Quaiff to propose support of turbine moratorium and security agreement
Administrator | Mar 28, 2012 | Comments 6
Robert Quaiff will seek support from fellow councillors at Thursday’s committee of the whole meeting to adopt the Municipality of Clarington’s motion to request a moratorium on wind turbines. He will aslo speak to having industrial wind turbine developments enter into a “removal, access and security agreement” with the municipality and include a security/letter of credit of $200.000.
Clarington’s resolution, the turbine agreement and council’s position on turbines below:
COUNCIL POSITION:
Filed Under: Local News
Thank You Robert for your Motion efforts for a moritorium to coral these IWTs.
Hopefully we will see you on the bus to Toronto the 3rd April for the Rally at Queen’s Park. Please keep up your support!!!
Both mations passed by a good margin. But they are subject to ratification at the next Council meeting.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/story/2012/03/29/wdr-windtronics-ontario-green-energy.html
$2.7 million dollars in grants not enough to keep Windtronics in Ontario. An example of how these companies have no commitment to the communities in which they are located.
It is likely that, for each renewable energy project, the parent company will set up a subsidiary company having as its sole asset the renewable energy project. This is what is commonly done in the construction industry in respect of residential subdivisions.
Then, if the parent company decides to abandon the project as the supply contract is nearing termination, it can let the subsidiary go into receivership and have no liability itself for removing the wind turbines.
The landowner, the municipality and/or the province can only sue the subsidiary. It will have only the rusting turbine hulks or solar arrays as assets, which may have a salvage value less than the cost of dismantling and removal and restoration of the site.
In this situation, the landowner would be responsible for paying for the work. If the landowner fails to do, the municipality would be next in line.
The province knows full well that this could happen. Why they didn’t require security as part of the deal is difficult to understand.
A security agreement using a letter of credit from a bank solves the problem by paying off if the owner (the subsidiary) defaults. If the agreement requires a $200K letter of credit per turbine, the cost may be as little as 1% per year of the amount guaranteed = $200 per turbine, or $2K over the 20-year lifetime of the $3+ million turbine. This is a very modest cost to provide financial comfort to the municipality.
Robert Quaiff deserves a lot of credit for taking the initiatve to deal with this important issue.
Clarington really is “Leading the Way”
Kudos to Robert Quaiff for bringing forward a motion to put a moritorium on IWT’s