Wind News

Tuesday 16 June 2009

While Weber Shandwick works to engage the public with wind turbines in the Shetlands, its chairman of public affairs has denounced "greenwash" from the wind industry

A key figure within the communications team of a company providing public relations support for the developers of a massive wind farm in the Shetland Isles has launched a nationwide anti-wind "alliance".

Jonathan McLeod is chairman of public affairs for Weber Shandwick in the UK, an American company said to be the largest PR firm in the world.

The firm was appointed back in January to promote the interests of Viking Energy, which is seeking to build a 153-turbine wind farm in the Shetlands (see this New Energy Focus story).

But now, Mr McLeod has launched an organisation called the "National Alliance of Wind farm Action Groups" (NAWAG) - claiming: "For too long, the ‘greenwash' of the wind industry has gone unchallenged, and that stops today."

Issuing a call to arms this morning from his Weber Shandwick email account, the chairman of the new anti-turbine alliance described wind farm developers as using "cowboy" techniques to "force turbines on communities".

Such techniques, presumably, include hiring his own company to promote wind farm projects to local communities.

However, speaking to New Energy Focus today, Mr McLeod stressed that the Alliance was a "personal" initiative, not a campaign fronted by his company, Weber Shandwick. He is setting up a Hotmail email address for the campaign windaction@hotmail.com. 

Mr McLeod, who said he did not personally work on the Viking Energy account, argued that his company had lots of clients, and that "inevitably" its staff do not all agree with the views of the various companies being represented.

"The two are separate - it's true our company does specialise in community relations with these kind of projects, and there's some good work being done by our team in Scotland. But these are the views of the anti-wind farm groups - I am mandated by the views of the 30 groups."

NAWAG

Mr McLeod said he had taken on the chairmanship of the NAWAG group as a result of wind farm developments being undertaken near his home in Derbyshire.

He has convened an alliance of 30 anti-wind farm groups from England, Scotland and Wales with an explicit aim to target the Conservative Party's shadow cabinet with its lobbying.

Launch members of the alliance come from Angus, Caithness, Carmarthenshire, Cambridgeshire, Ceredigion, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Durham, Essex, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Powys, and West Stirlingshire.

Mr McLeod is also hoping to attract more than 200 other local anti-wind farm groups to fly the NAWAG banner.

The alliance makes various claims about wind turbines causing health problems to people living nearby, as well as threatening wildlife habitats. It is also suggesting that wind energy developments are causing "potential damage" to tourism jobs by "disfiguring" the landscape.

Explaining the views of the "grass-roots revolt", the PR guru said wind farms did not provide a "firm supply" of power to the national grid, and that wind technology "will do little or nothing to stop climate change".

He told New Energy Focus that the claims were backed by "peer-reviewed" research from another anti-wind organisation, the National Energy Foundation.

Mr McLeod could not put forward an alternative vision for how the UK's energy should be generated in future with the context of cutting carbon emissions, and revealed that he also opposes nuclear power.

"We're not renewable energy experts," he said. "You need a diverse mix of energy sources - and a heterogeneous subsidy regime that does not support a mono-culture of renewable energy."

Power to the cities

Mr McLeod, who denied his alliance was merely there to "block" any kind of development, did express interest in developing urban-based power generation capacity, such as energy-from-waste facilities.

Suggesting the term "NIMBY" was a "tired" concept, he said the British countryside was in "everyone's back yard" that needed to be protected from development.

Although he said that the visual impacts of wind turbines was only one of the reasons his alliance was opposing them, he talked suggested flaws in the planning system were promoting a "random" siting of wind farms.

"There is a random nature to the siting of development applications - they are being put forward by random landowners who just want the money from wind developers. It's not being driven by strategy in any co-ordinated way," he explained.

Mr McLeod said there could be a small amount of wind in the UK's energy mix, and appeared to favour the idea of generating energy at offshore wind farms, adding that "this is the direction that policy seems to be going" among the Conservative Party.

"We're not fundamentalists," he said. "We are saying that policy at the moment is producing some perverse outcomes."

Industry response

There was some surprise within the wind industry today that the new anti-wind alliance had been launched from a Weber Shandwick email account, such is its work for cleantech companies.

Wind companies are celebrating "Wind Week" this week, with a series of open days to allow the public to see operational wind farms for themselves.

The industry suggested today that the NAWAG campaign was not being based on the facts.

A spokesman for the British Wind Energy Association said: "We are happy to engage in a debate on the merits of wind energy. We believe that it is good for the environment, jobs and prices. However, that debate must be based on facts, not myths, half truths and distortions. This is wind week and thousands of people will be visiting wind farms to educate themselves about the truth about wind energy. Perhaps when everyone involved knows the facts then we will be able to have a sensible discussion."

Responding to the main points put forward by the NAWAG campaign, the BWEA said the visual impact of wind turbines was a "subjective judgement", and that "many people find wind turbines majestic". It said planning policy should balance a range of issues, including issues like the need to fight climate change, "rather than just concentrate on one disputed area of opinion".

The industry body insisted that no study on wind farms had ever shown evidence of adverse impacts on health.

The BWEA dismissed claims about "cowboy" wind developers as "highly emotionally-charged language", stressing the industry's work to consult with local communities alongside planning applications. 

The NAWAG claims seeking to discredit the power generation of wind turbines or their benefits on carbon emissions the BWEA called "unscientific nonsense", adding that the claims about wind farm impacts on tourism jobs was not borne out by a "number of studies". "The Scottish Governmentt conducted a study in 2008 which showed that the potential impact on Scottish tourism of expanded wind energy was a mere 0.18%," it said.