DO YOU CARE ABOUT OUR LANDSCAPE?

In North Northumberland we are presently fighting a government sanctioned assault on our landscape, communities and tourist economy by speculative wind turbine developers. Huge numbers have already been consented in moorland landscapes (with a better wind resource and fewer people) just to the north of us, in the Scottish Borders and East Lothian (See the Windbyte website).

Now our area is under threat from speculators who stand to make millions from developing turbine arrays that are hugely subsidised by the electricity consumer.

Faced with the threat of global warming, politicians are throwing our money at wind power development. It is a technology that has been around for decades, without ever overcoming its inherent problems - it is intermittent and does not substitiute for more than a tiny percentage of equivalent thermal generating capacity. After decades of exploitation, it remains uneconomic without substantial subsidies.
Paul Golby, Chief Executive of E.ON UK (formerly Powergen), has written, “ without the renewable obligation certificates nobody would be building wind farms.” Daily Telegraph (26/03/2005).

Even Professor Sir David King, who served as government chief scientific adviser from 2000 to 2007, has criticised the UK’s drive for wind power and its results in causing fuel poverty:

The EU needed to renegotiate a more achievable and less expensive target, and he added: “This is an issue which needs to be revisited and I say this as somebody who feels that we really have to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions very substantially but in my view it is an expensive, and not a very clever route to go for 35 to 40% on wind turbines.” (‘Poverty fears over wind power’, BBC News , 4 September 2008).

Wind power generation is being sold as a ‘quick fix’ solution to meeting the targets for carbon emissions. But Denmark and Germany have proved that large-scale, onshore wind power is not the answer. It still has to be backed up by conventional power stations. It contributes little to carbon saving and even less to security of supply.

If you care about our landscape please visit the Moorsyde Action Group website and see what we are opposing and take the time to make your views known to the politicians who are responsible for this lunacy.