Renewable Norway v/ Thor Egil Braadland opens the debate post in Helgelendingen on 15 April with “The energy debate has become a national stage where you are allowed to say anything. We cannot continue like this«.
The wind power lobby’s first lady, Åslaug Haga, warns of a tougher fight against the critics: Myths must be shattered.
– Norway is steering towards a power deficit in a few years. Wind power is the cheapest and fastest way to get a lot of power in place. Now that the municipalities have in practice got a right of veto against wind power, we cannot have local debates where truth and untruth are mixed together, she says.
Haga says that the municipalities have not only been given the right to say no, they also have a responsibility to say yes.
Energy Minister Terje Aasland moves towards Headwind Norway and says:
– If you are interested in further developing Norway, you should not listen to Motvind.
Braadland gets an answer from retired civil engineer Albert Berveling: “Freedom of speech – a threat to Renewable Norway?”
At the same time, the mainstream media are beginning to open their eyes to wind power’s “blessings”:
Homes near wind turbines are sold at a significantly lower price
This is revealed in the first quantitative analysis of the consequences of wind power development on the Norwegian housing market, which Finansavisen has discussed.
The study has looked at housing transactions near all 61 power plants that have been established on land in Norway.
– There are rules about, among other things, noise zones, but those who live near wind power plants have been taken into account to a small extent, says analyst Markus Lund Andersen, who has helped carry out the study, to the newspaper.
According to the study, even homes that are as far away from the power plants as six kilometers have a significant drop in price. This corresponds to 23,000 home owners who have sold their homes at a discount.
Homes with a distance of one to two kilometers from the power plants have an average price drop of 15 per cent. Distances of six to seven kilometers result in a drop of 4.4 per cent on average.
Norway has zero need for destructive wind power plants
Wind power plants provide unstable power that Norway does not need. They harm nature for the foreseeable future and harm people and nature here and now. The only people who need these facilities are the wind power speculators and the financial capital behind them.
But Aasland, Haga & co are their lobbyists and advertising people and are doing what the European Commission has asked, namely to prepare the ground for a reckless development of new wind power, without real case management and impact assessment.
The EU’s renewables directive requires a fast track for new power
And then it is no wonder that they dislike the democratic, public debate.
Massive popular rejection with 7,500 consultation responses to the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive
More than 7,500 responses have been received to the government’s consultation on the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive. This makes it one of the hearings that has received the most input ever. Almost everyone is asking the government to say no to the directive.
“The massive response sends a clear signal from the grassroots to the government that the population is not going to accept that the Renewables Directive is introduced either in whole or in part in Norway” says John Fiskvik, chairman of Motvind Norge.
Excerpts from some of the consultation input:
- NVE says that “NVE’s assessment is that the requirements for deadlines in license processing and designation of so-called acceleration areas for the development of renewable power will entail a major change in the license processing process”. In other words, the directive may result in us having to reverse several decades of development in public spatial planning processes for energy development
- KS says that “The renewables directive challenges local self-government and room for action” and indicates that “centralized processes do not promote local acceptance”. KS also asks nine key questions about how the directive will work for the municipalities. The many questions show how unclear the text of the directive is.
- The municipalities: Motvind Norge reacts to the fact that the Ministry of Energy has not sent out the consultation to the municipalities. We have found that only Hareid, Lund and Aure municipalities have submitted consultation responses, and all write that the directive is undesirable. The municipalities are perhaps the party most affected by the Renewables Directive, and Motvind Norge believes it is undemocratic that they are not heard and wonders whether this is sound management practice.
- Renewable Norway for its part, sees no obstacles to introducing the Renewables Directive and supports its introduction in its entirety as quickly as possible. This constitutes a breach of promise as Renewable Norway and the wind power industry have time and again stated about “new good licensing processes”, where one should “build wind power on a level with the municipalities”, and to take more account of people, nature and biological diversity. Now they instead support fast-track processes with little democratic participation, weakening of impact assessments and overrunning.
“If the government were to introduce the renewables directive, it would open the door for a very hard drive from the wind power industry to secure large natural and open air areas for wind power development. It will be a tragedy for both people, nature and biodiversity” says Sveinulf Vågene, leader of the union policy committee in Motvind Norge.
