Fabian Miliband Obsesses about Wind Turbines

Yesterday, Ed Miliband made a statement pushing for “clean” energy by 2030 a key priority of his department.  Included in this push is to accelerate a “transition from fossil fuels.”  It would be interesting to see if he has bought an electric car as he promised to do three years ago.

The hypocrisy from Labour hasn’t stopped.  On Monday, in a bid to save the planet from “climate change,” they overturned restrictions placed on onshore wind farms that were designed to consider the public’s very real concerns regarding the negative impact of wind turbines on the environment, wildlife and local communities.  The only winners in Labour’s scheme are businesses that stand to profit from ineffective, costly and environmentally destructive wind energy.

Ed Miliband, who has a strong connection with the Fabian Society and is a vocal advocate for its ideas, was appointed as the UK Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary on Friday.

On Monday, in a message to staff in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Miliband said the department will be “at the heart of the new government’s agenda, leading one of the Prime Minister’s five national missions, to make Britain a clean energy superpower with zero carbon electricity by 2030, and accelerating our journey to net zero”.

He will also be targeting hydrocarbon fuels.  “In an unstable world, the only way to guarantee our energy security and cut bills permanently is to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels and towards homegrown clean energy,” he said.

Miliband was saying similar things three years ago but wasn’t as keen as on his political priorities when it came to letting them interfere with his own lifestyle.

In 2021, the then Shadow Business Secretary Ed Miliband spoke to Good Morning Britain about vaccine passports for hospitality and his desire for an electric car revolution as he admits he doesn’t own one himself.

Miliband agreed that electric vehicles were pricey, had limited range and had issues with the time required to charge and then said, “The government has said, and we actually agree with them on this, that we won’t be able to buy new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. And what I’m saying today is we need an electric car revolution. But it’s got to benefit consumers, it’s got to benefit manufacturers and not just the richest.”

After pushing the agenda hard, including making loans available to buy an electric vehicle to “help” those who can’t afford one, Miliband was asked, “I presume you’ve got one [an electric vehicle]?”

“It’s a work in progress,” Miliband said while laughing with embarrassment. “We were actually on our way to buying one before uh lockdown … uh … it is going to happen I promise you. I have bought an electric bike.”

His excuse was pathetic but at least he had enough self-respect to be embarrassed when he was caught out pushing a narrative he wasn’t committed to – but that might change.

To implement the proposals the Labour Party made in its election manifesto, other priorities for Miliband are to double onshore wind, triple solar power and quadruple offshore wind by 2030, according to Offshore Technology, an end-to-end marketing company which provides business intelligence, industry news and analysis to “active decision-makers, influencers and opinion leaders.”

“Miliband has said previously that in the first week of a Labour government he would overturn an onshore wind ban in England and relax planning rules,” the marketing company said on Friday.

On Monday, the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities and HM Treasury jointly published a ‘Policy statement on onshore wind’ which did just that.

In 2015, the Conservative government restricted the number of onshore wind farms being built thereby introducing a de facto ban on onshore windfarms.  The ban was implemented through two footnotes in the National Planning Policy Framework (“NPPF”) that required strong evidence of local support for onshore windfarm developments. The NPPF is a set of guidelines used by local authorities when deciding whether to approve planning applications for new developments.

The NPPF footnotes restricted the development of onshore windfarms in the form of two “policy tests.” The policy tests required that onshore wind farms demonstrate that they would not have a significant impact on the local environment or community and that they would not be visible from nearby residential areas.

The policy tests were seen as a way to address concerns about the visual impact of onshore wind farms, as well as concerns about noise and other environmental impacts. However, the restrictions were widely criticised by the renewable energy industry and environmental groups, who argued that they were unnecessary and would hinder the UK’s ability to meet its climate change targets.

Starmer’s Labour government, which is proving to be more unpopular by the day (ER: quelle surprise), removed these policy tests on 8 July 2024 with immediate effect.

Onshore windfarms are cause for various environmental and wildlife concerns. For example, wind turbines can potentially harm birds, bats, and other wildlife through collisions or habitat disruption.  It follows that one of the reasons why onshore wind farms have not gained popularity with the UK public and have met public resistance is because of the cold-blooded massacre of birds.

Wind turbines cause bird mortality due to collisions with the turbines or their supporting structures. Additionally, birds may also die from internal injuries caused by exposure to rapid pressure changes near the trailing edges of moving blades.

The exact number of bird deaths is difficult to quantify.  However, some estimates suggest that wind turbines in the United States alone may kill between 140,000 and 500,000 birds annually. Another study estimates that approximately 681,000 birds are currently killed by wind turbines in the US each year. A more recent study modelled the death rate at the start of 2021 and concluded that 1.17 million birds are killed by wind turbines in the US each year.

Read more: How Many Birds Are Killed by Wind Turbines? American Bird Conservancy, 26 January 2021

In the UK, according to estimates on the number of birds killed by turbine blade strikes, between 10,000 and 100,000 birds are killed by wind turbines annually.  The wind industry has tried to downplay the massacre by comparing it to the number of birds killed by cats.  Being killed by a cat, that kills for food, is not the same as being brutally chopped up by a wind turbine while flying, especially if the turbine is in the flight path of migrating birds.

Wind turbines have also been found to be one of the leading causes of mass bat mortality – with some studies pinning fatalities at 888,000 bats a year.

It’s not only the killer spinning blades that are a hazard.  The noise emissions from wind turbines, both audible noise and infrasound, can also have a significant impact on wildlife.  The turbine noises:

• disrupt the normal behaviour of animals, such as feeding, breeding and migration patterns;
• disrupt the habitat of animals, making it difficult for them to find food, shelter and mates;
• cause stress and anxiety in animals, which can lead to a range of negative impacts on their health and well-being; and,
• can also attract animals to the turbines, increasing the risk of collision.

It must be noted that offshore wind turbines are no safer and have similar detrimental effects on marine life.

Further reading: Do wind turbines harm animals? National Wind Watch, 11 May 2012 and The Impact Of Wind Energy On Wildlife And The Environment, The Global Warming Policy Foundation 2019

The wind industry is of course delighted with Labour’s overturning of the restrictions placed on onshore wind turbines.  Announcing the Government’s aggressive “green” plans yesterday, Proactive Investors wrote: “Shares in Greencoat UK Wind, one of the UK’s largest onshore wind farm operators, rose by 0.9% to 136.8p.”

Starmer’s government is off to a good start in boosting the wealth of businessmen and profiteers at the expense of the UK’s wildlife and biodiversity under the cover of a manufactured “climate change crisis.”

Previous The Exposé articles related to Ed Miliband:

• George Bernard Shaw, the Fabian Society and a ‘Brave New World’
• A history of Davos meetings in context of events at the time
• Flashback: Labour attempted to implement a nationwide carbon rationing scheme 17 years ago
• Health risks from wind farms identified in 2009 but governments still ignore them
• New UN Report on Climate Change – Absolutely Nothing in This Report Is True