clearly unaware of the fact that the "PUBLIC lost that particular battle - although it has not yet lost the war.

Ah, but - here's an interesting conundrum. Look at the signature.

What in the name of everything that's holy is a "very"HAPPY" "ANTI" windfarm SUPPORTER"? Seriously, what is it?

An anti-windfarm supporter? Does that gobbledegook mean that this HEADCASE is anti windfarms or anti windfarm supporters? (The letter, along with the last one they sent, might indicate the latter.) Or is there some new form of LANGUAGE being developed by the deranged and deluded "ANTI" windfarm brigade?

That seems very likely. It would mean that it is possible to become an anti-windfarm supporter, even though to the man in the street that means nothing. You can become a supporter of anti-windfarms. You will cease to be a "protester" or an "opponent" or even a "campaigner". No: you become a "supporter". A "supporter" who happens to be anti-everything.

The reality is that this crazy abuse of language is typical of the anti-wind movement. Take the so-called "Renewable Energy Foundation", a privately-funded group which regularly briefs the nimbies' favourite rags, the Telegraph and Mail, against windfarms. (Much of the funding for the REF comes from a chap who is known for investing in the chaos that climate change will bring - yes: you heard that right - REF's investor wants climate change to cause enormous disruption, because then he'll make a fortune).

Mr or Mrs DIMWIT (above) has happily quoted the gormless Daily Express when it has splashed anti-windfarm propaganda from the REF over its rubbish pages. Really, a group calling itself "Renewable Energy Foundation" spinning anti-windfarm BS to such colouring books as the Heil, the Torygraph and the Abscess??? Does that mean that the "Renewable Energy Foundation" is in fact anti-renewables - a sort of national body for anti-windfarm supporters??

Er, yes. Journalists from BusinessGreen.com have spoken to the director of "policy and research" at the Renewable Energy Foundation, one Dr John Constable ...

Hang on! The leader of our local anti-windfarm supporters is a Doctor, too! What discipline is this that specialises in misrepresenting who and what you are in order to mislead huge numbers of people? What's it called? Is it the same qualification as Dr Goebbels had?

Anyway, it turns out that Dr Constable doesn't really care for renewables at all. Not very much. No, he clearly prefers nuclear and - wait for it - fossil fuel systems as energy providers.

In other words, he campaigns ON BEHALF OF those dirty industries which would LOSE OUT if renewables were given a fair crack of the whip. Hmmnn ...

And, what's more, he opposes any subsidies for renewables, EVEN THOUGH his preferred industries - nuclear, fossil fuels - have received much, much more in the way of subsidies than renewables will ever receive!

Basically, the mouthpiece for the anti-windfarm supporters of the Renewable Energy Foundation (see how weird this all gets?) is against renewables, against modest subsidies for renewables, passionately opposed to windfarms and deeply in favour of coal, oil, gas and nuclear.

HOW CAN SUCH A BUNCH GET AWAY WITH CALLING THEMSELVES "RENEWABLE ENERGY FOUNDATION" WHEN THEY EXIST TO LOBBY AGAINST WIND ON BEHALF OF FAILING POWER SOURCES IN ORDER TO ENRICH A MAN WHO IS GAMBLING ON MAKING A KILLING OUT OF CLIMATE CHANGE??? HAS THE WORLD GONE MAD?

Well, here's something refreshing. Some good news, plain talking and basic honesty. As usual, and in stark contrast to the BLOODY LIARS of the anti-windfarm supporters pro-renewables not-a-protest campaign, it comes from the windfarm industry.

RenewableUK really does what its name suggests - it lobbies on behalf of renewables (unlike the Renewable Energy Foundation, which is very dodgy) - and it has announced that it has secured an industry-wide protocol. This means that, henceforth, community payments to the tune of a minimum £1,000 per megawatt of installed capacity will be available for local use wherever a windfarm gets the go-ahead. In response, the Government is backing RenewableUK's call for business rates from turbines to be kept and administered by the local authority.

(Which means that, rather than spending "a bomb" in trying to justify its lunatic anti-windfarm decision, Wychavon District Council could have been receiving a huge windfall every year for twenty-five years. D'oh!!)

As the honest and open side of the windfarm argument puts it, the local and regional economy currently benefits from about £1 million per megawatt of installed capacity over the lifetime of a windfarm development. So, everybody wins.

But then you get traitors like the Renewable Energy Foundation and their brainwashed ranks of anti-windfarm supporters trying to make things a whole lot worse for everyone (well, everyone apart from that guy who's gambling on climate change being very bad indeed and doesn't want to see any nice clean wind projects making things better).

They say truth is the first casualty of war. So we might as well admit that the anti-windfarm supporters have gone to war with the honest ones among us, against the interests of Great Britain and Planet Earth. And their lies just keep on piling up.

WHAT IS "APPROPRIATE"?

2011-02-15T06:37:00.000-08:00

Apparently, more or less everybody accepts the need for renewables. But in many cases, they do so on their own terms.

Or, as they put it, renewable energy projects (read: "windfarms") must be in "appropriate" places. Which, in the case of every nimby group everywhere, is essentially "not here".

Now, the word "appropriate" can be rather slippery, especially where the windfarm debate is concerned. Answering the assorted Colonel Blimps of the backbenches last Thursday, the Minister of State for Renewable Energy, Charles Hendry, commented:

Energy plants need to be sited in appropriate locations, and common sense tells us that that is the right way forward.

Yep - who could argue with that? Except that no one seems prepared to explain what these "appropriate locations" are, or where they are, or why they are so "appropriate".

From the perspective of energy generation, an appropriate site for a windfarm is one where there is a fair amount of wind. And where the grid - national or local - can be easily accessed. And where it is possible to install and maintain turbines. And where there aren't any migrating birds, scheduled ancient monuments, seismic anomalies, broadcast transmitters, RAF flight paths, flood risks or tall buildings.

So windfarm developers have certain places which are worth considering as windfarm sites. One of these, as Worcestershire County Council acknowledged in 2008, is Church Lench.

Oh, but no - Church Lench is apparently "inappropriate". Why? Because the nimbies say so.

What makes Church Lench inappropriate is hard to define, other than the fact that a handful of self-important residents don't want to see a windfarm nearby and have been prepared to put the fear of God into their neighbours in order to manufacture a completely doolally anti-windfarm consensus. Which means that a site which is absolutely appropriate, according to all objective definitions, is inappropriate, according to a few narrow-minded home-owners.

And this is where the coalition government is going to find itself in a whole heap of trouble. Because they want windfarms to be sited where the community is happy with the idea. And as we've seen, it only takes a small cluster of liars and bullies to turn a community against such a development, regardless of the demonstrable benefits it would bring.

The fantastically illogical Localism Bill currently being driven through parliament exemplifies the government's woolly thinking. Basically, it provides for a "neighbourhood forum" to decide whether or not their locale is appropriate for a windfarm.

A "neighbourhood forum" could consist of just three people. None of whom actually need to live in the area (it helps if they feel that they might want to live there at some point).

This is insane, by anybody's standards. It means that while the wind power industry is extremely capable of identifying the optimum sites for windfarms, based on the criteria given above, a tiny community of local or not-so-local fanatics can veto all this on the grounds that, in their opinion, their own neighbourhood is inappropriate.

That makes a nonsense of the UK's renewables targets. Rather than relying on science and expertise to determine where the best sites for wind energy projects might be, we allow tinpot village dictators to rule their own petty fiefdoms out of the equation. We let mindless hoodlums like VVASP decide where "appropriate" might be.

Or, rather, where "appropriate" isn't. Because nimby nutters like the VVASP brigade never suggest alternative locations (apart from out at sea, or just a very long way away). It turns out, then, that sites which are evidently appropriate by all sensible standards magically become inappropriate because a fanatical nimby says that's what it is. No reasonable alternatives are put forward. The only argument is "anywhere but here".

So much for the national interest.

FIRST THEY IGNORE YOU ...

2011-02-14T05:36:00.001-08:00

... then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Gandhi's pithy description of the process was not entirely his own. A similar quote appears in an American trade union address in 1914:

And, my friends, in this story you have a history of the entire movement. First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.

Much the same, we suspect, can be said of the pro-wind movement, and especially those beleagured individuals who find themselves stuck in the middle of an aggressive, mendacious and utterly irresponsible anti-windfarm campaign.

First, VVASP studiously ignored the fact that a significant number of local people were actually in favour of the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm. Then they tried to belittle the opinions and knowledge of those forward-thinking people. Then they attacked, bullied, threatened and abused them. But eventually there will come a time when those who stood up for renewables and wind power in particular are acknowledged as the public heroes they truly are.

This should come as a salve to those who caught any of the parliamentary debate held in Westminster Hall last Thursday.

Something very odd is going on, and the dire debate in Westminster encapsulated it. Let's call it the High Water Mark of Idiot Nimbyism and Phoney Wind Myths. To put it simply, a handful of Tory backbenchers, pumped full of anti-windfarm gibberish by their more deluded constituents, attempted to call a halt to the development of onshore windfarms in the UK.

On the one hand, this represented simply the last manoeuvre in the pathetic right-wing backlash against any visible solutions to the looming threat of climate change and a brewing energy crisis. The ostriches of Middle England don't want to be reminded that there will be trouble ahead, and so they are doing all they can to ensure that future generations enjoy none of the benefits which they have taken for granted.

It's selfish short-termism of the worst kind, ideologically motivated and reliant entirely on false information.

But there's another way of looking at it. The nuclear lobby is unhappy that the government's own predictions see very little input from nuclear in the years ahead. Decades of eye-watering subsidies to the nuclear industry have come to an end. And the cheerleaders for nukes (who want all that lovely government money that's no longer there) are determined to reverse this laudable trend.

Behind all those identikit local nimby groups with their tiresomely familiar propaganda and cretinous claims are lobbyists for nukes. They pump out the misleading anti-wind propaganda and advise the dimwits (like VVASP) to call themselves "pro-renewables". They want renewables to be swept aside so that nuclear becomes the only option. That way, they get their hands on vast mounds of public money, and millions of years worth of nuclear waste piles up.

The crappy debate in Westminster Hall was the depressing outcome of all this shady nuclear lobbying (remember, most of this lobbying is not pro-nuclear but rather anti-wind). If the demented parliamentarians who were so eager to slag off wind power on behalf of their more mendacious voters had their way, a clean green future would become impossible and nuclear would rule.

(Let's not forget that nuclear is a fossil fuel-based system and that there's only so much uranium about the place - so the problem would inevitably arise again before too long.)

If there's a truly despicable aspect to the phoney wind debate it concerns something called "the community". As most parts of the country will happily tell you, the majority of anti-windfarm protesters are not longterm country dwellers but recent arrivals. They moved to a country area rather recently because that's what the Telegraph and the Mail told them to do. It's a sign of social status, a way of showing off your enormous mortgage. Move to the country, and you've made it!

But that's not community. In reality, many rural communities have been pretty much destroyed by the influx of city types. And yet the government, responding (on the whole) quite rationally to the ludicrous myths of the anti-wind MPs, insists that windfarms should only happen where "the community" is happy with the idea, and that, if necessary, "the community" should receive special packages of incentives.

In other words, those who could afford to escape to the country should get MONEY for having a windfarm nearby.

Now, that's not in itself such a bad idea. Until you realise that the vast majority of people living near windfarms absolutely love them for what they are, not because they might get a few extra quid because of them. And, of course, the very people who are ruining their host communities are the ones who theoretically stand to gain from something that they ought to accept anyway.

Offering a bribe to Tory voters in the hope that they will then tolerate something which others have already accepted as a brilliant thing seems a wee bit crass, really. Especially when you notice how dishonest the anti-windfarm campaigns tend to be, how driven by gross intolerance and a fanaticism that is hard to explain.

Could the cash rewards for having a windfarm somewhere over the hill not go to those who belong to those communities but can't afford to live there anymore because of the influx of urban immigrants? Why reward the nastiest, most fraudulent members of society?

Indeed, why perpetuate the outrageous myth that windfarms are impositions on rural communities? Why not listen to those who already have one nearby - the vast majority, that is, and not the occasional obsessive moaner who appeals so much to the likes of VVASP?

Why go along with the sick pretence that windfarms harm communities, when the evidence points to the opposite?

In fact, why not stop listening to the gin-and-Jaguar brigade and actually do something for Britain, for once? Why not do what France does and just install windfarms for the good of the community, the economy and the planet?

Why let the nuclear lobby and the worst of the nimby fringe dictate policy? They are the enemies of the people. No one will put up monuments to them in the years ahead.

Let's just hope, for the sake of sanity and the future, that we are now at stage three of Gandhi's process. They tried to ignore us. They tried to laugh at us. Now they're attacking us.

Which should mean that, pretty soon, we win.

WORCESTERSHIRE WANTS WINDFARMS!!

2011-02-13T06:47:00.000-08:00

Wychavon District Council has published its latest keeping-you-in-touch brochure, which includes some revealing poll results.

Worcestershire Viewpoint, a "citizens panel partnership", has taken some soundings. An amazing 71% of respondents support the idea of "large-scale regeneration of renewable energy". This will no doubt be music to the ears of those notable pro-renewables campaigners in VVASP, who are wholeheartedly in favour of renewables, as long as they're somebody else's problem.

Hydro-electric power schemes seem particular popular in Worcestershire, with 67% of respondents indicating support for such ventures. Wind power comes in second, at 57%.

Now that's interesting: 57% of Worcestershire residents in favour of windfarms. Why? Because a poll conducted by Church Lench Parish Council in 2009 revealed that 57% of households in Church Lench were against the idea of a windfarm where they might be able to see it.

Initially, VVASP were wholly opposed to the poll being carried out. When the results came in, they changed their tune. Basically, they altered the outcome and trumpeted an illusory "82% of residents" as being against the windfarm proposals. That same falsified figure was quoted by Karen Lumley MP in her speech to the Wychavon District Council planning committee.

So, by the same token, we would be justified in issuing a press release stating that 82% of Worcestershire residents want windfarms. It wouldn't be true, of course, which is why we won't be doing it. Because we're not VVASP.

Still, 57% in favour is pretty good. It's a clear majority. And, interestingly, 61% of respondents to the Worcestershire Viewpoint survey agreed that "more consultation would lead to greater acceptance of large-scale renewable energy". This is another point made repeatedly by BLoW and Wind of Change - if the local authorities had bothered to inform and educate residents about the benefits of wind power, VVASP wouldn't have been able to tell so many lies with near impunity.

Overall, then, it seems that Worcestershire would be happy to see some decent renewable projects happening here. Which would be a good thing, as the West Midlands is currently rather bereft of them. The red-faced, swivel-eyed, snorty-nostrilled nimbies really do seem to be of the belief that less attractive parts of the country - like Cornwall, Wales, the Scottish Highlands and the Lake District - should be providing them with electricity so that they can gaze out over their uniquely picturesque landscape without having to worry about what's making the lights work.

But what, one wonders, will the District Councillors of Wychavon make of these poll results? Will they argue (as they did over their visit to Burtonwold Windfarm) that they're not comparing "like with like", and that it doesn't matter how many ordinary people want windfarms - if the misguided numpties of Lenchland say "No", then that's that?

Or will they admit that they voted, almost unanimously, against the interests of everybody except for a handful of proven liars?

Have we really reached the point where the will of the people is of absolutely no relevance whatsoever, compared with the belligerence of a selfish and intolerant fringe?

Maybe so. It's called the Big Society.

A SINKING SHIP

2011-02-11T04:55:00.001-08:00

The bill for the solicitor's appearance at the planning committee hearing two weeks ago hasn't arrived yet, but when it does - who will be paying it?

The latest set of accounts for the now notorious "Windfarm Working Party" have been acquired by BLoW (Back Local Windfarms). What they show is that, after Church Lench Parish Council had overspent its Windfarm Working Party budget on too many interventions from a solicitor (although, bless his heart, the solicitor yielded to their pleas and cut his invoice in half - don't you just love solicitors??), Norton and Lenchwick Parish Council withdrew from what they had known all along was an exercise in bias. They demanded their share of the money that was left. So, in return for an investment of £750, Norton and Lenchwick received £30 (oh, and 29p), in addition to the knowledge that the opinions of their parishioners had been completely ignored by the fatheads of VVASP and Church Lench.

But the other Parish Councils involved in this whole dubious misappropriation of tax-payers' money look like they too might have got cold feet. Having overspent their whopping £4,500 budget for fighting the windfarm by any means available (sorry, that should read: "gathering and sharing information both in favour of and against windfarms"), the twits in charge of the Windfarm Working Party demanded another contribution of tax-payers' money to their belligerent cause. That's when Norton & Lenchwick pulled out.

Harvington instantly coughed up another £50. Harvington's role in this whole thing has been rather like Tony Blair's to Church Lench's George W. Bush. If you like, Harvington turned itself into the blushing, panting cheerleader for the bullies and ideologues of Lench - even though less than one third of Harvington households expressed opposition to the windfarm!!! Yes: Harvington as a whole didn't give a damn, but its Parish Councillors completely ignored that fact in order to pursue a Lench-like blinkered nimbyism for no good reason.

Apart from Harvington, though, who else has channelled yet more public money into the irresponsibly-managed coffers of the Windfarm Working Party?

Well, nobody, so far. Which is why Church Lench Parish Council has had to transfer £125 of its own money into its Let's Get Everybody Else To Pay For Our Solicitor Fund.

All of which strongly indicates what we've been saying all along: the Windfarm Working Party was a thinly-veiled putsch, a means of hijacking the local Parish Councils, taking their money and dictating what their response to the windfarm planning application would be, regardless of the opinions of their residents and the pros and cons of wind power. In other words, an absolutely blatant abuse of local democracy by a bunch of selfish nimbies who expect everybody else to pay for their mindless opposition to a Good Thing.

Now, a few days ago we mentioned an article published by businessgreen.com about the Windfarm Working Party and the rather awful precedent it might have set for an England destroyed by fanatical Telegraph-reading nimbies. That article is currently the Most Discussed on the whole, rather busy, BusinessGreen website.

In that article, those Parish Councils involved in the outrageous heist known as the Windfarm Working Party tie themselves up in knots trying to justify their utter failure to keep the Church Lench nookies in check. One, for example, makes a very interesting distinction:

"... the working group had no meetings with VVASP but did request one meeting with two representatives of the action group ..."

So, the Windfarm Working Party had no meetings with VVASP, apart from the meetings it had with representatives of VVASP, which is obviously a different thing altogether.

What is more, some members of the Windfarm Working Party acccompanied ScottishPower Renewables on "wind farm visits and tours". Well, why didn't they mention this earlier??? And why have ScottishPower Renewables been so reticent about these secret trysts with the WWP (sorry - representatives of the WWP)???

In fact, SPR have never been all that coy about the fact that they did organise a visit to a windfarm back in 2009. Eleven local residents attended, and all came back massively reassured, having discovered that VVASP had been telling porkies about windfarms from the start.

Are we now to understand that "some" of those who went on that visit were in fact (future) members of the Windfarm Working Party? Who then completely changed their minds about windfarms as soon as they started meeting in a house with a dirty great VVASP placard on the front gate?

Hmmnnn ... difficult to tell what's going on, really. But it would appear that members of the Windfarm Working Party are sort of running for cover. They don't want to throw any more of their precept money at Church Lench, and they don't want to get caught out having betrayed their parishioners, and they're worried that their massive betrayal of the local and national interest, the fact that they were completely suckered by the loons of Church Lench, will become public knowledge. So they're telling the press anything they can think of to get themselves off the hook.

Church Lench should be proud - their little proteges in the parishes have learnt their lessons well. But somebody really ought to tell the nimbies of Lench that their WWP ship is sinking fast - the rats are jumping overboard, and one day somebody's going to have some pretty serious questions to ask about the Captain.

WELCOME TO THE FUNNY FARM

2011-02-08T06:04:00.000-08:00

At the planning meeting the other week, certain District Councillors were very unhappy to hear about the intimidation, abuse and divisive tactics deployed by our local anti-windfarm bunch. No doubt, this was because the nimbies had fallen back on their "Everso Humble" routine when dealing with decision-makers, reserving their spite and aggression for those in the immediate area who did not agree with them.

Well, since then, the ugly face of VVASP has revealed itself. The only Councillor to speak and vote in favour of the windfarm received a glut of angry emails, accusing her of voting "against policy" (what policy was this, then? The "agree with VVASP or else" policy?)

A member of BLoW (Back Local Windfarms) who also spoke in favour of the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm received a barely-literate letter, scrawled by somebody with issues. With typical nimby cowardice, this letter was anonymous.

Sir,

Now you have LOST the 2 1/2 year campaign for WINDFARMS (MOSTLY AT TAX-PAYERS EXPENSE) i.e. 15-1 against pretty unanimous I would say.
Perhaps you could now come back into the real world & show more RESPECT & CONSIDERATION for your fellow citizens.
Why not start cycling round our beautiful countryside? (Which you tried to SPOIL) ...
As for any appeal, forget it (NO CHANCE).

This bizarre missive came with a couple of cuttings from the Daily Express - a paper aimed at those who are still fighting the Second World War (look out for the inevitable forthcoming headline, "PRINCESS DI KILLED BY WIND TURBINE")

The Express, in its gaga wisdom, quoted both the Country Guardian and the Renewable Energy Foundation. The first campaigns nationally against windfarms and has tried to bury its links to the nuclear lobby. The second is funded entirely by private donations (oh?) and claims to be campaigning for renewables while consistently publishing anti-windfarm propaganda and trying to alter the Renewable Obligation Certificates (the only actual subsidy available for renewable projects).

So, basically, two fanatical anti-wind power groups are quoted as "proof" that windfarms don't work. This is clearly evidence enough for our anonymous letter writer who doesn't care much about research, common sense or civilised behaviour.

And today, www.businessgreen.com has published an interesting article which elevates the whole Lenchwick campaign onto the national stage. The piece examines whether or not the laughable "Windfarm Working Party" did set out to discover "impartial" information about windfarms or whether it was really designed to work alongside VVASP and to use its large doses of public money in battling the proposed windfarm and whispering sweet nonsense into the ears of local councillors.

As the article makes clear, this is the sort of narrow-minded buffoonery we can expect to see a great deal more of if Pickles, the coalition government's Fat Controller, gets his way over the Decentralisation and Localism Bill. Basically, in the appalling event of that stupid law being passed, nimby groups around the country can derail progress and make sure that the views of the majority are ignored (just like at Lenchwick, then).

None of this makes Lenchwick look very good to an impartial outsider. The District Councillors might, in the main, have been fooled by VVASP's act and its outrageously misleading false evidence, but the rest of the country might be beginning to get a glimpse at what really went on in the Lenchwick area - the flagrant abuse of local democratic institutions and tax-payers' money by deranged nimbies who can't see beyond their own narrow, short-term interest.

Well, if the nutters can quote Country Guardian (the shady group that advised them to call themselves "pro-renewables") and the Renewable Energy Foundation (which doesn't really like renewables), Wind of Change can quote Maria McCaffery MBE, Chief Executive of RenewableUK (an industry body that does have the best interests of the UK in mind):

"Perhaps the reason Nimbyism has a reputation for social irresponsibility and shortsightedness is precisely because it neglects the pressing demands of energy security, economic growth and climate change in favour of a narrow and particular self interest."

Taking issue with Alexander Chancellor's somewhat gormless piece in The Guardian - the proposed windfarm which Chancellor has an irrational grudge against would be THREE MILES away from his government-restored stately piles ... so where does that leave the "2km OK" argument?? - McCaffery argues that the problem with nimbyism "is not that it is politically incorrect. The problem is that it does not offer solutions. It says no at a time when we need yes. We need energy from renewables, and we need jobs. Wind can deliver both."

And she signs off with a P.S.:

"Oh, and by the way, windfarms do not spook horses - this is just another myth."

We seem, then, to be stuck in a vicious rut. Nimbies pose as concerned residents when, in reality, they are simply pursuing a kneejerk right-wing agenda, supported by shady groups funded by private donations and dedicated to helping out the failing nuclear industry, and they rely entirely on myths and lies in order to promote their mindlessly irresponsible agenda. Local Councillors are hoodwinked. The UK (with the noble exception of Scotland) falls ever further behind.

And even when they win, the nimbies bare their fangs and attack those who have an eye on the future, a sense of patriotism and a heartfelt concern for others.

THE PERFECT STORM

2011-02-07T06:01:00.000-08:00

Given the potential enormity of the consequences of climate change, it is perhaps not too surprising that some people stick their fingers in their ears and go "La, la, la - I can't hear you!"

That's not the same thing as trying to pretend that science has failed to prove that global warming is happening, or that there is no correlation between mankind's activities and climate chaos. After all, the Met Office has decades of detailed statistics at its disposal. The climate change sceptics don't. So, who are you going to trust? Those agencies which have been monitoring the situation for many years and have observed an increase in global temperatures, or the right-wingers who want you to believe that there has been no such increase?

More pressing, in many ways, is a problem that we hear less of. It's called peak oil.

Now, peak oil has a specific meaning. Basically, it's what happens when half of the available oil supplies in any particular region have been extracted. When oil is first struck, it spurts out of the ground under tremendous pressure. But from day one, that pressure begins to fall. Steadily, it gets harder and more expensive to extract that oil, until eventually it makes no real economic sense to do so.

The United States reached peak oil in 1970 (this was accurately predicted fourteen years earlier). Almost immediately, the world suffered the first of its major oil crises. Another happened in 1979, causing mayhem to the global economy.

Most authorities now accept that the world has reached peak oil - or is about to, at any rate. Oil prices continue to head northwards. There's even a pretty sound argument that the recent global economic crash was precipitated, not so much by subprime mortgages and banks behaving like reckless youths, but by the ever-spiralling cost of oil.

The global economy has been built on oil for about as long as anybody can remember. And as oil continues to get more expensive and more dangerous to extract, the price of oil will continue to rocket. This will have severe knock-on effects on just about everything.

Together with climate change and a mushrooming global population, peak oil represents a looming crisis of almost Biblical proportions. And, unlike the great global warming crisis, it's difficult to deny. In short, we're in trouble. Big trouble.

In 1977, President Carter warned us all about this. He was ignored, and Big Oil took over the White House. The opportunity to take sensible steps to avert catastrophe was delayed.

Meanwhile, the renewables industry was born. The US made its first experiments with wind energy as a result of the oil crises of the 70s. Fiercely opposed by right-wing interests, renewables have slowly and steadily grown. Various bodies, including the World Wildlife Fund, are now beginning to look forward to a time when at least 95% of Europe's energy, and potentially 100% of global energy, is produced by renewables (circa 2050, if we all get our acts together). The question is - will peak oil, climate change and too many human beings on the planet wreak phenomenal havoc before then?

It is monstrous that anti-windfarm campaigners claim to be defending "our way of life" when the threats to everybody's way of life do not come from wind turbines, but from the consequences of not taking the appropriate steps in good time. VVASP recently emailed their supporters to warn about the "harm" to people's lives from the Lenchwick Windfarm if a planning appeal goes ahead and is successful. Not only was that statement fatuous, misleading and utterly self-serving ... it couldn't have been more misguided. While the world waits for the perfect storm to strike - peak oil and massive hikes in oil prices, extreme weather events, mass shifting of populations, wars over precious resources, etc. etc., to pretend that people's lives will be harmed by a windfarm is fanatically irresponsible and grossly, sickeningly stupid.

Be in no doubt: peak oil is a massive problem, and it's a lot closer than we think. Opposing urgently-needed renewable developments on the protecting-our-way-of-life grounds is insane. It's missing the point by a million miles. It's making sure that everybody - and particular the generations to come - suffers as a result of our present-day selfishness, short-sightedness, criminal negligence and inability to tell the truth. It is madness of the worst kind.

Anyone wishing to know more about peak oil can email Wind of Change and we'll send out a report authored by Hans Zandvliet and released only last month. Read that report, and then decide how long we can continue to bury our heads in the sand and shout loud lies about harmless windfarms in order to "defend" our way of life.

CURSE OF THE NIMBIES

2011-02-06T04:39:00.000-08:00

Compare and contrast these two statements:

A: "The huge turbines would be grotesque alien features. The applicant is a large, powerful, multi-national company with massive resources. We are a small village. We are looking to you for protection. We need your help ... We are relieved we got the decision and we are very grateful to the councillors. Of course, we know this isn't over. We fully expect Scottish Power Renewables to appeal. It has the budget and no reason not to appeal. We are already planning the next stage of the campaign."

B: "Today's planning committee decision to reject the wind-farm application is the right one. Large wind turbines should be more than two kilometres from homes and preferably offshore. We are aware that this may not be the end of resident's plight. The applicant is a large corporation with substantial parent company financial backing. They have the funds to force an appeal. We will fight on."

Those two statements were published within a day of each other, one locally, the other in the East Midlands. It seems that all anti-windfarm nimby groups sound the same.

Witness the special pleading, the "we're so tiny and they're so huge" whining, the claims that wind energy companies will only pursue an appeal because they have the finances to do so - not because they're looking to ensure that the UK still has an electricity supply in a few years' time. The boringly familiar notion that all country dwellers live in a uniquely pretty, unspoilt landscape, which must be protected (i.e., reserved for wealthy home-owners) at all costs. The phoney David-vs-Goliath stance, the silly guff about windfarms being permissible as long as the nimbies can't see them, the universal nimby agreement that local councillors voting against the national interest are doing the right thing.

Looked at in this light - the generic anti-everything nimby approach, which sounds amazingly similar wherever it is encountered - the picture begins to alter. Suddenly, it's not a gross, overcapitalised multinational standing over isolated communities, but a co-ordinated nimby movement opposing progress, regardless of the harm done to the nation. The David-vs-Goliath argument can only stand up where it is one tiny hamlet fighting something awful (like a nuclear power station) against overwhelming odds. Where it's every village in Middle England relying on the same hideous tactics of lies, bullying, gerrymandering and playground-style peer pressure, then something else is going on.

What that might be was amply illustrated by a strange piece in The Guardian, which also came out at the same time as the identikit nimby moans printed above. Alexander Chancellor is very pleased that the Government awarded his family two massive grants to renovate the ancestral piles and their extensive grounds (a strange kind of socialism of which, it would seem, Chancellor wholeheartedly approves). But now the 'view' from his 17th-century pavillions is 'threatened' by a proposed windfarm. Now, obviously that cannot be allowed to happen. Tax-payers' money spent on tarting up aristocratic mansions is fine, of course, but coordinating a forward-looking, clean, green and effective response to the twin issues of climate change and energy security - no, never!!! Not if it affects the view!

As usual, the countryside around Chancellor's publicly-paid for properties is "unspoiled". In reality, there is no countryside in the UK that counts as "unspoiled", as anybody with a grasp of history would know. But, like all the other areas bristling with nimby obstructionism, his part of South Northants is that mythical realm of unspoiledness in which unicorns prance about and golden bunnies frolic under permanent rainbows.

It's the same special pleading, backed up by the same nimby myths and misleading codswallop (Chancellor falls back on that same bilge about poisonous lakes in China that was revealed as way off the mark in our last post). All in all, it's the same old Toryism, frantically seeking to preserve its privileges ("unspoilt views") against the pressing need for practicable solutions to very real problems.

In France, they do things differently. Sarkozy recognised a few years ago that his country's reliance on nuclear energy (which is far from renewable, being dependent on diminishing fossil fuel resources) was a case of too many eggs in one basket - besides which, rising global temperatures meant that, on occasion, France's entire nuclear fleet has to be switched off for safety reasons. So a massive investment in wind energy got underway - and it continues (in spite of what certain Conservative politicians would have us believe).

Over there, they just install windfarms. La Belle France seems to welcome them, the locals throwing parties whenever a new windfarm starts operating. And so, once again, our nearest neighbours and eternal rivals march ahead, while we allow ourselves to get mired in endless planning disputes, thwarted by nimby groups who make up crazy stories just so that their views don't get spoilt.

Makes you proud to be British, really, doesn't it?

SO NOW WE KNOW

2011-02-03T04:59:00.000-08:00

For all those who were wondering why our occasional visitor Athena knows nothing about wind power, the answer is now clear. She reads the Daily Heil.

Recently, the Heil ran a story which Athena couldn't wait to tell us about. According to that appalling rag, the UK's wind power industry is responsible for a toxic lake in China. Why? Because of the rare earths used in wind turbine manufacture. They're not actually all that rare, but they are difficult to extract. Lots of acid is used, and that has led to the existence of a huge, poisonous lake. Oh dear.

Well, let's not get too discouraged. Those same rare earths are also used in aeroplanes, computers and laptops, mobile phones, iPod headphones, batteries, solar panels ... and currently, about 4% of Britain's offshore wind turbines use them. But there aren't really any onshore turbines in the UK which currently rely on these rare earths (actually, the one used in turbines - of the offshore variety - is called Neodymium).

Now, that's odd. Because the pro-renewables group VVASP has repeatedly said how keen it is on offshore windfarms. And yet these are the ones which tend to use Neodynium for their permanent magnets.

But let's hope that Athena is as good as her word and is now getting rid of all her computers, laptops, mobiles, iPods and cancelling all flights. You know, just to be consistent.

Approximately one per cent of all the rare earth metals produced by China are used by Europe's wind power industry. Neodymium, which does get used in turbines, accounts for about one-fifth of China's rare earth production. So it's rather misleading of the Daily Heil to pretend that Britain's wind industry is causing the poisoned lake problem. In fact, most of the rare earths go to Japan to be used in consumer electronics. So Daily Fail hacks working away at their computers are as responsible for the problem as anybody.

And China is finally accepting that its global image as a dreadful polluter is doing it no favours, so it has started to regulate these things. This will mean that high-tech industries will start looking elsewhere for the rare earth metals - where there is a level-playing field of regulation, there's little cause to go to China for these substances.

So, by reading the Daily Wail and insisting, against all common sense, on actually believing it, Athena is getting herself horribly and hopelessly confused.

Anyone who really wants to know about the Daily Heil's disgraceful lack of interest in the facts and its dreadful treatment of its innocent victims (non-wind related) is invited to go here and have a bit of a read:

http://nosleeptilbrooklands.blogspot.com/2011/01/true-story-of-daily-mail-lies-guest.html?spref=fb

You'll probably never want to read that fascist bogroll ever again.

BEATING THE DOWNTURN

2011-02-02T04:34:00.000-08:00

In these straitened times, it's a nice, if only too rare, thing to hear good news about jobs.

So how wonderful to discover that employment in the UK's burgeoning wind energy industry has almost doubled over the past three years.

At a time when the economic news has been pretty grim, and appears only to be going from bad to worse, a study undertaken by Warwick University's Institute for Employment Research and Cambridge Econometrics has revealed that the wind energy sector is bearing up admirably.

More than 6,000 people are now employed by firms associated with onshore windfarms, compared with around 3,100 by offshore wind and nearly 900 working on marine energy projects. A similar survey undertaken in 2008 showed that just 4,800 full time equivalent employees were working across all three sectors.

Between 2007/8 and 2009/10, employment in the wind power industry rose by 91%. Which makes it pretty much unique, where the British economy is concerned. Evidently, wind power really is a growth industry.

There are, of course, denialists who will claim that all this employment is down solely to government subsidies - but as we've seen, they're incapable of talking sense or getting their facts right. Intriguingly, one person who pointed out the high level of Danish subsidies to their wind power industry implicitly confirmed that Denmark is continuing to invest in wind energy, contrary to the false claims put about by nimby groups, pro-nuclear lobbyists and certain wayward politicians.

Of course, there's a long way to go. Only today, a joint study by Accenture and Barclays has called upon European governments to invest some 2.9 trillion euros in renewable energy and low-carbon infrastructure over the next decade. That's right: Barclays and Accenture - hardly the greenest and most eco-friendly of institutions. Approximately one quarter of that investment should go towards funding low-carbon electricity production, say the report's authors.

Taken together, these two up-to-the-minute reports reveal a very clear picture. Wind energy is blossoming at a time when so many other sectors are struggling. Economists are demanding massive investment in renewables. The future is bright, the future is green.

So how on earth do we shut up the looney brigade who keep trying to turn back the clock? Suggestions on a postcard, please.

CON-FUSED

2011-02-01T01:25:00.000-08:00

As the Storyville documentary broadcast on BBC4 last night made abundantly clear, the key movers in the Climate Change Scepticism movement all cluster together on the political hard right. Several studies have proven that watching Fox News makes you progressively more stupid - and which network has been most active in attacking the climate change science? Yep - good old Rupert Murdoch's neo-fascist channel.

In the UK, there is a remarkable overlap between climate change denial and those who were close to Margaret Thatcher during her premiership. Which suggests that the issue isn't about whether the climate is changing, global temperatures rising, and the most likely cause being CO2 emissions. No - the argument is really about whether we take any responsibility for all this or not. On the weirder fringes of right-wing politics, they consider this to be an issue of "freedom".

So, in order for them to have the "freedom" to do whatever they like, millions - perhaps billions - of people will have to suffer, and who knows what future generations will be up against. Just to secure these maniacs an illusion of "freedom".

Perish the thought that governments should do what the vast majority of scientists insist that they should - take steps to limit the damage done by our own actions. No, that would be "Hitlerish". Better to let non-scientists cast doubt on the hard and fast scientific data. Better to let demagogues mislead the people.

Heigh-ho - quite similar to Wind Farm Myth-Mongering, then. In fact, there is a clear crossover between climate change scepticism and anti-windfarm bullshit.

It seems that Karen Lumley MP is not the only Conservative backbencher to have developed an irrational grudge against wind energy and to have abused her position in order to support a discredited nimby group. Andrea Leadsom is also leading the charge against wind power on behalf of a narrow-minded, right-wing minority.

In a parliamentary debate before the Backbench Business Committee, Leadsom did her best to claim that windfarm developers are only in it for a "fast buck". Now, normally, that sort of behaviour appeals to Tories immensely. It's called "enterprise". But apparently, where windfarms are concerned, this is a Bad Thing.

It's also nonsense, of course, because anyone looking for a "fast buck" probably wouldn't go through that painful and frustrating process of trying to get a windfarm accepted in the face of Nimby liars and thugs.

Leadsom also rehashed those myths about other countries - France, in this case, and Denmark, "Europe's leading onshore wind farm perpetrator" (yes, you heard that right: "perpetrator") - giving up on wind power. Well, during the period that Leadsom and her fellow nutters think Denmark gave up on wind energy, the Danes in fact replaced all their old turbines with new ones and in 2009 added another 82 megawatts of installed wind capacity. That same year, France installed a staggering 1,090 megawatts of wind capacity. In the twelve years between 1997 and 2009, Denmark perpetrated so much wind power that the costs of electricity generation in that country fell by 25%.

Typical of the Tory right, Leadsom fails to understand the Renewable Obligation Certificates and bigs up the "subsidies" which so many windfarm developers allegedly crave. As we've said before, renewable energy generators only receive subsidies for the electricity they have actually produced. The incentive is not to put up a windfarm, but to make sure that a windfarm generates electricity. By insisting on not getting this basic, elementary fact, the right-wingers prove that they have no interest in the issues and are arguing purely on ideological grounds.

Leadsom also seems to think that windfarms come in one variety - "240-foot wind turbines, 10 of them, 400 feet from your house." There will be a special reward for anybody who can identify a single UK windfarm which meets these criteria. Even allowing for the fact that Andrea Leadsom can't tell the difference between feet and metres, it's still wildly inaccurate and outrageously implausible.

Furthermore, Leadsom remarked that wind turbines have a "25-year life" and yet are "irreversible". That's just the sort of mind-twisting, self-contradictory nonsense that we've come to expect from VVASP. A bit like the claims that windfarms "don't work" and are "only built because of subsidies" (one or the other, guys - you can't have both). So, does Leadsom think that turbines die after twenty-five years? And then what - they just stay there for ever and ever? Is this woman quite mad?

The problem, of course, is that the dogmatic, irrational and utterly mendacious opposition to wind power is difficult to separate from the extremist stance of the climate change sceptics. It's a right-wing backlash that we're witnessing here. A colossal misunderstanding of the concept of "freedom". And a willingness to tell loud lies in order to make everything much worse for everybody.

BANANAS

2011-01-29T03:55:00.000-08:00

The sermon today is taken from St Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians:

And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders,
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie ...

The Wicked, incidentally, has now ordered his followers to take down their signs, in accordance with a written undertaken given to Wychavon District Council. He has admitted that the ghastly yellow signs were causing problems for people trying to sell their houses.

As for Wychavon - well, a three Act tragedy unfolded last Thursday. And, in the words of one of the Councillors, it's going to cost them "a bomb" if ScottishPower Renewables go to appeal. Which means it will cost the tax-payer a bomb. So, look out for more cuts to the Wychavon budget to cover the unnecessary costs of a planning decision taken entirely by the nimbies.

The day itself. Outside, just before the meeting started, a glaring mob of protesters wearing nauseating T-shirts and waving their placards (just how many of those things did they get made?) were caught jeering and taunting a single supporter of the windfarm live on BBC news. Even the nimbies' Herr Kommandant for the day was seen trying to hush them up - no doubt realising that they had just given the game away live on air. The grotesque intolerance of VVASP had just been clearly demonstrated to the whole of the Midlands.

Inside the Council chamber, things weren't much better. One woman had come along to support her husband, a shareholder in the hugely successful Westmill Wind Farm co-operative. She told Wind of Change:

When I arrived, the hall was pretty packed & I found standing space at the back. Four old people were sitting there, typical "middle England" type people, well spoken, sensible shoes, corduroy trousers, tweed skirts. One of the ladies pointed a spare seat after the four of them which I took ... All was going well until [one of the pro-wind farm speakers] waved at me & I waved back. Well, I could sense the immediate hostility towards me. All eyes from every angle were focused on me with such hatred in their faces ... If I could feel such intimidation in one moment like that, then it is no wonder that people who live in the Lenches surrounded by this vehement bunch are scared to speak out.

According to the Council, there were at least 200 members of the public present - most of them there to glare at and intimidate anyone who knows that windfarms are good things.

The session kicked off with a presentation by the planning officer, the main outcome of which was that the turbines would be almost impossible to see from many vantage points and angles.

Then came the nimby attack, led by Karen Lumley MP, who quoted VVASP's figures on local opposition - you know the ones: the "manipulated" figures which turn a village with way less than 50% of households expressing opposition into one in which 75% of residents are opposed. We can only hope that Mrs Lumley is a little less cavalier with the facts when she's speaking in the House of Commons.

The solicitor, hired by Church Lench at everybody else's expense, gave a pompous lecture on the subject of bats (even though this had not been advanced by Wychavon as grounds for refusal) and made the weird claim that SPR would be guilty of a criminal offence (bat-murder) if they built the windfarm.

One local argued that a handful of holiday businesses in the area would lose around £2 million if the windfarm went ahead. It would have been a more convincing argment if he could prove that the same thing had ever happened anywhere else.

Finally, Big Chief Nookie and his lumbering lieutenant spoke, the latter slyly alluding to a certain windfarm in Lincolnshire and a certain person who has made a series of elaborate and unfathomable claims about noise there (he reckoned he'd been there and heard the ever-elusive thumping noise of the turbines, but failed to mention the fact that the entire family had not actually moved out, and that the local council had, in what was nothing more than a gesture, reduced the rateable value of the farmhouse in question by just one council tax band).

Next came the freedom fighters. ScottishPower Renewables started, followed by a succession of Vale residents who all had experience of windfarms and could testify to the fact that they are not noisy. Sadly, the Councillors of the Development Control Committee weren't listening to any of this. They perked up a little when it was pointed out that Norton & Lenchwick Parish Council had withdrawn from the farcical Windfarm Working Party (oh? mutiny in the ranks?) and did their best not to hear the sensitive testimony of an 18-year old student, who no doubt made them feel very bad about the ludicrous decision they were about to make.

Last of all, a spokesperson for BLoW reminded the committee that they themselves had visited a windfarm, and pointed out that we would all be judged by future generations on the basis of how we responded to a looming crisis.

Then, the Council stopped for tea. One windfarm supporter reported that the only place she felt safe was sitting next to a policewoman in the cafe.

At ten past four, the final Act of the unfolding tragedy commenced. One by one, a succession of Councillors delivered a nonsensical anti-windfarm speech. Clearly prompted and misinformed by VVASP, they repeated, sequentially, pretty much every myth known to Nimbydom. One claimed that no one would ever consider planting a windfarm in the Lenches if it weren't for the massive government subsidies involved.

No one had told her about the joint report prepared by the IEA, OPEC, OECD and the World Bank for the G20 last year, which revealed that governments subsidised renewables to the tune of an estimated US $15 billion in 2010. In 2008, meanwhile, the same governments subsidised fossil fuel-based electricity production to the tune of US $557 billion. That is to say, coal, oil and gas-fired systems receive nearly 40 times as much subsidy as renewables. And as for nuclear - well, don't even ask.

The same Councillor was also clueless when it came understanding how subsidies for renewables work. Renewable Obligation Certificates are only awarded to generators on the basis of the number of kilowatt-hours they actually produce. So only a total pleb with no intention of checking facts/doing homework/talking sense would pretend that SPR wanted to install a windfarm at Lenchwick simply because the government was paying them to do it.

Another myth spun by a Councillor was that "countries which had been leading the field in wind energy were now having second thoughts" - a variant on the lie about Germany and Denmark putting a stop to windfarm developments. Yet another Councillor really did seem to think that larger turbines are "noisier" than smaller ones.

One Councillor, irked by reports of the nimbies' misbehaviour and extraordinary hateful aggression, tried to argue that VVASP are not nimbies. He really ought to get his dictionary out. Another had the temerity and tastelessness to suggest that one of the windfarm supporters (who wasn't actually present at that stage) had only moved up from Cornwall to escape the windfarms down there - a statement that was as loopy and unreasonable as it was unworthy.

For a brief moment, a light shone in the chamber. One Councillor knew all about windfarms because her daughter lives next door to one. She could happily testify that they're not noisy and that they look extremely attractive - in her words, they enhance the landscape. She also referred to a book which VVASP had kindly sent to her (we're not yet sure, but it was probably "The Wind Farm Scam", a quasi-scientific rant which has been effectively debunked by Professor John Twidell, one of the country's leading authorities on wind power and a supporter of Lenchwick Windfarm).

It would be interesting to know whether or not all the Councillors had received the VVASP book (which supplied them with so many of the misleading myths they spouted in the meeting) - and, if so, did they register these gifts?

And what kind of idiot would place more weight on nimby propaganda from a discredited protest group than on the hard science supplied by the experts in these matters, as well as the personal testimony of one of their own colleagues?

The long and the short was that, with the exception of the Councillor who actually knew what she was talking about, every member present voted against the windfarm.

Quite clearly, Wychavon District Council has wholeheartedly embraced the BANANA principle: "Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything". Equally clearly, they had become mouthpieces for a dangerously irresponsible, intolerant, unscrupulous and unprincipled nimby mob. And the likelihood is that this will cost the district thousands and thousands of pounds, as the Council tries - and probably fails - to defend a decision taken on the basis of misinformation.

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a whole pack of lies.

MIDDLE ENGLAND

2011-01-28T02:37:00.000-08:00

We're still receiving reports and testimonials regarding the planning meeting yesterday, so there will be more on that anon.

For now, though, we think it is noteworthy that the BBC is beginning to question the strange lack of windfarms anywhere in the region.

The West Midlands is rapidly becoming the Area 51 of wind energy. The BBC have reproduced a map which shows that, while other parts of the country are striding forwards and embracing wind energy, our middle region is utterly bereft. The question being asked is: why?

Well, various silly answers have already been forthcoming. Some would like to think that there's not enough wind in the West Midlands. Which is a bit like saying there's not enough soil to plant windfarms on.

But the problem is rather more circular than that. Because there currently aren't any, most local people haven't the foggiest idea what a windfarm really is. And because they know nothing about them, they're easily suckered by the manic anti-windfarm propaganda spread about the place like muck by nimby protesters and their allies in the nuclear lobby.

The situation was made very clear at the Wychavon planning meeting. One Councillor knew all about windfarms because her daughter lives very close to one. So she was able to attest to the fact that they're not noisy and they're really rather wonderful to look at. That Councillor was the only one to vote in favour. She was also the only one who knew what she was talking about.

It is inevitable that more and more windfarms will be installed over the coming years. And, who knows, maybe one day the West Midlands will wake up and realise that it's missing out. And then, all those nimby lies will be exposed as the hogwash they really are.

Until then, sadly, too many people (and way too many Councillors) will continue to fall prey to the nasty nimbies and their insane stories.

Those who know about windfarms tend to support them wholeheartedly. Those who know nothing about them tend to talk a load of crap.

And the West Midlands remains the last bastion of idiot nimbyism. The land of the knave and the home of the twee.

WHEN IS A WINDFARM LIKE A BLIMP?

2011-01-27T03:00:00.000-08:00

Answer: never.

The crummy practice of flying a blimp in order to mislead people over what a windfarm will look like has become fairly widespread. Nimby groups do it routinely, even though it's been criticised by planning inspectors who have pointed out that it does nothing but totally misrepresent the scale, shape and location of a windfarm.

You might as well demonstrate what a copse of trees will look like by flying a giant inflatable pig in the air.

Still, nothing stops our manic nimby neighbours, and so the ludicrous blimp was indeed flown for the benefit (?) of Wychavon District Councillors, this Tuesday. Hopefully, they're bright and sensible enough to see through that shabby trick.

During the night preceding the Councillors' site visit, certain public-minded citizens had been out and had removed the grotty and offensive VVASP placards from various parts of the village. These placards have a terrible habit of appearing in huge numbers whenever a politician or councillor happens to be passing through, and a shockingly large number have been attached to things that don't belong to the nimbies. So removing them from public property was a good deed, really.

Anyway, the nimbies cried foul, and today's Evesham Journal has carried a front page piece about the objectors' "anger" at what they call "dirty tricks". No end of fatuous nimby outrage was spewed over the paper, which failed to note that the placards which had been removed had been put in places where they should never have been in the first place.

The paper also forgot to mention the fact that pro-wind posters were removed and destroyed by the evil anti's, who refuse to allow anybody else to express an opinion. So - a few nimby placards removed from public property - SHOCK HORROR!! - but pro-wind posters removed - silence.

And we were wrong when we said that the witless dupes of VVASP were keeping their heads down while the Councillors were examining the site. One chap followed the Councillors' coach around, displaying a VVASP placard all the while. Others stood around looking like something out of Dr Who. The idiot blimp was raised. And, of course, all pro-wind posters had been taken away and hidden.

So VVASP went out of its way to mislead the Council. Ha! What else is new?

KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON

2011-01-26T04:25:00.000-08:00

Tim Yeo, Conservative chair of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, has said this today:

If we want to keep the lights on and create an energy system fit for the future then new rules are needed to fast track energy projects through the UK's notoriously glacial planning system.

If these new policy statements don't put the cleanest forms of energy at the top of the agenda they will leave us dangerously dependent on fossil fuels.

The UK's energy security and our prospects for creating a successful low-carbon economy depend on the Government kick-starting a dash for low-carbon technology, not a new dash for gas.

Tough words. But they echo recent developments at the European level. In the past few days (while the nimbies have been hiding from Councillors visiting the site of the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm), over 200 businesses, politicians and organisations have signed up to a declaration calling for the EU to achieve 100% of its electricity from renewables by 2050.

That would be a massive, fantastic commitment, achievable and necessary. It would mean that Europe really had taken the lead in moving towards a global sustainable economy.

At present, every citizen in the EU pays about 700 euros a year towards foreign fuel imports. While the nimbies are making up stories about excessive subsidies for renewables, the real problem is that each of us is paying far too much for dirty coal, oil and gas, brought in from abroad. A concerted, Europe-wide move towards renewables would obviate the need to buy gas from Russia, for example. We'd have clean, green energy, with no dependency on unreliable foreign governments.

To see the European declaration, which is gathering more support by the day, go to:

http://www.100percentrenewables.eu/

So - Europe is beginning to recognise the need for 100% of its energy to come from renewables. The coalition government now recognises that nimbies holding up the planning system are wreaking havoc on our national energy policy.

And now, we hear that a national journalist has started investigating the notorious Windfarm Working Party, that colossal abuse of local democracy driven by the nasty nimbies of Church Lench. Keep watching this space.

So - with twenty-four hours or so to go before the Wychavon decision on the district's first wind farm, lots of news out there. And none of it is very good for the Luddites of VVASP.

NEWS FROM SPAIN

2011-01-24T01:21:00.000-08:00

Our nasty nimbies claim to be 'Pro-Renewables'. Oh yeah? Actually, they're advised to make that claim by Country Guardian, a shady anti-wind group with links to the nuclear lobby.

But so 'Pro-Renewables' are they, they even have to tell lies about renewables in other people's countries. We saw recently how their claims that Denmark and Germany had given up on wind power simply fail the acid test of truthfulness - both countries are increasing their installed wind capacity, and you can hardly achieve that by putting a stop to windfarm developments.

Typical, though, that a mindless movement in the UK is prepared to rubbish the sterling efforts of other countries, just so that they can damage the national interest of their own country!

So what about Spain? In 2010, renewables supplied an amazing 35% of Spain's electricity - 16% from wind power alone (that's twice as much as dirty old coal managed to generate, and on very windy days, Spanish wind power provided over half of the electricity consumed!)

As a result of their fantastic strides forward, coal-fired power dropped by 34% and gas-fired power by 17% last year (22 gas projects were cancelled). That's excellent news for the environment and common sense - CO2 emissions from Spain's power system fell by 20% last year alone.

And what of that cretinous nimby claim that renewables (and wind) are expensive? Well, in 2009, Spain's renewables industry managed to reduce the overall costs of power generation by 4,830 million euros! Renewables contributed 8,525 millions euros to Spain's GDP and accounted for 3,042 million euros in exports.

In 2010, France became a net importer of electricity from Spain. See, nuclear power fails. Repeatedly. So the renewable nations are now supplying the nuclear nations. Take that, you nuke-friendly nimby nutters!!!

There is a tradition in Spain that, on January 6, children receive gifts from the three wise men. The most feared gift has always been coal - a sign that the child had been naughty. But coal is on the way out in Spain. On that very day - 6 Jan - this year, renewables supplied three-quarters of Spain's electricity needs. Coal accounted for just 4%.

So when one of our nimby jerks complains that ScottishPower Renewables aren't really Scottish - they're Spanish-owned - we can point out that, hey, so what? Spain's already miles ahead of us. If we had any sense, we'd be rushing to copy Spain's example.

Rather than making up stupid stories about windfarms to frighten the children and prop up the nuclear lobby.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

2011-01-20T22:04:00.001-08:00

Members of VVASP have received new orders from High Command.

In the light of the Wychavon planning officer's decision to recommend refusal of the windfarm planning application, the planned VVASP demonstration on 25th January has been cancelled. So no re-enactment of all those old zombie movies, then, when the Councillors explore the site of the proposed wind farm. Nimbies have been ordered not to approach the Councillors and on no account to mention that stuff about receiving bribes which was the talk of the Lenches a week or so ago.

No, all drones are to be on their best behaviour - no 'people distraction', as VVASP's Minister for Propaganda quaintly puts it - and only a daft blimp will be allowed to fly, so that the Councillors get a completely misleading idea of what a windfarm looks like. Oh, and if anyone has managed to mislay their stupid NOOKIE placards, please let Dr Evil know and he'll replace them at no extra cost.

So - everybody clear? No snarling, swearing or hurling abuse at the Councillors, got it? Let's try and look like decent, civilised human beings (after all, it's only for one day, and even VVASP should be able to manage that, yes?) Everybody is to creep around their houses, not making a sound, and if a Councillor should happen to pass by, simply say, "Oh, lawks a lordy, master, what will become of us all if that there windy farm takes place?" and pretend that you live in Candleford.

Come the day of the planning decision, VVASP will be herded up at three separate locations and driven by coach to the Council building. Any demonstration outside the building will be entirely for the benefit of the press, as VVASP have noticed that the Councillors will actually be enjoying a light lunch at the time. It's quite possible, of course, that the Councillors will be discussing why a group which has badgered and browbeaten them for two whole years should suddenly disappear when they turn up to look around the area. Normally, VVASP go to desperate lengths to inflate their numbers, so why are they hiding behind the sofa, all of a sudden?

All very suspicious, eh? And all because the planning officer took the nimby arguments at face value.

It's amazing, isn't, what a difference a week makes.

THE ENEMY WITHIN

2011-01-18T21:25:00.000-08:00

Dr Johnson said "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

If he was alive today, maybe he'd change that to "Nimbyism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

One thing we can say about nimbies - no one is more unpatriotic than they are.

How can we prove this? Well, let's take a nimby myth that's been doing the rounds for a while. Germany and Denmark have made great strides in wind energy over the years, and both have considerably more windfarms than the UK does. But the nimbies have been telling everybody that Germany and Denmark have stopped building windfarms. Basically, they want to mislead everybody into believing that tired old nonsense about windfarms "not working".

In fact, if you look at the figures supplied by the Danish Energy Agency and the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, you'll find that installed wind capacity in both countries is still rising.

How can that be, if they've both stopped building windfarms?

Denmark saw its installed wind capacity level out over a four-year period, between 2004 and 2008. During that period, old wind turbines were replaced by modern ones. And because modern turbine design means that they can harness the wind more efficiently, the total output remained constant even though there were fewer turbines operating in Denmark.

Then, from 2008 onwards, installed wind capacity began to rise again. And in Germany, it's been rising steadily since 1991.

Now, of course, if you're intent on misleading people into thinking (wrongly) that Europe's wind energy frontrunners have given up on wind power, just because you don't want a windfarm where you might be able to see it, then, well, you're lying in order to make sure that the UK lags even further behind its friendly competitors.

Another stupid myth. One dingbat wrote to the paper a while back stating that the consumer paid more for electricity in Denmark, and this was because wind power was expensive, and therefore wind power is wrong.

Well, Danes do pay a bit more for their electricity than we do. That's because of the Danish tax system. In terms of generating cost, electricity is in fact much cheaper in Denmark than in Britain. The reason for that is wind power.

So, as usual, the nimbies aren't only wrong. They're out by about 180 degrees. They couldn't be more wrong if they tried.

All this anti-windfarm nimby nonsense is guaranteed to hold the country back. Britain is currently third-from-bottom in the European wind energy league table. If the nimbies had their way, we'd be in last place. And saving our pennies in order to buy electricity off those European neighbours who had the decency and common sense to invest in renewables.

Why should anyone hate their country so much? We all know that nimbies are fundamentally selfish, as well as constitutionally dishonest and chronically misguided. But are they really so selfish that they would betray their own country's vital interests - as well as future generations - even though, by doing so, they gain NOTHING?

Do they have to tell pointless lies about other countries - countries which have at least bothered to generate lots of cheap, clean, green energy - purely in order to jeopardise their own country's economic future?

You'd think they were a bunch of fifth columnists, or something. Sleeper cells working for Al-Qaeda, maybe. Definitely spies and saboteurs in league with an enemy power.

Maybe that's what they are, at heart. Traitors. The enemy within.

TROUBLE AHEAD

2011-01-17T10:45:00.001-08:00

The report compiled by Wychavon District Council's planning officer concerning the Lenchwick Windfarm planning application was published today. A press release reported that the planning officer has recommended refusal of the planning application on the following counts:

Landscape
Noise
Residential Amenity
Highways

This, of course, was the same planning officer who was libelled by VVASP's head honcho last summer. On various nimby websites, Dr No stated that the planning officer was "biased" and "minded to approve" the planning application. It would appear that, as usual, the Chief Nookie was saying whatever he felt like with scant regard for the facts.

Anyway, while the planning officer's report might have nixed the planning application at the Development Control Committee stage - not a foregone conclusion, but a likelihood - the Council has in fact only stored up trouble for itself if, as seems likely, ScottishPower Renewables refer the application to a planning inquiry.

Take the first objection - Landscape. The problem with the planning officer's objection here is that it flies in the face of the advice supplied by the District Council's very own Landscape Officer. Early in 2009, the Landscape Officer observed that -

In purely landscape terms there may, therefore, be no special reasons to refuse wind turbines here any more than anywhere else in the district ... in the light of Government guidance on renewable energy and our own policy, and in the absence of any special landscape designation, I feel it may well be difficult to defend refusal of an application in respect of landscape issues at any planning appeal.

It will be interesting to see whether Wychavon can in fact defend the planning officer's recommendation when the Planning Inspectorate get involved.

And then, noise. Oh, boy. Wychavon really could have got themselves into a right pickle here.

Let's first take note of the representation filed by the usual solicitor on behalf of the six parish councils (yep - yet more tax-payers' money blown on dodgy objections!). Not for the first time, the solicitor argues that the "Parish Councils, through their joint working group, representing the overwhelming majority of their residents, submitted a 20 page detailed reasoned response to the application". Nice to think that the solicitor considers his own work to be both detailed and reasoned - especially when you look at the strangely vituperative letters he's been sending to ScottishPower Renewables.

But, hang on - what was that about the "overwhelming majority of their residents"? Sorry - whose residents? Church Lench managed a majority - 57% of households opposed - which can hardly be called "overwhelming". Of the other five parishes, two returned minorities of opponents and three didn't bother polling their residents at all.

So, as with most nimby statements, the solicitor's claim of an "overwhelming majority" is confidently stated but completely unsubstantiated. For the simple reason that it's not true.

Now, here's the rub. As readers of this blog will know, Wychavon chose its noise consultant on the grounds that there was "general concern" in the acoustic industry that the government's guidelines on wind farm noise assessment and rating (ETSU-R-97) were "unfit for purpose". Again - not true. But, on that mistaken basis, Wychavon chose to hire a consultant known for his oppositional stance to the established guidelines.

General concern amongst noise experts about ETSU-R-97? If that phrase rings a bell, it's because Big Chief Nookie has also used it. It's a sort of nimby mantra. But how the District Council formed the same misguided opinion is a bit of a mystery.

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that unnamed representatives of the Anti-Windfarm Working Party were holding meetings with Wychavon's officers at the time. And one member of the "joint working group" - an ex-District Councillor, in fact - continued to badger Council officers in order to convince them, wrongly, that the government's guidelines on wind farms and noise could be "overruled".

Try telling that to the government.

Anyway, having secured the noise consultant they wanted, VVASP duly trumpeted his findings. No mention was made of the fact that the consultant in question regularly takes money from nimby groups and refers repeatedly to "research" that has never been peer-reviewed or, for that matter, seen by others in the industry.

One of the claims made in the MAS Environmental report on noise was that SPR's noise consultants had underestimated the noise output from the proposed windfarm to the tune of 5 decibels. But another of the noise experts initially approached by Wychavon has assured one of our correspondents that this claim is absolutely ludicrous. It was, as this expert confirmed, "impossible" that SPR's distinguished consultants could be 5 decibels out.

However, the planning officer at Wychavon has taken this "impossible" claim at face value. And, purely on the basis of that unsubstantiated claim, he has recommended refusal.

Reports by MAS Environmental don't tend to survive the Planning Inspectorate stage. And the fact that VVASP - via its Windfarm Working Party - was bending the ears of Council officers in order to mislead them over the status of the government's guidelines, a process which led to the retaining of a maverick noise consultant whose unsubstantiated and "impossible" claims provided the sole basis for the planning officer's recommendation ... well, it's unlikely that Wychavon will come out of the planning appeal stage smelling of roses.

As for Residential Amenity - well, that's a subjective opinion. And Highways? Come on - are they trying to say that transporting turbines along a major motorway can't happen? How on earth did all those other turbines find their way to their destinations?

So, all in all - it's unquestionably a blow for windfarm supporters, and all those villagers who have suffered at the hands of VVASP, that the planning officer has recommended refusal. But those very recommendations present an invitation to the Planning Inspectorate to criticise the District Council for being rather too ready to listen to the uninformed opinions of the nimbies.

At best, Wychavon has bought itself a bit of time and given the Development Control Committee an excuse to pass the whole problem on to the Planning Inspectorate. Which would mean more time, more stress, more money spent ...

And, on the face of it, Wychavon will indeed find it very difficult to defend these decisions at the planning appeal stage. It would appear that VVASP have made complete fools of them.

ARE ALL NIMBIES THE SAME?

2011-01-16T12:22:00.000-08:00

Countryfile. BBC. Sunday, 16 January. Geoffrey Palmer, the hangdog actor, rails against HS2 - the high-speed rail-link promoted by successive British governments.

Mr Palmer lives in a pleasant and expensive part of the Chilterns and doesn't want a railway nearby. He claims that the economic case for the HS2 has not been proven.

Now, it would be churlish to point out that Britain's economic growth in the past was stimulated by mail coaches, canals and motorways. Oh, and railways, of course. The fact is that HS2 is simply the latest in a long line of developments which, by making it possible to travel and convey goods from one part of the country to another, brought us into the modern age. So the claim that the economic case for HS2 is unproven is - well, basically, it's nonsense.

It's the equivalent of the "windfarms don't work" argument - a line which collapses the moment you realise that windfarms do work. Pretty well, in fact.

But, like the ludicrous arguments deployed by the windy nimbies, the anti-HS2 arguments are fundamentally flawed, unsupported by any evidence and entirely self-serving. It's what we call "confirmation bias" - you decide to oppose something and then go hunting high and low for any "evidence" which appears to confirm your stance, blithely ignoring the great weight of evidence that proves you wrong. In the case of nimbies, up and down the country, what that means in practice is that you'll believe - and endlessly regurgitate - no end of claptrap, while bullying anyone who knows better than you do.

On the Countryfile report, they showed Middle Englanders holding their ears while a recording of a high-speed train was played to them at full volume.

Now, if you happen to be lying on the tracks, you might find the sound of a train passing overhead quite noticeable. Just as if you happen to be standing inside a wind turbine mast, the chances are you'll hear the sound of the mechanism working.

The point, of course, is that most of us won't be lying down between the HS2 tracks or standing inside a turbine mast - and anyone who's minded to do so really ought to think twice about it. But by playing recordings of that nature - and doing so at top volume - the nimbies are grossly distorting the reality of the situation. Let's face it: even Geoffrey Palmer isn't going to be lying underneath every high-speed train which passes by.

A very similar, equally shabby tactic was attempted by our very own nimbies. King Nimby reckoned he'd managed to get hold of a recording of a windfarm in Cumbria. He was apparently unable to say when this recording was made and where the microphone was positioned. He said it was the sound of a windfarm (yeah, right), and one of his witless drones tried playing it as loud as possible through a mobile amplifier until the police were called and told them to stop it.

Only a complete idiot (or VVASP-supporter, as they're also known) would have fallen for that one. Anyone who had taken the trouble to visit a real windfarm would instantly know that King Nimby and his VVASP clones were trying to pull a fast one. It was a cheap and shabby stunt - rather like flying a blimp which looks like nothing a wind turbine in order to give people a completely false impression (such behaviour has been criticised at planning inquiries, but that won't stop the naughty nimbies doing it again and again).

No, nimbies everywhere are remarkably similar. They are the UK's answer to the Tea-Party Movement in the US. Pumped up on hate-fuelled propaganda, desperate to lash out at anything and anyone, ruthlessly manipulated by dangerous demagogues, selfish, deluded and morally indefensible, these movements are a major threat to democracy, society, human rights and the environment. They are the last refuge of the swivel-eyed right-winger - the sort who think Sarah Palin and Eric Pickles are capable of cogent reasoning. The sort who would sell their neighbours, their communities and their countries downriver for thirty pieces of silver.

They are Flat-Earthers, each and every one.

NIMBY PSYCHOPATHY

2011-01-15T12:51:00.000-08:00

Someone who tells lies and believes those lies - who sees nothing wrong with telling those lies - is a psychopath.

The Mental Health Act defines any personality disorder which results in "seriously irresponsible or abnormally aggressive behaviour" as a psychopathic disorder.

H. Checkley, in The Mask of Sanity (1976) described the syndrome of primary psychopathy. To quote from Faulk's Basic Forensic Psychiatry (Third Edition):

At first sight the subject appears normal, charming, intelligent and articulate with low anxiety. The history, however, reveals extremely egocentric, impulsive and bizarre behaviour, which, in the long run, is against the subject's interest. Legal confrontation may be avoided indefinitely because of the subject's intelligence and charm, and prominent positions in society may be attained until the true picture emerges.

Well, that true picture has emerged over the past two years. It is now plain and clear for all to see.

The VVASP campaign is being run by psychopaths. It is psychopathic to the core. It is based entirely on lies and fuelled by the egocentricity of the VVASP leadership. It is both seriously irresponsible and abnormally aggressive - and it has been from the very start. And it is bizarre, because a measured examination of the evidence reveals that the Lenchwick Windfarm is most likely to represent a positive benefit to the local community, to the region and the nation. So to fight it - and especially to do so using lies and thuggery - is clearly against everybody's interests.

Under any other circumstances, the behaviour of VVASP's senior figures would have been identified as anti-social, extremist, fanatical, deluded and dangerous to the fabric of society.

We at Wind of Change have identified the problem here before. There is one word for it, and word word only.

EVIL.

The psychopaths are running the show. And they're trying to turn the rest of the community mad in order to serve their own narrow-minded, egocentric and selfish interests. Which is why the entire community have and continue to suffer at the hands of these psychopathic personalities.

And now Wychavon District Council is beginning to get a taste of the insanity which these psychopaths have unleashed.

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?

2011-01-13T13:13:00.001-08:00

If Limbo Dancing were an Olympic sport, you'd be forgiven for thinking that VVASP were in training for London 2012.

Now they're exploring whole new levels of lowness. Extraordinary subterranean depths. They have scraped through the bottom of the barrel and are frantically scrabbling in the earth with their ravaged fingertips.

Regular readers of this blog will be astonished to hear that the protesters have excelled on their previous efforts by visiting strata that few have ever plummeted towards. Or maybe not.

A full-page ad in today's Evesham Journal calls on the people of the Vale to rise up, march on the Council's offices and stand there threatening the elected members of the District Council until they obey VVASP's orders without question.

That's right. Having bullied and threatened and harassed and attacked and hectored and coerced their neighbours, VVASP are now trying to do the same to the Development Control Committee.

In a maniacal attempt at stirring up public panic, VVASP's latest claim is that "5000 trucks" will pass through Norton and Harvington, carrying concrete up to Bishampton Bank.

Forget the fact that haulage companies already operate out of the Lenches. Forget the fact that new houses built in Harvington mean that lorries carrying far more in the way of building materials than the windfarm will ever need have been passing through the village for years. And forget the fact that "5000 trucks" is a figure plucked out of thin air.

Oh - and you might as well forget the fact that when ScottishPower Renewables did a test-run of a low-loader to the windfarm site and back last summer, nobody noticed.

Blatantly, by lying their heads off (again!) VVASP are hoping to whip up a frenzy of mindless hysteria which they can then unleash against Wychavon District Council on the 27th.

Didn't we tell you that the nimbies are growing desperate? Doesn't this prove their absolute contempt for democratic principles, their preference for mob-rule instead of free speech, and their failure to win the argument (even after a torrent of lies), so that all they have left to try is the shameless intimidation of the planning committee.

The thugs and frauds are trying to make out that everybody in the Vale will find their "way of life" changed when five wind turbines appear at the top of Bishampton Bank. What the hell is that supposed to mean?

What they mean, of course, is that a handful of arrogant and aggressive individuals will be able to see a windfarm if they face in a certain direction. Hardly a change to the "way of life" of anybody in the Vale. And when they call on local people to "protect" their "way of life" by storming the Council offices on 27 January, what VVASP are really saying is - "Come on, all you who won't be remotely affected by this wonderful development - come and fight for our privileges! Come and defend our immoral, antisocial behaviour! Come and terrorise your councillors over something we've continually lied to you about! Come and help us overthrow democracy!

"And then we'll tell you what you can and cannot do or say or think in your own villages!!

"Altogether, now:

"'TOMORROW BELONGS TO ME ... !'"

WHO'S BRIEFING THE BRIEF?

2011-01-12T20:13:00.000-08:00

Signs of desperation in the nimby camp are appearing thick and fast.

Not content merely to hurl extremely serious allegations about our democratically-elected representatives about the place, the loons of VVASP are now trying to frighten the good people of Harvington by claiming that "thousands" of trucks will be going through their village.

"Thousands"? Why not say "millions"? Why not - "Eight hundred trillion pantechnicons will crash through your living room and ruin your nice new rug"?

Meanwhile, the solicitor retained by VVASP - sorry, the Anti-Windfarm Working Party - is getting rather hot under the collar. Vide his latest blast, lobbed at ScottishPower Renewables and copied to his obscure "clients" and the Wychavon planning officer.

It's all to do with bats, apparently. A relatively calm report on ecology and habitat was filed by Baker Consultants. SPR duly responded. The solicitor went wild.

It doesn't help that, after several months of correspondence, the solicitor gets the name of the person he's writing to wrong. And, reading back through that correspondence, it's almost impossible to figure out what point he's trying to make. Rather like a drunk who's determined to start an argument, he takes any old sentence from the last SPR letter and conjures up all manner of strange assertions and bizarre scenarios - and all this in language which strays from legalese into something approaching abuse.

Of course, he's working for a fee (although he did halve a recent invoice because the incompetent nimbies of Church Lench Parish Council had overspent their "Windfarm Working Party" budget and he didn't want to make them look bad). And who pays the piper calls the tune. Which means that, in this case, a glaring non-issue is being treated as if it's proof positive that ScottishPower Renewables are in league with the devil and determined to murder bats - even ones that don't exist!

Now, we at Wind of Change are anything but anti-bat. We rather like the creatures, and we certainly don't want to see them harmed in any way.

But trying to pick a fight over whether one set of recordings used unidirectional or omnidirectional mikes is, well, let's face it, clutching at straws. And going off on one over SPR's reasonable point that most nature conservation agencies have recognised the need to mitigate the effects of climate change for the sake of the natural world - riffing hilariously on the ramifications of that dangerously irresponsible viewpoint (at one stage, he seems to suggest that such an argument, logically, should mean buying air-conditioning units to keep the bats happy and forgetting all about renewables) - well, that's not clutching at straws. That's drowning in a sea of hopelessness.

He's been told to savage SPR over bats. It's about the only thing the nimbies who run Church Lench reckon might scupper the plans. Unfortunately, though, the poor solicitor's got nothing to go on. The nookies of Lench keep sending him into battle with a pea-shooter. And no peas.

And who's paying for these letters? Who keeps saying, "Go on, write to them again" (even though he knows that he can do little more than smear a sheet of paper with something smelly and post it)? Well, guess who.

The people of the area who don't oppose the windfarm are paying for all this nonsense. The dark forces behind the "Windfarm Working Party" (which knows nothing about windfarms and has done nothing to enlighten itself) keep shoving him forward, snarling: "Go on, hit her! Here's some money - now hit her!" And the money they keep giving him is what you paid in taxes.

Value for money? No, not really. Especially when all the poor chap can do is wave a used tissue in SPR's face and make a noise like Chewbacca.

So - the big question: if the Anti-Windfarm Fig-Leaf Committee is paying for yet more pointless epistles - "Go on, call her a rude word! Go on!" - does that mean that there won't be any money left to pay for the solicitor to address the planning committee on behalf of twelve angry men and a rather bored dog? Have they given up on that plan, knowing that Wychavon District Council has heard plenty about this dodgy Working Party and the game might be up? Are these febrile attempts at hurting SPR's feelings simply the last gasp of a failed protest campaign?

Let's hope so.

COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION

2011-01-10T08:13:00.000-08:00

As we amble along towards the special meeting of the Development Control Committtee later this month, inevitably the nookies of VVASP are whipping up hatred and hysteria. You'd hope that recent developments in the United States, which seem to link hate-fuelled political propaganda with the shooting of politicians and nine-year old children, might have forced a rethink in such immoral activities. But no. VVASP continues to do what it has always done: spread fear and loathing by withholding useful information and peddling ludicrous myths.

Currently, VVASP would appear to be concentrating on two areas of concern. Noise, it would seem, is rather off the agenda (it was recently discovered that VVASP had been telling the inhabitants of a travellers' site at the bottom of Hipton Hill that the noise from the turbines would be "deafening"!), probably because it's a bit of a non-starter.

No, the two issues VVASP are exploiting to whip up the mob are house prices and shadow flicker.

House prices, first. It's perhaps a measure of the need some people feel for conformity that certain Lenchians are still prepared to believe that the windfarm will drive the value of their property down. This mad claim was one of those which the ASA rubbished, pointing out that VVASP had no evidence to support it and that they had selectively misquoted a report which in fact concluded that there is no clear correlation between windfarms and house prices.

Furthermore, the briefing document which appeared in the House of Commons Library a short while ago examines a variety of studies and concludes that, while there is no evidence at all of windfarms having a negative effect on house prices, there is some evidence which suggest that property values rise faster in proximity to a working windfarm.

So not only are VVASP spreading fear about something that is categorically not true - they're deliberately misleading their neighbours over the potential positive impact of the windfarm on their house prices!!!

Next, shadow flicker. It's clear that hardly anybody in the area knows what this is. Shadow flicker is a rare and unusual phenomenon and its effects can be mitigated. Windfarm developers know what causes it (and it only happens within a short range of turbines, under certain conditions, and in rooms which windows of a particular size), which means that they have been able to take steps to avoid it.

In short, shadow flicker isn't really an issue.

But what the nimbies keep going on about (if only they knew it) is something else altogether - shadow casting. Again, only something that happens within a defined area, and not something which has ever been proven to cause problems. Indeed, a progamme shown on BBC4 last night, about the Normans, had the presenter talking to camera as he walked through a windfarm in Normandy in a bright and breezy day. The "noise" of the windfarm was pretty much non-existent (which is why he was able to talk to the camera throughout), and the sweeping shadows of the blades were confined to a pretty narrow radius.

Of course, if you can point out that shadow flicker has, in the past, proven to be a nuisance, and you can then confuse people over what shadow flicker is (pretending, for example, that it's the same as shadow casting), then you can whip up yet more madness for your own devious ends.

But there's something that VVASP almost certainly haven't told anybody. In November 2008 (at the very time that VVASP was setting itself up specifically to fight ScottishPower Renewables, and less specifically to fight anybody who did not agree with them), Worcestershire County Council published its final report on renewables.

Independent consultants had identified a range of sites in Worcestershire which would be ideally suited for windfarm developments.

Church Lench, it was determined, was well-placed to support a windfarm of six large turbines (one more than is actually proposed) and there were no clear grounds for opposing them.

Bishampton and Throckmorton (just down the road) could support six large turbines and four large turbines respectively. Only in the case of Throckmorton airfield was it deemed relevant to note that there are properties nearby.

Overall, some twenty-five sites throughout Worcestershire were identified as being essentially windfarm-friendly. The three mentioned above were in the first category of sites "which present few substantial barriers to development".

You can read the full report here: http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/cms/pdf/Renewable%20Final%20Report%20PDF%20December.pdf

So, while VVASP continue to promote the fiction that they are poor downtrodden villagers being unfairly menaced by a major energy concern, the reality is that their county council had already spotted that Church Lench and several surrounding areas were just right for wind energy developments.

What next? Will VVASP start spreading the rumour that Worcestershire County Councillors have been taking backhanders as well?

GLOBAL NEWS

2011-01-09T09:05:00.000-08:00

Anyone who thinks that the windfarm issue is a small, localised one is desperately out-of-touch. But then, that's what happens if you listen to VVASP.

Wind energy is currently a bit of a sticking point between the world's superpower and the pretender to that title. The US is very unhappy about China's 'subsidies' to its own wind turbine manufacturers. China has doubled its capacity pretty much year on year since 2005 - it is now the world leader in wind generating capacity.

The US isn't far behind. Take Texas, usually thought of as the Oil State. Texas has invested massively in wind energy. Just don't mention climate change. In Texas, where it's considered heresy to do so, it is the economics of wind power which make total sense.

So, while the US and China slug it out over who's the daddy when it comes to generating wind energy, Europe is also forging ahead. The European Wind Energy Association has studied all 27 National Renewable Energy Action Plans from EU member states. If the commitments are met, then the EU will exceed its target of 20% electricity from renewable sources by the end of this decade.

In fact, 34% of Europe's energy is expected to come from renewables by 2020. 14% of that - by far the highest proportion - will come from wind. And with the UK set to generate 78.3 terrawatt-hours of electricity from wind alone in 2020, we will finally have climbed the league table, from third-from-bottom to second place, behind Germany.

While the fanatics of VVASP - currently doing all they can to whip up looney hysteria in advance of the planning meeting - seek to pretend that they are somehow alone on this planet, the rest of the world is taking wind energy extremely seriously. The United States seem to be embarrassed and angry at the fact that China is way ahead of them on this score, and Europe is looking in good shape to deliver a pretty impressive percentage of wind energy by 2020.

By the way, VVASP's latest shockingly shoddy gambit is to claim that, if - that is, IF - the Lenchwick Windfarm gets the go-ahead from Wychavon District Council, it will only be because money has changed hands.

Yep, that's right. The thugs and frauds of VVASP are preparing the ground for their imminent trouncing by spreading the rumour that Wychavon District Councillors might be taking bribes!!!

Now, okay, we're used to the manic nimbies stooping lower than a snake's bottom and spreading rumours of a truly disgusting nature. But this really does represent a new low. They're saying that, if they lose the battle of Lenchwick, it won't be because they have lied repeatedly and never really had a leg to stand on. It'll be because their democratically-elected local representatives are corrupt.

Ah well. Takes one to know one, eh?

TWISTED LOGIC

2011-01-07T07:14:00.001-08:00

You can tell when the nimbies are on the ropes and panicking slightly because they start saying some really strange things.

Take the person who has commented on the Wychavon District Council website calling for a survey of all supporters of the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm to find out how many live 600-800 metres from a windfarm.

We support this idea, and would also call upon the Council to find out how many objectors are Sagittarians, how many are left-handed and how many like their eggs sunny-side-up.

Of course, the Council has more important things to worry about, right now. But it's interesting, isn't it, to note that the nookies feel that only people currently living within a kilometre of wind turbines should be allowed to support them. If this was flipped around, and only people currently living within a kilometre of a windfarm were allowed to object to the Lenchwick development, the number of objectors would be reduced to ... nil.

By a similar token, only people living within a mile of a nuclear power station should be allowed to oppose nuclear power, and only people with fins should be allowed to worry about our depletion of the ocean's fish stocks.

The person who made this daft observation really should be kept away from sharp objects. It's a typical nimby manoeuvre. Only mad anti-windfarm protesters, pumped up on VVASP's lies, are allowed to have a say. Everyone else - and especially those who have taken the trouble to visit windfarms and understand the issues involved - must be silenced. That's how VVASP work.

Here's another example of lousy nimby thinking. Needled by a report submitted by BLoW about the viciousness and deviousness of VVASP behaviour, the clerk to Church Lench Parish Council was told to respond (none of the other five Parish Councils concerned has bothered).

The good news is that the nimbies are finally willing to admit that nearly thirty per cent of the parishioners polled in 2009 didn't bother to reply (so, naturally, they are automatically disenfranchised - still, makes a difference from VVASP claiming "82% of residents against").

The clerk also admits that the Lord of the Nimbies offered to help the "chair" of Church Lench Parish Council find some new parish councillors. No kidding. It's a bit like Robert Mugabe offering to help find some suitable Zimbabwean politicians.

Except that ... how can a Parish Council which doesn't exist (because its members have been forced to resign) have a "chair"? How was this individual appointed "chair"?

The clerk goes on to insist that the Windfarm Working Party did not agree to work alongside VVASP. This, according to the clerk to the nimbies, is erroneous, factually incorrect and defamatory.

Except that Church Lench Parish Council's minutes from July 2009 make it abundantly clear that VVASP and the Working Party agreed to divvy up responsibilities and share the workload. And, of course, the Working Party declared that VVASP should have sole responsibility for "educating" the community, even though Worcestershire County Council had already declared that it was the job of local authorities to pass effective and reliable education about renewables to the communities concerned.

(Further proof that the Windfarm Working Party was operating in complete ignorance of or contempt for the law can be found in the document, released in November 2007, concerning Councils' Powers to Discharge their Functions, which was published by NALC. This clearly states that 'Working Groups' and 'Working Parties' are committees covered by the 1972 Local Government Act, and are therefore subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. The Working Party has consistently argued that it is not covered by the FoI Act and can keep their activities secret. Evidently, just as the Working Party made no attempt to find out about windfarms, so they didn't try very hard to understand the law.)

The clerk states that the purpose of the Working Party was to provide "good communication" between the six affected Parish Councils. Where's the evidence of that "good communication"? And then, the clerk says that the Working Party was established to prevent duplication of effort. Basically, it meant that all six Parish Councils would not have to pay independently for legal advice or noise measurement surveys.

But realistically, how many of the six Parish Councils were likely to have consulted a solicitor and organised an "independent" noise measurement survey? The only Parish Council that was really interested in wasting public money on such things was the new-look Church Lench PC with its massive nimby bias. The others were fleeced of several hundred pounds and then told to submit a solicitor's response without much in the way of consultation. That's the "good communication" we were hearing about.

The noise measurement survey, part-funded by our own Parish Councils, revealed that the figures supplied by ScottishPower Renewables in the planning application were accurate. Not one Parish Council asked to see the results of the noise survey. One has to ask, how many of them were really bothered? And how many members of the public - who to all intents and purposes paid for that survey - have been told that ScottishPower Renewables' figures are good?

The real killer statement from the clerk is this one: "The logic of the working party is self-evident; one small parish council can have little effect in representing the views of the great majority of their parishioners against those of a multinational giant such as Iderbrola."

That is Church Lench speaking, because there was and is no such "great majority" in the other parishes (and not much of a majority in Church Lench). The decision to refer to the parent company, rather than ScottishPower Renewables, is also typical of the nimby movement. The clerk and her councillors are damned by their very own words. They used the money of the Parish Councils where there was no majority of opinion against the windfarm to fund their own witless campaign against the developer.

Again: "It is only by combining the skills, abilties and cash resources of several councils that one can hope to affect the outcome."

She might have added - "and by ignoring opinion polls, democracy and the law." So Church Lench had committed itself to affecting the outcome of the planning application before that planning application had arrived. That's a clear breach of Parish Council responsibilities (they're supposed to remain neutral and impartial until there's a planning application for them to look at). And, as the clerk's wording makes abundantly clear, one Parish Council had decided to ponce off the others in order to pursue its own policy, regardless of the views of the public who, without knowing it, were funding all this nonsense.

Perhaps if the Windfarm Working Party had simply tried to research windfarms (as they said they were going to when they were trying to get their hands on everybody else's money), there might have been some merit in the scheme. And if they'd bothered to check up on the law, rather than blithely insisting that they were accountable to nobody.

Maybe a survey should be carried out to discover how many members of the Windfarm Working Party have ever been 600-800 metres from a windfarm.

STATEMENT OF NEED

2011-01-06T07:36:00.000-08:00

In its 2007 document, 'Meeting the Energy Challenge', the DTI published a 'Renewables Statement of Need'. It should be required reading for all Wychavon District Councillors.

Take this paragraph:

New renewable projects may not always appear to convey any particular local benefit, but they provide crucial national benefits. Individual renewable projects are part of a growing proportion of low-carbon generation that provides benefits shared by all communities both through reduced emissions and more diverse supplies of energy, which helps the reliability of our supplies. This factor is a material consideration to which all participants in the planning system should give significant weight when considering renewable proposals. These wider benefits are not always immediately visible to the specific locality in which the project is sited. However, the benefits to society and the wider economy as a whole are significant and this must be reflected in the weight given to these considerations by decision makers in reaching their decisions.

(Our emphasis)

And then there's this bit, which should be read by all Parish Councillors - especially those who ought to be hanging their heads in shame:

PPS22 makes clear that regional planning bodies and local authorities should not make assumptions about the technical and commercial feasibility of renewable energy projects, and that possible locations for renewable energy development must not be ruled out as unsuitable in advance of full consideration of the application and its likely impacts ...

What else did the raging nimbies of Church Lench Parish Council and its Anti-Windfarm Working Party do, but make assumptions about the technical and commercial feasibility of the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm and endeavour to rule out the location before they'd even seen the planning application? This was precisely what the original Parish Council was determined to avoid doing - which is why they had to be bullied into resigning, so that they could be replaced by people who had VVASP placards and stickers plastered all over their property.

So ... 'crucial national benefits' ... 'benefits shared by all communities' ... 'benefits to society and the wider economy' ... the very things that VVASP and its pet Parish Councillors committed themselves to opposing.

Maybe it's the idea of 'benefits' that they just can't stand.

STROUD SUPPORTS WINDFARM!!

2011-01-05T07:46:00.000-08:00

If ever there was a headline guaranteed to cause apoplexy among the membership of VVASP, it must be that one!

However, it actually relates to an NOP opinion poll. Residents near Stroud in Gloucestershire were invited to express their opinions about a proposed windfarm for Berkeley Vale. The results are very interesting indeed - you can find them here:

http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/news/stroud-supports-berkeley-vale-wind-park-shows-nop-poll

Of course, the Lenchwick area has never properly been polled. We know that three Parish Councils surveyed their residents in March 2009. This led to accusations from VVASP at the time that the Parish Councils hadn't given the protest group enough chance to misinform the public about windfarms (four months of evil propaganda clearly wasn't sufficient, in VVASP's warped view, to mislead the community). VVASP very quickly managed to dispose of one of the Parish Councils concerned and attempted to get rid of one of the others, too.

But the polls revealed that the majority of local residents weren't opposed to the plans - many of them couldn't be bothered to respond. That gave VVASP the opportunity to disenfranchise a substantial number of local residents and grossly to misrepresent the outcome. According to VVASP, 82% of Church Lench parish was against the windfarm. According to mathematics, just 57% of households expressed opposition.

Even more amazing, in Harvington - where the Parish Council instantly set itself up as a manic nimby group - a mere 31% of household raised their voices against. That's right - 31%! So, of course, their parish councillors threw public money at VVASP, because democracy means nothing, does it?

Anyway, what the opinion poll in the Stroud area reveals is what is repeated in polls nationally. The majority of people support windfarms.

And as the link above indicates, a crazed minority make all the fuss against them. Some local councillors fall into the trap of assuming that the noisy nimbies represent the majority. In that way, the demented opponents of wind power hold the UK back and cost us all a great deal of money.

Let us hope that the councillors of Wychavon have the wisdom and common sense to recognise that VVASP represent only themselves - and that the majority, around Lenchwick as elsewhere, supports wind energy, but tends to do so rather quietly.