Jeremy Paxman’s brother has spoken out against a wind farm proposal in his Dartmoor back yard today, saying the wind turbines would “stick out like a sore thumb”.
At a public inquiry held in Okehampton, Devon, James Paxman said “It is my personal opinion that wind turbines are one of the least reliable and least cost-effective modes of electricity generation”. The brother of climate change sceptic TV celebrity Jeremy Paxman also said he believes government subsidies are wrongly focussed towards wind turbines – despite marine and offshore wind energy recieving higher financial credits per megawatt hour of generated renewable energy.
Members of the public, for or against the 9 wind turbine project, were invited to speak at the inquiry which is the second inquiry into the project after a successful challenge to the planning consent heard in the High Court last year.
Renewable Energy Systems Project Manager, Rachel Ruffle said “Den Brook wind farm can make an important contribution to England’s energy needs and has been carefully designed to do so with minimum impacts on the local community and environment”.
“As well as generating clean, green electricity from a home-grown and abundant source, the wind farm will bring improvements to the Dartmoor Railway, a £27,000 a year community fund to be spent on local projects, a sustainable income for the farmers who own the land, local sourcing of labour and materials and wildlife enhancement measures at the site”.
“We are confident that an examination of the facts about this project at public inquiry will conclude that it is a well-designed project that should, on balance, be allowed to go ahead”.
David Worth
August 13th, 2009
What is not mentioned in the article is the fact that James Paxman is the Chief Executive of the Dartmoor Preservation Association. A group opposed to any change happening to Dartmoor, no matter what the cost to the people who actually live there. Whilst not being actual Climate Change deniers, they do manage by a policy of rampant NIMBY-ism to do their best to disrupt projects like this one.