Alan Jones appears to have lost his crowd-pulling power when it comes to his anti-wind turbine crusade.
We mentioned yesterday the radio shock-jock would be MC’ing an anti-wind power rally in Canberra. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, only around 150 people bothered to show up for the event.
An interesting comment reported by the SMH attributed to Mr. Jones was that if there were no health risk posed by turbines, they should be put on Parramatta Road or outside his apartment on Macquarie Street, Sydney.
This type of comment is perhaps indicative of the level of understanding Alan Jones has concerning wind power.
Current commercial wind turbine technology generally does not work well in built up areas due to effects of surrounding buildings on the quality of the wind resource.
The fact there are no wind turbines in downtown Sydney is more a matter of efficiency, technical issues and regulations not related to so-called ‘Wind Turbine Syndrome‘, an affliction that has repeatedly been shown not to exist; except perhaps as a psychosomatic issue or nocebo response.
Queensland National Party member Senator Ron Boswell was also at the event complaining of “fraudulent wind, solar power, renewable energy”. We wonder if the woman reportedly standing behind him holding a placard saying “yes solar, no wind farms” was a little confused after the Senator’s outburst.
While the anti-wind brigade’s event was a fizzer, nearby a pro-wind rally attracted a much larger crowd of around 500. The Rally 4 Renewables event was attended by people representing the 73 percent of Australians who support the Renewable Energy Target and 76 percent who support more wind energy.
The rally was organised by GetUp! and Yes2Renewables; a Friends Of The Earth project.
“Politicians who buy into the misinformation spruiked by anti-wind farm campaigners are putting jobs, investment and all the other benefits of wind energy at risk,” said Friends of the Earth spokesperson Leigh Ewbank prior to the event.
“If the Liberal Party intends to continue to support the RET and development of wind energy after the September election, then the leadership of the party must come out and distance themselves from those MPs who are joining the ‘wind farm fraud’ rally.”
