Thursday, February 17, 2005
How the wind blows....
Does anyone know Calum's definative position on wind farms?
Community windfarms are A Good Thing, we all agree, but his latest pronouncement seems to be an attempt to face all ways at once.
In January 2004 he was saying "In the Western Isles, in particular, we certainly need at least one big development in order to finance the interconnector or sub-sea cable to carry our energy over to the National Grid. That is why I am so strongly in favour of AMEC’s big project in North Lewis, for example, provided that AMEC can guarantee that there will be plenty of spare capacity in the interconnector for future community-owned windfarms to access. Indeed, the public planning authorities must be very alert to any arrangement between the prospective big developers that allocates all the space on the proposed interconnector between them and shuts out small locally-owned windfarms."
Now that makes a lot of sense, but how does that square with his statement in September 2004 that "In my view, renewable energy has the potential to transform the economy of the islands and to make us into one of the most prosperous parts of the UK. But that will happen only if islanders make sure that they are in the driving seat of any proposed development so that they can maximize the income that goes into the community rather than it getting exported to various company headquarters on the mainland." Which seems to oppose the Amec development.
According to the radio, this week he appears to have come out aginst anything but community developments.
Having stirred up the anti windfarm campaign with false promises about the Executive, Calum is now like a piece of debris being blown around the streets of Sy - not sure where he'll be blown next.
And as for the invisible Alasdair ....
Community windfarms are A Good Thing, we all agree, but his latest pronouncement seems to be an attempt to face all ways at once.
In January 2004 he was saying "In the Western Isles, in particular, we certainly need at least one big development in order to finance the interconnector or sub-sea cable to carry our energy over to the National Grid. That is why I am so strongly in favour of AMEC’s big project in North Lewis, for example, provided that AMEC can guarantee that there will be plenty of spare capacity in the interconnector for future community-owned windfarms to access. Indeed, the public planning authorities must be very alert to any arrangement between the prospective big developers that allocates all the space on the proposed interconnector between them and shuts out small locally-owned windfarms."
Now that makes a lot of sense, but how does that square with his statement in September 2004 that "In my view, renewable energy has the potential to transform the economy of the islands and to make us into one of the most prosperous parts of the UK. But that will happen only if islanders make sure that they are in the driving seat of any proposed development so that they can maximize the income that goes into the community rather than it getting exported to various company headquarters on the mainland." Which seems to oppose the Amec development.
According to the radio, this week he appears to have come out aginst anything but community developments.
Having stirred up the anti windfarm campaign with false promises about the Executive, Calum is now like a piece of debris being blown around the streets of Sy - not sure where he'll be blown next.
And as for the invisible Alasdair ....
