TOO COSTLY?

Recently, we reported on a visit to a working windfarm which included the chance to stand inside a turbine mast. The conclusion of which was that anyone who says windfarms are noisy is lying their head off for some strange reason of their own.

Windfarms are not noisy. FACT.

So now we turn our attention to another fatuous claim made by that bunch of serial liars known as VVASP, and all the other clone groups set up to oppose perfectly sensible, clean, safe, quiet and elegant windfarm developments.

VVASP, with their usual lack of any regard for reality, claimed that, in addition to being 'TOO NOISY' (duh!!!) were also 'TOO COSTLY'. One might be entitled to enquire, 'On what grounds? Too costly compared with, what, nuclear?'

(Funny how VVASP, who were so keen to find photos of turbines on fire, don't seem so keen on publicising photos of the nuclear reactor explosions in Japan on their website.)

What VVASP meant, or thought they meant, is that windfarms produce expensive electricity. What else could they have meant? No one in the Lenchwick area was going to be paying for the turbines, and in fact the windfarm would bring in a fair amount of investment to the district, boosting property prices, paying rent to the landowners and attracting visitors. So what VVASP must have been trying to get away with saying is that windfarms themselves are somehow more expensive than other forms of electricity generation.

Not so. A study recently published by Eirgrid, the Irish grid operator and SEAI (the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland) came to a fascinating conclusion. Looking closely at current wholesale prices in the Irish electricity system, the report found that wind energy actually lowered wholesale prices by some 70 million euros. That almost entirely cancels out any subsidies and other costs involved in renewable energy generation. And with fossil fuel prices going through the roof, it's nothing but good news. Wind energy is remarkably cheap, compared with other sources, and it's getting comparatively cheaper all the time.

So the lesson is, windfarms produce inexpensive energy. Once again, VVASP have proven that either they don't know what they're on about, or they were deliberately misleading absolutely everybody by broadcasting the exact opposite of the truth.

Ah, but then again, maybe VVASP wanted us all to think that windfarms are costly in terms of jobs. After all, that's the message that the right-wing fundamentalists (or is that just 'mentalists'?) and climate change deniers at the Telegraph have been trying to get across this week.

Consultants at the Scottish firm Verso Economics had issued a report which claimed that the huge investment being made by the Scottish Executive in renewables was costing jobs. Or, rather, it didn't. What it said was that the subsidies which Scotland was making available for renewable energy generation was taking money away from other parts of the economy. So the idiots and fanatics at the Telegraph, including arch anti-climate change demagogue James Delingpole, were able to make out that, in addition to having been 'a disaster in Germany, Denmark and Spain' (lies, lies, lies), the renewables industry was costing the UK a terrifying number of jobs, with every 'green' job created destroying some 3.7 jobs elsewhere.

Amazing! It would be a cold day in hell when the Telegraph, so intent on spooking Middle England with its demented anti-windfarm stories, campaigned for public money to be used in job creation schemes - even though that's precisely what its utterly misleading and untruthful claims about renewables and jobs seems to be saying. Basically, they argued that putting money into renewable energy projects, as Scotland has been doing so enthusiastically and so successfully, took that (public) money away from other schemes which might - just might - create more jobs. The Telegraph, for once in its existence, really was advocating the use of public money to create jobs, just as long as they're not 'green' jobs.

Well, heigh-ho - proof that the Telegraph and its bonkers climate change deniers could not have been more wide of the mark also emerged this week. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics revealed that unemployment has continued to rise in the UK, going up by 2,000 in Wales, 4,000 in Northern Ireland and a shocking 38,000 in England. The only part of the UK to have bucked that trend is Scotland, where unemployment DROPPED by 16,000.

Somehow or other, while investing in renewable energy projects (which according to the right-wing maniacs cost jobs) Scotland has managed to reduce unemployment. It's obviously doing something right. While England, home to the cretinous anti-windfarm fringe and their braindead propagandists at the Telegraph, is losing jobs by the bucketload. And not because of investments in renewables.

So, if anyone tries to tell you that windfarms are too costly, what are you going to say?

How about, 'Get a grip, wise up and stop spreading lies, you ignorant pile of donkey dung'? It's about time somebody told the self-serving cretins of VVASP and its sister organisations where to get off.