Blueskin Bay wind decision disappointing

The Green Party is disappointed by the decision to decline consent for Otago’s Blueskin Bay community wind farm project, which shows why Government leadership is needed to help smooth the transition to a more sustainable electricity system.

“This is obviously very disappointing for the local community who have worked so hard to get their own wind farm. They should be congratulated for their vision and their work,” Green Party energy spokesperson Gareth Hughes said.

“The Blueskin Bay community achieved a lot with their fundraising and developing innovative business models for community energy projects, which hopefully other towns can learn from.

“Community scale clean power projects are good for regional economies, can help stop climate change, and support a more resilient electricity grid.

“It's ridiculous that in 2016 the RMA won't allow climate change impacts to be considered when a community wants to create their own clean, local power.

“Unfortunately, as the rest of the world embraces small scale, local, clean power generation, in New Zealand we seem to be going in the other direction.

“The Government should show leadership when it comes to wind energy by developing a nationwide plan to make sure wind farms get built in the right places,” said Mr Hughes.

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