Layton tilts to windmills (NDP vows to build 10,000 wind turbines)

[Minstrel Boy]

Layton tilts to windmills
Vows to build 10,000 wind turbines

Toronto Star, June 3

CALGARY—Canada would be dotted with windmills under an NDP plan to reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels, party leader Jack Layton has promised.

...

Layton, 53, has set even more ambitious goals this week, vowing to build 10,000 wind turbines and promising to retrofit "all the buildings in Canada" with new windows and furnaces to make them more energy efficient.

"We should become leaders," Layton said during a campaign stop here yesterday.

The NDP, he said, would phase out subsidies for polluting energy and "transform ourselves into a country that actually invests in renewable and energy efficiency."

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1086214212944&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467

And for the curious, NDP's environment policy:
http://www.ndp.ca/uploaded/20040522190144_NDPEnviroPolicy2004_eng.pdf

[Sticky]

1. I have seen nothing but NDP lawn signs!

They're everywhere and they're dotting everything from farmer's fields to horse barns.

NOVA Scotia usually votes Liberal but I have a feeling NDP is going to come up big this month.

[Minstrel Boy]

6. Encouraging. National polls have had small sample sizes from NS,

and I think have underestimated the party's strength. The provincial party is, I believe, quite popular, and Layton said a few weeks ago the NDP could win eight of 11 NS seats.

Here's a similar story from Hamilton Ont., which has been solidly Liberal for years, but looks to be swinging NDP in a big way:


At Canada's first Tim Hortons coffee shop, where political maverick Sheila Copps launched her Liberal leadership bid last year, talk of politics is poison and the only law signs nearby are NDP orange.

...

Up the street, the campaign manager for Keyes' NDP rival David Christopherson can't believe his good fortune.

"Right now, these are mean streets for Liberals," said Dennis Young, waving toward the rundown rowhouses and forlorn shops along Main Street East.

Young canvassed for NDP premier Bob Rae when he went down in flames in Ontario's 1995 provincial election. "I know ugly!" Young said with glee.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/CanadaVotes/2004/06/02/483463-cp.html

[chenGOD]

2. Good plan...

Here's hoping us Canucks give the NDP enough seats in the upcoming election to be able to actually get started on it.

[SidDithers]

3. Why do they have to come up with the cutesy titles...

I mean, we all know what "tilting at windmills" means - and this title gives an immediate first impression that isn't consistent with the content of the article. How about something simple like "NDP Plans 10,000 Wind Turbines"

I wish the media would just report the fecking news, and stop trying to make it infotainment.

Thanks for the article, btw :)

Sid

[Minstrel Boy]

4. Yeah, I know. The headline winkingly suggests

"there go those flakey treehuggers again." Even in a supposedly left-liberal paper like the Star.


Renewable energy = kooky.
Harper's plan to buy hybrid aircraft carriers = sensible.

What's wrong here?

[JayS]

5. Wait a second...

If Canada puts up 10,000 windmills to harvest the energy contained in the wind...doesn't this mean that the U.S. will get less wind from the North? It sounds like they are stealing our wind! That blows!

STOP CANANDA FROM BREAKING (the) WIND!!!



Wind farms are getting popular here in Texas. It is a great way for farmers to make some extra money also.

[Minstrel Boy]

7. Story in the Globe, with a nice response from a Lib candidate:

NDP Leader Jack Layton, an avid environmentalist who hasn't owned a car in decades, yesterday offered petroleum-rich Calgary a vision of a future where wind-power turbines, not oil wells, dot the Alberta landscape.

...

"It's aggressive relative to where we're starting, but it's realistic," said Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association. He noted that creating one megawatt of wind power costs about $1.5-million in up-front costs, or $15-billion for 10,000 megawatts.

...

Justin Thompson, Liberal candidate in Calgary West, said Mr. Layton's proposal makes sense, pointing out that the federal Liberals have already introduced incentives for building wind power. "The NDP's moving in the right direction, and I hope the Liberals will be doing the same," he said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040603/LAYTON03/TPNational/Canada

It's refreshing to see a decent, even positive remark about a rival party's platform, particularly during an election. Hat's off to Mr Thompson.

[Lisa]

18. and another tip of the hat to the Liberals ...

The platform unveiled by the PM this week also mentions wind power generation (aiming for 5% of Canada's energy by 2010). As an NDPer, I'm thrilled that there is such a broad consensus on this! As far as I'm concerned, it gives these ideas more credibility all round. How interesting that Alberta (and Texas too!) could do very well out of solar, wind, and geothermal -- if they shifted focus to providing energy rather than just fossil fuels.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040603.el4platform06031/BNStory/specialDecision2004/

[TrogL]

8. This is not an entirely stupid idea

Canada already has a few windmills. There are plenty of places, especially in Alberta, where prevailing winds would make a perfect location.

[Minstrel Boy]

9. As I said above,

It's refreshing to see a decent, even positive remark about a rival party's platform, particularly during an election.

"This is not an entirely stupid idea" is quite magnanimous of you. :evilgrin:

[RFKHumphreyObama]

10. Question: If Martin is forced to form a minority government

with the support of the NDP, won't it be more of a curse than a blessing for Layton? Basically Martin will use the NDP as scapegoats every time he can't get one of his policies through and frame them out to be the main obstacle as to why Canada isn't as economically strong/socially cohesive or whatever as it should be. After he's spent approximately one or two years doing a hatchet job on the NDP and promoting the prospect of a majority government, he'll call another election and sweep to power on the back of promising "strong and effective government". He'll subsequently win in a landslide.

Isn't that what Peterson did in 1985 when he had to form a minority government with the NDP in Ontario? He waited until the earliest possible chance, dissolved Parliament and called an election in 1987 which resulted in a landslide victory for him. It's also akin to what some Premiers have done here in Australia when they have had to form minority governments

Please don't get me wrong -if I were Canadian, I'd consider voting for the NDP as well -but I'm just concerned it will do them more harm than good in the long term if they power share in a minority government

[Frederic Bastiat]

19. We might see a Conservative minority government

Rumors are that the Bloc is in talks with the Conservatives, plus the Liberals are being hammered by both the Left and the Right. Think about it, the attempt to swing far Left has breathed new life into the Conservatives, law of unintended consequences anyone?

[seemslikeadream]

11. I live about 20 miles from a wind mill farm

We drive by just to watch sometimes. We sure do grow them tall in the midwest.

[JayS]

14. I wish they would let artists...

...have some fun painting the blades to create cool illusions when the blades are turning. That would be interesting.

[seemslikeadream]

17. Larson Utility Camouflage

http://www.ptelcom.com/utility.htm





http://www.well.com/user/dmsml/gib-sb.html

[no_arbusto]

20. "Stealth" utilities

I used to work in the cell tower industry and I've got to say, for the most part, stealth (what industry people call them) setups are merely a way to get around zoning requirements. Most companies do the bare minimum to hide their equipment and the results are rather hilarious.

Most stealth cell phone "trees" look like brown poles with green pipe cleaners coming out of them. They are SO obvious because they are like 50 feet higher than the surrounding trees and they are usually a tall spindly pine tree in a field of oaks. The palm trees in CA are a little bit better but around dusk the red light starts to flash at the top giving them away.

As my great-great grandmother used to say, "You can't polish a turd".

[AZCat]

21. I have a polished turd!

Years ago, when the world was young, I ran in a relay race with a couple of buddies of mine. We won our age group, and the award was a plaque with a laquered cow pie attached.

I guess it's a local thing...

[Canuckistanian]

12. This is why I'm NDP

Reduction of greenhouse gases, less dependence on foreign oil, fostering our own industry.
It's win-win.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

13. We could put those 10,000 windmills in Southern Alberta alone.

Hell, I could take a couple in my garden, right up at the top end of Calgary.

[JayS]

16. Some farmers here make money by leasing little squares of...

..land at the edges of their fields to power companies wanting to put up windmills. Nice little extra source of year round income.

[ConcernedCanuk]

15. Just that alone is enough for one to vote NDP in my opinion

.
.
.

a little info:

"

Canada has only 344 windmills. The Germans have over 13,000. The German state of Schleswig-Holstein gets 25 per cent of its energy from wind. Denmark is 14.8 per cent wind-powered. Forget about the charming wooden structures on the Dutch coast you see in sappy watercolours. In Europe, windmills are serious business. The Danes employ 21,000 people in their windmill industry. Ontario's forestry, fishing, mining and oil and gas industries combined employ 34,000.

http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_06.26.03/city/enviro.html
____________________________________________________

Riding the Wind in Calgary

The switch to wind energy makes Calgary’s C-Train the first public transit system in North America to be powered by renewable energy.

Calgary Transit had been considering switching to hydrogen fuel cell-powered buses, but discovered that it could get twice the emissions reduction at a fraction of the cost by using wind power. The switch to wind power is expected to save about 21,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually for the ten years of the contract. The system was formerly powered by electricity from coal- and natural gas-fired sources.

Wind-generated electricity is currently very favourably priced in comparison to the Power Pool price. But Enmax experts say that even if power prices drop, considering the transit authority’s 40 million passengers per year, the highest possible cost would be less than a penny per passenger.

http://www.life.ca/nl/81/calgary.html Heck, - if ONE city can do it - - - :shrug:
___________________________________________________

A recent opinion poll of 1,500 Canadians conducted by the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) and the Environmental Monitor shows that 82 percent of Canadians are interested in using wind energy, and would pay a premium for it if necessary.

The results of the poll show that Canadians feel wind energy is a clean, safe and desirable alternative to traditional energy sources.

In another poll, Ontario Hydro found that many of its customers would be prepared to pay as much as 10 percent extra in “green” premiums in order to use more electricity produced by solar and wind.

http://www.life.ca/nl/48/wind.html
____________________________________________________

Imagine turning the US deserts into wind farms -

Gee!

Then they could eventually leave the Middle East alone ?

And NOT worry about nuke waste from reactors?

I know -

silly ideas ( they NEED some of that Nuke waste for their Depleted Uranium they spread all over with their bullets, bombs and armor -(sigh) )

:silly: