Albany & Great Southern Weekender, Page: 5
Thursday, 27 April 2006
DENMARK Community Windfarm chairman Craig Chappelle has hit back at continuing criticism of his group's proposal for Ocean Beach. He was joined by the industry's peak body, the Australian Wind Energy Association (Auswind), which called on Federal Environment Minister lan Campbell to take positive steps to help overcome his concerns. The Minister has vetoed one windfarm proposal and threatened to withdraw federal funding from the Denmark project. Mr Campbell said Australia needed a national windfarm code.
Mr Chappelle was especially critical of Stirling MLA Terry Redman who called on the State Government to drop support for the proposed windfarm. He said Mr Redman was reminded in State Parliament five months ago that a conservative government approved the Albany windfarm "against community wishes". "That proposal produced four times as many detractors as supporters, yet has become a much loved feature of the district," he said. "It occupies a site not unlike that proposed in Denmark, but is 10 times bigger and more visible."
Mr Chappelle said the umpire was the State Planning Minister. "Alannah MacTiernan approved the Denmark proposal because it meets the State's sustainability criteria," he said. "The operative word here is 'merit' -the Minister considered the quality of the arguments, not the quantity." He said many submissions opposing Denmark's windfarm were almost identical.
"More than 30 contained the same simple factual error - a sure sign that they were written to a faulty prescription," he said.
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