Premier: Stop whining about wind farms

LONDON, Ontario, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- The premier of the Canadian province of Ontario said he's fed up with people complaining and stalling alternative energy projects such as wind farms.

Speaking in London, Ontario, Premier Dalton McGuinty said the "not in my back yard" attitude "will no longer prevail" and his government is poised to overrule municipalities that balk at renewable energy projects, the Toronto Star reported.

He said such projects as wind and solar panel farms and bio-energy facilities had the potential to create 50,000 jobs in the province, where unemployment stands at 8 percent, the London Free Press reported.

"We need those jobs, we need clean electricity, we need to assume full responsibility in the face of climate change and we are going to do that in Ontario," McGuinty said. "We can't allow interests to oppose these, simply because they don't like them."

Among the concerns that have arisen from residents throughout southern Ontario are unsightliness and therefore lower property values, concerns about wildlife and "wind turbine syndrome," which some claim the sounds turbines produce cause illness, the Star said.