Hundreds of farmers and rural residents rallied outside a clean energy forum in Toronto on Tuesday in a bid to call for an end to subsidies for wind power. According to a report from AFP, noise from the colossal turbines were not only making them sick, but also driving down property prices in rural areas situated nearby wind-farms. Besides calling for a stop to the subsidy, the group also asked for Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to resign for pushing wind power as part of a clean energy agenda.
Jane Wilson, president of Wind Concerns Ontario which is one of the 40 groups represented at the protest said that people compare the wind-farms to windmills in Holland but stressed that they were not even mildly similar. She added, “They’re huge power-producing machines that make noise and produce a vibration that is felt in the inner ear, similar to bass from a passing car that’s playing loud music.”
She also said that because of the vibration and noise, people staying nearby wind-farms were finding it hard to sleep at night; they also became victims of headaches and had bouts of nausea as well as dizziness. Other members of the protest were upset about premiums that were being paid for wind and solar energy, saying Ontario’s feed-in tariff program, which led to thousands of small rooftop solar installations and large wind-farms to pop up across the province has driven up the cost of energy. In response to the protest, Ontario Premier McGuinty said that his government would lower the subsidies the province pays for future wind and solar energy products.
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