Obtainable from Amazon.co.uk and other outlets. For more detail about the book and each chapter see www.countryguardian.net "John Etherington was a Reader in Ecology at the University of Wales, Cardiff. Since his retirement from the University in 1990, he has devoted himself to researching the implications of intermittently available renewable electricity generation, in particular wind power. He is a Thomas Huxley Medallist at the Royal College of Science and a former co-editor of the International Journal of Ecology."

February 17th 2010 ~ Planning Committees are run by Councillors not MPs or AMs

An email today from the veteran campaigner, Angela Kelly of Country Guardian, points out that a most effective way of getting through to Councillors is simply to send them, a copy of the Wind Farm Scam. She says, "Country Guardian always advises groups to send councillors the factual information so that they can make up their own mind. We don’t TELL anyone what to think - we merely supply the facts." adding:
"Conservation of Upland Powys (CUP) raised enough money (not easy in the most sparsely populated county of Wales and England !) to buy 150 copies of The Wind Farm Scam and have posted a copy to every MP, AM in Wales and every Powys councillor. We are all indebted to CUP, and, most of all, to Dr. John Etherington who has made his many years of research available in his book The Wind Farm Scam.
The book was published on 1st October 2009 and is already in its second printing and third impression.
Personally, I believe it is the most effective weapon we have and cheap at the price. Even cheaper if you order in large numbers."
If you don't know the book, see below

January 19 2010 ~ "In its submission to the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs' investigation of Renewable Energy (2008), E.ON UK estimated that a back-up provision of over 90 per cent of the installed wind capacity would be needed."

From a letter from Dr John Etherington last August in the Independent
"Paradoxically, we shall have to build thermal power stations to allow the deployment of already very expensive wind turbines. These back-up power stations by definition will run below maximum output for much of the time and so cannot pay for themselves, nor can they pay off their energy and carbon dioxide capital as quickly as an ordinary station.
Until a proper independent cost-benefit study is made, mass destruction of countryside by wind power is being concealed under the parliamentary carpet.
Dr John Etherington"

December 31 2009 ~ "the whole dishonest affair has been summarised as a promotional venture for the world 's fastest growing financial bubble, international carbon trading..."

A letter from Dr John Etherington in the Western Mail today."...This will very soon to be a trillion-dollar money-maker for some of those very same key players who have stoked the fires of climatic warming and destroyed the credibility of climate science for that pot of gold which really is at the end of this rainbow.."

December 14, 2009 ~ "giant wind turbines and the millions of euros behind them..... an eco-friendly image that seems above political reproach.."

Dr John Etherington is quoted in this article from yesterday's New York Times, With Wind Energy, Opportunity for Corruption about the impact of government subsidies: : "I'm not sure that the industry is regulated at all - let alone well regulated" Extract,
"...The town of Santa Lucía Tirajana... yearlong investigation by the Guardia Civil... turned up irregularities in a plan to build a new wind park. Now the mayor, five town officials and two wind park developers are fighting criminal charges that include influence peddling, misuse of public office, misappropriation of land and bribery. The motivation? Up to €40 million in European Union subsidies....
The European wind association does not have a code of conduct for developers, though Mr. Kjaer, the chief executive, said it would have no trouble operating with one. The board of his association includes a representative from the National Italian Wind Energy Association. In November, Oreste Vigorito, the leader of the Italian association, was arrested in the Gone With the Wind case and accused of participating in an illegal scheme to collect European subsidies. Mr. Vigorito's lawyer says he is innocent of any wrongdoing.
As long as wind energy benefits from generous subsidies, sometimes "easy money can be made in the sector and that can attract the unscrupulous," said Jason Wright, a Milan-based director of Kroll Associates, a risk security investigative firm, which has uncovered evidence of bribery and fraudulent environmental evaluations for Italian wind parks..."
Read in full

December 1 2009 ~"...the wind industry trying to convince us that the only way to save the planet is to cover all of our wild uplands with machines "

A customer review of The Wind Farm Scam by John Etherington. (Amazon.co.uk)
" it laid out in clear, easy to follow tables and charts the reason why we should stop building wind turbines today. Technical details which I have previously found hard to get to grips with were explained in plain language... If all of our politicians read this book we might at last get a well balanced and realistic policy on energy for the UK. For too long we have been subjected to propaganda from the wind industry trying to convince us that the only way to save the planet is to cover all of our wild uplands with machines reminiscent of H G Wells 'War of the Worlds'
Please read it and come to your own conclusion. The government is advised on energy by the very people who stand to benefit from the subsidies. How can that be right?"
A book for every politician's Christmas stocking, suggests this reader from Mid Wales. " ...Only environmentalists of the sickest green hue could find anything to argue with in this book."

November 28 2009 ~ " industrial wind is a bunco scheme of enormous consequence"

Jon Boone's review of "The Wind Farm Scam" by John Etherington points out yet again that
"...A wind project with a rated capacity of 100MW, for example, with 40 skyscraper-sized turbines, would likely produce an annual average of only 27MW, an imperceptible fraction of energy for most grid systems. More than 60% of the time, it would produce less than 27MW and, at peak times, often produce nothing..."
He concludes that there is little that is "cognitively more dissonant than supporting the concept of minimizing the human footprint on the earth while cheerleading for the rude intrusiveness of physically massive/energy feckless wind projects. The slap and tickle of wind propaganda flatters the gullible, exploits the well intentioned, and nurtures the craven. It is made possible because there's no penalty for lying in the energy marketplace. The country has evidently arrived at a point in its legal culture where no negative consequences seem to exist for making false or misleading claims to sell wind energy--the stuff dreams are made of. But industrial wind is a bunco scheme of enormous consequence. And, as Etherington concludes, people who value intellectual honesty should not quietly be fleeced by such mendacity, even from their government." (Read in full at www.windfarmtechnology.com

November 8 2009 ~ Dr John Etherington's letter to the Western Telegraph

Wind power paradox 9:30am Saturday 7th November 2009
..." Pembroke Design director Gareth Scourfield described the Wear Point wind turbines as the "right thing in the wrong place" (Objections to wind farm bid, Western Telegraph, October 28th). As the author of the recently published book The Wind Farm Scam, I query Mr Scourfield's understanding of the situation. One of the UK's major wind power operators, EON UK, submitted evidence to a House of Lords select committee in 2008, pointing out that wind power needs backup from conventional fossil-fuelled power stations equal to about 90% of the wind installed capacity. In other words, once we have a lot of wind power, the paradox is that we have to build extra power stations to support it. .."
Read in full

November 8 2009 ~ "There are hundreds of thousands of people who are opposed to windfarms who can only benefit by acquiring a copy of this book. "

An email just read: "On a personal note I have sold over 40 copies in my local area in the last 2 weeks. I can only urge others to do likewise - I guarantee that people will buy them. Stacey-International (020 7221 7166), the publishers, will supply a minimum order of 10 copies at £5-99 each plus postage...or see the book at Amazon.co.uk .... doubters understand that they are subsidising the UK wind industry to the tune of almost £1.5 million per day See the website http://www.swindlefarms.com extract:
"...every megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity generated by a windfarm costs us approximately £50 in subsidies. In the financial year ending March 2009 this worked out at £1.2 million per day. The story doesn't end there because the electricity is then sold for approximately £50 per MWh, thus making wind generated electricity double the cost of that from normal sources. The criminality of this system beggars belief, particularly when you consider that there are now more than 6 million households in the UK suffering from fuel poverty. Surely this money would be better spent helping them..."
There are hundreds of thousands of people who are opposed to windfarms who can only benefit by acquiring a copy of Dr Etherington's book.

Sept 30 2009 ~ Published today "The Wind Farm Scam" by John Etherington

"INDEPENDENT MINDS • Pits common sense against the politically correct • Challenges received wisdom with the hidden facts • Confronts the 'dire inevitable' with the viable alternative"
Press release extract: "Publication of "The Wind Farm Scam" comes at a crucial time, as our government appears determined to confront public opposition to deployment of wind power. Just a few months ago Energy Secretary Ed Miliband publicly stated "It is socially unacceptable to be against wind turbines . . ." and more recently Huw Irranca-Davies, DEFRA minister for marine and natural environment, supported the fast-tracking of wind power through the planning system by allowing developers to finance local projects. Such action is contrary to the government's own 2007 policy set out in "Delivering Community Benefits from Wind Energy Development: A Toolkit" which contained the categorical statement that: "To put it simply, planning permission cannot be 'bought'.
Despite the government's statement that 81% of people are in favour of wind power and that 62% would be happy to live within 5 km of a wind power development, media polls have recently shown a consistent 70% to 90% of people opposing local wind farm development. (See also blog comment by Cllr Paul Robinson in Yorkshire)

Sept 7 2009 ~ "THE WIND FARM SCAM" by Dr John Etherington

should be on the book shelves late next week (13-19 Sept). It is being launched as the first of a series entitled "Independent Minds" which will also include THE BIOFUELS DELUSION and THE FACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE. " Independent Minds" will present the findings and conclusions of distinguished scientists and scholars whose voices have been marginalised by the fashionable but muddled clamour of accepted wisdom on the major issues of our troubled planet.
"Wind power is a swindle...Please read this book and find out why" David Bellamy OBE For more details go to http://www.stacey-international.co.uk/v1/index1.asp and click the book-cover to get to ordering page. It is also on Amazon
The Wind Farm Scam
John Etherington
"The spectre of global warming and the political panic surrounding it has triggered a goldrush for renewable energy sources without an open discussion of the merits and drawbacks of each. In The Wind Farm Scam Dr Etherington argues that in the case of wind power the latter far outweigh the former. Wind turbines cannot generate enough energy to reduce global CO2 levels to a meaningful degree; what's more wind power is by nature intermittent and cannot generate a steady output, necessitating back-up coal and gas power plants that significantly negate the saving of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the inefficacy of wind power there are ecological drawbacks, including damage to habitats, wildlife and the far-from-insignificant aesthetic drawback of the assault upon natural beauty and the pristine landscape, which wind turbines entail. Dr Etherington argues that wind power has been, and is being, excessively financed at the cost of consumers who have not been consulted, nor informed that this effective subsidy is being paid from their bills to support an industry that cannot be cost efficient or, ultimately, favour the cause it purports to support."
COUNTRY GUARDIAN says "THE AUTHOR: John Etherington was a Reader in Ecology at the University of Wales, Cardiff. Since his retirement from the University in 1990, he has devoted himself to researching the implications of intermittently available renewable electricity generation, in particular wind power. He is a Thomas Huxley Medallist at the Royal College of Science and a former co-editor of the International Journal of Ecology."

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