In North Shropshire Owen Paterson, conservative MP is blocking wind power, in Shrewsbury, Daniel Kawzynski, Conservative MP is against energy from waste, in South Shropshire, Phillip Dunne, Conservative MP is blocking a biomass power station.

Clearly Conservatives love coal, they are against energy independance for Shropshire and modern low carbon green technologies which will help create jobs in Shropshire.

Clearly Conservatives are in the past and are not serious about climate change

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they dont like electricity???

i like the idea of a nuclear or coal fired power station in their village instead, see how they like that

i hope they have their electricity cut off for a few days because they dont know how lucky they are in this country i tell you

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Government should ensure through legislation that wind farms bring tangible benefits to the community that they supply.

After all, no form of energy production is truly sustainable without local support.

Greenpeace has an inspiring animation on their website of what a truly sustainable town could look like (just Google ‘Greenpeace Efficiencity’)

This town is not dependent on a distant nuclear power station, but is producing its own energy -some of it through wind, some from other sources.

The more community power schemes this city has, the more democratic its energy supply system would be.

In this town energy sellers, who had made the initial investment, would make a profit, landowners would receive leasing fees, community businesses would have energy security, local people would get jobs, consumers would receive electricity at competitive prices and communities would have clean air and confidence in the future.

Yes, the Greens have lost this particular argument, but let’s not agonize, let’s organise!

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The landscape we inhabit is largely human-made and it evolves over time. In comparison to other energy developments like nuclear, coal and gas power stations, or open cast mining, wind farms have relatively little visual impact. Nevertheless sites within Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) or National Parks are unlikely to be appropriate for large wind farms.

The increased utilisation of renewable energy and greater use of wind power will mean that we will have more of these structures visible in our townscape and landscape in the future. But all the organisations supporting this web site believe that wind energy is one of the most environmentally benign ways of producing the electricity we need to power our daily lives.

If we don’t switch to cleaner forms of energy, climate change will severely and irrevocably alter much of our landscape as well as the animal and plant life it contains.

Relative to the danger of climate change aesthetics are trivial

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sadly vortex are a vocal minority

i reckon more would be too if the wind power companies did what the danes did and gave 50% off electric to all those with a view

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David Cameron needs to have a word with his MP and remind him conservatives are now pro the environment and that means pro wind power

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NIMBYS = not in my back yard

BANANAS = build absolutely nothing at all never anywhere

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How is a green industrial revolution going to be possible in the UK if we are served by politicians with such a staggeringly flimsy grasp of the implications of climate change and the job-creating potential of green technologies?

At the end of May there were 2.38 million people out of work according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) -a 10-year high in Shropshire ( http://www.shropshirestar.com/2009/02/11/jobless-at-10-year-high/ ).

According to the UN 300,000 people are dying worldwide as a result of climate change every year, mostly the poorest people in the poorest countries, who have done least to contribute to it.

The UK economy is as dangerously addicted to oil, gas and coal as ever. Rises in the price of energy in the next few years are widely predicted -and clearly ignored.

The rhetoric of the 3 main parties on advancing the move to a low carbon economy needs to be matched by political will and a willingness to argue the case for a root-and-branch conversion of our economy away from fossil fuels.

If politicians in the windiest country in Europe don’t want wind power (the cleanest, greenest, least destructive of all energy sources -see Stanford University report in #2) then it is incumbent upon them to articulate their vision of low-carbon alternatives for Shropshire, which will ‘strengthen our economy, help guarantee our energy security and protect our environment for future generations.’

With the exception of one time-wasting caricature (Tory Boy), the silence on low-carbon alternatives to wind has been deafening.

I hope someone who is experiencing joy about this decision is willing to explain why they are right and why the losers in this decision are wrong.

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I think we DO need more turbines in Shropshire and for the good of the county as a whole we should put them in the north to keep the south nice as an AONB, or better still why not in Shrewsbury and telford where they have plenty of industrial development, i would like to see them in Battlefield instead of that incinerator as they have no emissions they are better for health and pollution and climate change

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down with the eu and their ugly turbines, this is a victory for GB against the lefty greens

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Did you know the only british wind turbine manufacturer Vestas on the isle of Wight is on the verge of closure – 600 skilled jobs to be lost / moved production overseas where they are keen on high tech manufacturing and support emerging technology not strangle it with red tape

In the Times Business Section last week it says “The company cited sluggish demand for turbines in the UK, in contrast to booming wind energy sales in China and the United States.”

Thank you very much Owen Paterson and VORTEX, from the bottom of my heart i wish the dole on you and all your kin, from the workers of UK PLC

In Shropshire people are struggling with high fuel bills and jobs and being cut. We are plagued by wacky weather costing taxpayers millions to repair roads and flood damage etc.
Meanwhile the North Shropshire MP is against clean, green, cheap, abundant power production in Shropshire, Not in his back yard, oh no, he doesnt want jobs in his back yard, why on earth would north shropshires economy want a power station ?

I dispair

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Concentrating solar power (CSP) uses mirrors to focus sunlight onto water. This produces steam that can then turn turbines and generate electricity.

For a very short video about the benefits of concentrated solar (no. 2 on recommended list in the Stanford University report in #2), I recommend this explanation by Gerry Wolff of a group called Desertec-UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/jul/09/manchester-report-gerry-wolff-solar

Importing clean energy from the Sahara desert won’t create jobs in Shropshire as wind does or do much for our manufacturing base as wind could, but it sounds like the sort of thing that our MPs should be investigating, doesn’t it?

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‘With our energy supplies increasingly sourced overseas, and with urgent action needed to combat climate change, it’s time to rethink the way we supply and consume energy in Britain.

We urgently need to move to a low carbon economy in order to strengthen our economy, help guarantee our energy security and protect our environment for future generations.’

http://www.conservatives.com/Policy/Where_we_stand/Energy.aspx

Are these words just PR for the ‘Think Green Vote Blue’ party, or is Mr Paterson really re-thinking the way energy security is strengthened and energy is supplied and consumed in North Shropshire?

We urgently need to move to a low carbon economy, but I see little urgency from our elected representatives (Conservative or Lib Dem) in this region ( http://www.shropshirestar.com/2009/07/15/opik-hands-in-turbine-petition/ ).

In 2007 Germany’s Öko-Institut calculated the relative carbon emissions for different forms of energy.

Coal: 1,153 grammes of CO2 per kilowatt hour

Gas: 428 grammes of CO2 per kilowatt hour

Wind: 24 grammes of CO2 per kilowatt hour

In December 2008 the first quantitative, scientific evaluation of the proposed major energy sources was produced by Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University (later published in ‘Energy and Environmental Science’).

Jacobson assessed not only their potential for delivering energy for electricity and vehicles, but also their impacts on global warming, human health, energy security, water supply, space requirements, wildlife, water pollution, reliability and sustainability.

Quoting from Stanford University News, ‘the raw energy sources that Jacobson found to be the most promising are, in order,

1) wind
2) concentrated solar (the use of mirrors to heat a fluid)
3) geothermal
4) tidal
5) solar photovoltaics (rooftop solar panels)
6) wave
7) hydroelectric

Jacobson recommends against nuclear, coal with carbon capture and sequestration, corn ethanol and cellulosic ethanol, which is made of prairie grass.’

Vortex, the anti-wind group, refused to be drawn on which energy source their members preferred when contacted by the Shropshire Green Party, but this is a vital question, which our democracy needs to discuss and find answers to.

What does Mr Paterson propose instead of wind?

All parties involved in the Shropshire wind debate can hopefully agree on the need for massive government investment in energy conservation schemes.

However, the Labour government still refuses to fully fund a universal energy-saving programme for all homes and businesses. Instead individuals have to apply for loans.

Time is running out. We need big cuts in carbon NOW, and wind is a vital part of the energy mix.

If objectors don’t like wind, then -once their joy has abated- it would be great if they could let us know which form of low-carbon energy Shropshire should be pushing towards.

Is Matt (#1) right?

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