Power company says it's halting battery storage plan after backlash, death threat
Power company says it's halting battery storage plan after backlash, death threat
Huh, I wonder if it works on oil companies too, or does the threat of voilence only work on green projects?
They just call
securitythe Mounties on you.I have always thought it would be incredibly easy for terrorists to shutdown oil pipelines if they tried. 1000's of km of completely isolated unguarded pipeline. But Sabotage would be devastating to the local environment, even if it would save the global one long term.
The journalist got their two sources, quotes, and met deadline, but they didn't explain what happened.
It's weird the reporter didn't interview opponents. There's a tonne of interesting questions waiting to be answered:
- Why the hostility?
- What were the actual objections, from the objectors, not "locals had safety concerns, felt the process was rushed and that Baseload Power wasn't providing adequate information" from a second-hand source.
- Was there organized opposition? If so, who organized it?
- How did people find out about the plan?
- How did people find out about the meeting?
And some harder stuff from the company would have been good:
- What were the proposed benefits to the town?
- Where else have they built these things?
- What's their track record?
- Why there?
- How long had the plan been in the works?
- Who owns the company?
What were the peoples concerns? Why did they hate the idea of this so much? It was surrounded by farms and not like it was a nuclear power plant or something... I'm a little confused by the people's response.
It's new, and they bought into the idea that because it's new it's bad.
Yeah. The story is missing a lot. I hope someone does a follow-up story where they actually say what happened.
It might have been small-town NIMBYism/Conservatives, but the journalist needs to tell us that, otherwise we're just exercising our prejudices.
I've noticed the same people who always have a issue with batteries are ones who are Motorheads, whose only ability to get attention is by having the most powerful car (and the loudest).
Electric cars however don't make noise, so they can't simply spend money on a loud one to get noticed, and they probably can't get a big one, because they don't have as much capacity. We're going to possibly see people such as in the new electric mustang who associate with new car communities.
The petrol car communities have seemingly created an echo chamber for themselves where they literally have even started to believe the nonsense they've been spouting, which includes the misconception that lithium batteries are blowing up all over the place. They aren't...
Another win for idiocy. Great. Things are going just great.
That does sound just like the small town Ontario I know
My solution: stop holding public consultations.
We are a nation of laws, not squeaky wheels.
Don't you think it's good for the company if the death threat is received before they've spent millions of dollars on construction/procurement? While they can still afford to shift locations to a welcoming community? Don't you think the consultation process may have alerted the company to the threat of vandalism and sabotage to their project?
If I was building an industrial facility in a small town, I'd want to know the locals' priorities re: noise vs visual aesthetics vs smells vs funding local community projects so that I could keep the electorate happy and not have to go head to head with a hostile local government making new rules to make my life miserable.
If I was building an industrial facility in a small town
You’ve never held a battery in your hands?
They make no noise.
They produce virtually no smells.
They would be inside featureless buildings.I don’t know what grid storage you’ve been looking at, but battery storage is usually even more unobtrusive than distribution substations. We’re literally talking about some warehouse-looking building that is eminently forgettable.
This just reeks of shortsightedness.
Hire a bunch of just-out-of-high-school kids, give them a bunch of training about the proposed solution, to go door to door in groups or two or three, telling the neighbours about it. Keeps the kids busy, and folks aren't likely to threaten kids with death.
Death threats sure are effective. Maybe threats should be made by more progressive people.
Don't make threats (also don't kill people, it's usually wrong). It is too easy for Power to amplify and harness sincere backlash against your movement and whip it into counter progress outrage.
At a consultation stage don't threaten lives and infrastructure. Ask how the company will protect against sabotage and vandalism.
Are they building infrastructure that is vulnerable to ecoterrorists? If an ecoterrorist were to attack their pipeline with a high powered hunting rifle would it be an ecological disaster?
If a saboteur spread diamond grit abrasives on the rail track the coal cars travels on, would that cause damage, a derailment, or just increase maintenence costs? What about grease?
If seepage from the tailings pond was spread onto the plant manager's lawn, would he let his kids play there?
Screw them. Let this be a lesson to any new business that thinks of investing in moving to the area. Kill any chance at a job in the area and let the community rot away.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A Toronto-based power corporation says it's halting its proposal for an eastern Ontario battery storage facility after facing intense local pushback — including someone uttering a death threat during an open house.
The mayor of Elizabethtown-Kitley said while police were called to the meeting — and he regrets how it went down — Baseload Power ultimately failed to gain traction because it did not consult widely or early enough.
It comes as the Independent Electricity Systems Operator (IESO), which manages the province's energy needs, is soliciting pitches from companies on how to help shoulder Ontario's growing power demands.
Baseload Power proposed to build an eight to 10 hectare lithium-ion battery energy storage system with a maximum generating capacity of 300 megawatts in a rural northern part of Elizabethtown-Kitley, a township bordering Brockville whose southern boundary is more than 100 kilometres south of Ottawa's core.
The project's development would continue, the letter said, while community engagement — including providing reports from experts in the battery energy storage industry — would resume early in 2024.
Sandler said Baseload Power shared information and notices with the township and councillors well in advance of the Nov. 2 open house, where it did not get a chance to talk in detail about the project's benefits.
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