Key takeaways:
- The advantages are straightforward, but problems remain, says the mayor of Cape St. George.
- On Wednesday, with the decision coming, Cape St. Goerge Mayor Stella Cornect stated her community is disunited on the project.
A decision on releasing an offered wind-energy project for the Port au Port Peninsula from the environmental assessment is threatening, with Environment Minister Bernard Davis anticipated to provide an update Friday.
Citizens on the peninsula instantly raised concerns when the bid was declared to set 164 wind turbines throughout the site, along with a green hydrogen and ammonia plant nearby Stephenville.
On Wednesday, with the decision looming, Cape St. Goerge Mayor Stella Cornect said her neighborhood is divided on the project.
“There’s a lot of opposing comments. A lot.[But] there are some for [the project],” stated Cornect.
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A panel of 18 people, made up of town councilors from the four cities in the province and spokespeople from the area’s 11 provincial service districts, is tasked with keeping citizens reported and taking concerns straight to the local government and World Energy GH2, the umbrella firm of four partners behind the bid.
Cornect said there are problems regarding noise from the turbines but added it didn’t seem to be a problem with a wind farm constructed eight years back in Haldimand County, south of Hamilton, Ont., visited by several members of the committee.
“It was no concern, and these wind turbines we saw were right on the people’s land,” she stated. “We stepped up to the turbines; we were right there by them. Birds were flying everywhere.… We didn’t see at the time any adverse effects.”
Turbines offered for the Port au Port Peninsula can be no nearer to any building than one kilometer, said John Risley, chairman, and chief executive officer of CFFI Ventures — part of the body behind World Energy GH2 — in a public forum with citizens in early July.
Source – CBC News
