Grassroots Opposition to Some Great Lakes Wind Growing

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Click to enlarge the map of Ohio’s wind energy potential, with darkest colors showing greatest potential, dramatizes the capacity of offshore wind in the state’s Lake Erie waters.

As more and more Great Lakes states and provinces move to authorize offshore wind farms in the Great Lakes, community-level opposition is growing.  The resistance is especially strong in Ontario, where offshore wind turbine proposals are surfacing from Lake Huron, Lake St. Clair, and Lake Eriee to Lake Ontario. Opponents cite unresolved and potentially major offshore siting issues ranging from aesthetics and noise pollution to impacts on bird, bat and fish populations, while environmental defenders say offshore wind is needed to help the Great Lakes region move toward clean and renewable energy.  Wind energy potential in the region is generally highest offshore. Similar differences are also emerging about some on-land proposals.

Referring to statements made by Ontario Minister of Energy Gerry Phillips about the beneficial impact of the new provincial Green Energy Act, Sherri Lange of Toronto Wind Action replies, “This is nothing more than government propaganda.  Industrializing the Great Lakes does nothing for the environment, nothing at all meaningful for the job market (each so called ‘green job’ in a study from Spain costs $1.2 million), and actually adds to the so-called carbon footprint. Denmark has increased coal production by 50% since the inception of wind.”

But other environmentalists disagree, saying offshore wind makes sense if done right.

“We’re in favor of it, but we recognize it has to be done right,” said Hugh McDiarmid of the Michigan Environmental Council (MEC).  The group has been a leading advocate for state policies to reduce coal power and increase renewable energy.

“We are potentially putting these things on a body of water that has tons of use that people recreate on and live around,” said Nick Schroeck, executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. “We do have to have some wind energy development. We just have to be smart were we put them.”

Ontario community advocates and some municipal officials say the Green Energy Act runs roughshod over communities and their environmental, health and other concerns.  They are organizing a protest at Queen’s Park in Toronto April 28.

Supporters of the new law say many such concerns are exaggerated. For example, the Ontario Green Energy Alliance cites research that it says demonstrates “a typical turbine in North America kills just two birds each year. In contrast, around 10,000 birds die each year from colliding with office towers in Toronto.”

In Michigan, controversy has erupted over a proposal by Scandia Wind Energy and partners to install turbines in two areas in Lake Michigan off the state’s west coast. A citizens group, Lake Michigan P.O.W.E.R. (Protect Our Water, Economy and Resources) Coalition, has organized to challenge the proposal.

“The shoreline should not be a guinea pig for an offshore wind power plant before there is any indication of its impact and effectiveness,” writes P.O.W.E.R. president Jeff Hoenle in a recent opinion column.

Some New York state communities are also up in arms about proposed offshore wind projects. The state Power Authority has proposed installing approximately 100 wind turbines just offshore in Lake Ontario or Lake Erie.

Map:  U.S. Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory.