Heroes stand up

Win or lose, Ian Hanna and Dr. Robert McMurtry are heroes. They deserve our thanks and enduring appreciation for standing up to the McGuinty government this week.

Neither of these men was looking for a fight—especially not one with an entity as powerful as a provincial government. Both had reached a point in their lives, like many who seek out a life in Prince Edward County, where they had earned the opportunity to slow down and take life at a more relaxed pace.

Dr. McMurtry, like many folks, supported the goals of renewable energy including wind energy. That is until he began reading and researching more about wind energy. The more he learned, the more alarmed he became.

As anyone who digs into the issue soon learns, intermittent electricity generating sources such as wind and solar, require two fundamental things to happen before the power they generate amounts to anything more than sparkling trinkets in the province’s energy supply.

First the entire grid must be rebuilt and made smarter— a project which is on the scale tearing up the province’s entire road and highway network and replacing it with a monorail system. It is so stupendously massive the planning alone would likely cost more than we could afford without destroying our economy. The bottom line is that we haven’t even started this conversation yet.

The second prerequisite to the effective use of intermittent power is the need for large scale electricity storage. This hasn’t been invented. It doesn’t exist. This is a showstopper— yet McGuinty ploughs on.

More alarming for McMurtry, an orthopedic surgeon and former special advisor to the Canadian Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care, was that the more he read the more he learned about how wind turbines were making people sick. It is baffling to him, and should be to us, that no comprehensive epidemiological studies have yet been conducted to ensure that these massive turbines are safe to those who live near them.

Clearly someone had to stand up and try and stop Dalton McGuinty and his energy misadventure.

Neither Hanna nor McMurtry expected to be cast as David in a protracted struggle with Dalton McGuinty’s Goliath. Yet this is where they find themselves—doing battle in a courtroom in Toronto—struggling to beat back a misguided but powerful provincial government intent on ramming through bad policy driven by the arrogant and cynical ambition of being seen to be green.

Tragically, Hanna and McMurtry are battling a foe who is blind to the wanton destruction of communities, economies, natural habitats and human lives caused by his energy policies. Afoe so caught up in his desire to beat back detractors, he has lost sight of what he is fighting for, and the shortcomings of his own plan.

Dalton McGuinty seems unable or unwilling to look at the harm his energy policies are causing, either to the frontlines in rural communities coping with the build up of his massive wind energy factories, or to the everyday Ontarians who don’t understand why their hydro bills are soaring when demand is falling and supply is abundant.

McGuinty is building a legacy—a legacy he is betting will be viewed more kindly by readers of history than those living it today. This legacy comes with a huge cost, however, in terms of billions of squandered taxpayer dollars, the economic prosperity of rural communities and the health of their citizens.

Hanna and McMurtry have decided they must try and stop this Goliath. All they have is their own energy and resources plus the support of thousands of individuals across the province. Yet they are no match for a premier who has repeatedly demonstrated he will marshal all necessary government resources to see his will done; and that he will slash and burn every regulation and protection that gets in his way.

Hanna and McMurtry are brave and clever men. They know the odds are long. But they also understand that someone has to stand up to a tyrant. Or else, we must all live in fear.

Find out how you can help.

Go to: windconcernsontario.org.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca