Antigonish Co. wind farm given ‘ok’ from province
A wind farm in Antigonish County has been given the green light.
The province said an environmental assessment has been approved for the Eigg Mountain project.
It will bring 22 wind turbines near Connors Mountain Road that would produce up to 150 MW of energy and provide 250 jobs over 35 years.
“It will also reduce Nova Scotia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 271,000 tonnes – the equivalent of taking more than 58,800 gas-powered cars off the road,” said the province.
Moose group opposes
The president of the Moose Conservation Association of Nova Scotia (MCANS) was on pins and needles waiting for the verdict.
The group had a meeting with Renewable Energy Systems (RES) – the company behind the project – Wednesday, in order for RES to explain the farm in more detail.
Al Muir said the meeting was cordial and learned Eigg Mountain was chosen primarily because of wind speeds, but they made clear how serious the situation is while delivering a strong message.
“[Thursday] the environment minister makes a decision on the project. He’s in effect the judge and jury of the fate of the moose up there. It’s our belief that if he accepts [it] he’ll become its executioner also,” said Muir.
In recent weeks, Muir had been desperately trying to put an end to the farm, concerned about detrimental effects to moose in the area.
He even went as far as to start a campaign, putting a face to the moose population, while pushing the public to write to Halman.
“This was a last-ditch urgent message we were trying to get out to the minister of the importance of this area,” explained Muir.
He said, he believed they were successful in getting the point across, but it came down to Halman who he called the “judge and jury”.
Next steps
Now that the project has been approved, what the next steps from MCANS will be, remains unclear.
“I don’t know what could happen and there’s local people in the area that don’t want it there. Who knows what move they’ll make,” said Muir.
Meantime, Muir says RES did ask to meet again with MCANS regardless of the decision made, Thursday.
“We’ll decide our next course of action after we hear.”
Acadia News reached out to RES for a statement.
