To the Expositor:
I continue to place windmills in the context of climate change driven largely by human fossil fuel use, and so I regard any energy project that may lessen our overwhelming dependence upon such sources as the tar/oil sands positively. Despite acknowledging that the windmills debate has been generally voiced by males arguing about the ‘purity’ of the Manitoulin, I would like to make a further suggestion for local energy development.
The Espanola/Little Current railway bed could have a natural gas pipe line buried under it—if the North Shore line remains a natural gas conduit—but perhaps less quixotically I think that a series of small (Kagawong-sized) hydro electric sluiceways could be installed which might be integrated with fish ponds and possibly spawning ladders.
Sometimes seeing the positive in stories like the information that the Ontario Power Authority is paying alternate producers not to produce is a challenge. But could this be because such factors as “on/off peak” pricing (conservation) and the average summer temperature have altered demand? Changes to our local vistas will occur if we are to adapt to climate change through the development of alternate energy sources.
