Famed singer Anne Murray has waded into the debate over building a wind turbine farm in Nova Scotia’s Gulf Shore. And she’s chosen some strange points to support her argument.

While interest in alternative sources of energy has built up steam over the last year, there is a much longer history of opposition to industrial wind farms in areas of North Carolina, Long Island, and off Nantucket.

The media lines normally wielded by community groups opposing wind farms are well tested:

• impact on migratory birds
• effects on sensitive water, hilltop or plains environment
• impact on shipping lanes or fishing rights
• lack of proper consultation by municipal, regional or higher levels of government
• uneven understanding of water rights held by property owners

Nowhere in that list can you find:

• degradation of views available to golfers
• proximity to “dream homes”

Which are the principal arguments wielded by the Snowbird Songstress in her op/ed published in the Halifax Chronicle Herald today.

“…I have played golf all over the world and Northumberland Links ranks with the best of them. Its seaside location and excellent reputation attract golfers from everywhere and we need those golfers to help us sustain the Links. I have played on two golf courses that had turbines nearby and I would never play them again. They are imposing structures and definitely not the kind of thing one wants to see from a golf course. I believe that others would feel the same as I and never return. Turbines are a curiosity, but only once.” (Halifax Chronicle Herald)

But I really have to question an argument against wind farms that concentrates on their visual impact on recreational activities - whether it’s cottaging or golfing.

That’s just bad messaging.

*And I have to recommend that Snowbird Songtress link up there - the video is old school*

[tags] Snowbird, Anne Murray, wind farm, wind turbine, Gulf Shore, wind energy, NIMBY [/tags]