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Windfarms drive wedge between green activists

Ben Sandilands

CAN SOMETHING as small and beautiful as a seldom-seen but endangered species of parrot stop the turbines turning on any more wind farms in Australia? The answer this month appears to be "yes" and it has green and non-green politicians and energy sector investors ripping strips off each other.

In fact, Australia is just the latest stage for the ongoing bitterness which the "scenic pollution" of "non-polluting" wind farms has caused over much of the coastal strips and high ridges of the U.S., and across much of Europe. In modern times, no one has ever actually seen the bird in question, the orange-bellied parrot, on or anywhere near the proposed Bald Hills wind farm overlooking Victoria's Gippsland coastline. Perhaps the near-constant gales that keep them stripped to knee-high scrub are just too strong for anything with feathers.

But that did not stop Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell from blocking a A$220 million 52 turbine electricity generating wind farm for the wildly scenic ridgeline despite its approval by the Victoria Government. Mr. Campbell based his veto on a scientific study by his department that concluded there was a risk that at least one of the parrots would be killed by one of the rotating turbines every year if the project went ahead.

Fewer than 180 orange-bellied parrots are in the wild according to studies of the bird which fell into sharp decline across Australia from 1930 when its natural habitat of flat easy to build upon saltbush scrubs were cleared for coastal strip developments.

Garry Weaven, chairman of Industry Funds Management which owns about half the wind farms in Australia, claims Mr. Campbell "clearly operated at the behest of the aluminium and coal lobbies" because they were the direct beneficiaries of government subsidies for the development of "clean" fossil fuel burning technologies at the expense of renewable wind, wave or solar energy investments.

The Victorian Government claims the Minister is indulging in political favours to wealthy hobby farm owners living within sight of Bald Hills who claim to be "green" but voted for his conservative coalition candidates at a recent election because they campaigned on a promise to stop the windmills ruining their views.

The Greens party is divided over the issue. In Tasmania, it cautiously supports wind power "in appropriate locations," while its Victorian branch recently removed all references to wind farms from its policies pending a "review."

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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