ENGLAND: PERFECT PUSHES BACK GOOD

Ramblers demand an end to spread of wind farms
Victory in Scotland prompts full-scale attack on energy policy
Rob Sharp, September 17, 2006 (The UK Observer via UK Guardian)
- The Ramblers' Association is set to announce its opposition to the construction of onshore wind farms across the country. The move is a major blow for the government, which is struggling to maintain its pledge to increase the amount of electricity generated by renewable energy sources.

- The decision to try to block large wind farms in Britain follows the association's role in persuading the Scottish Executive to stop construction of a group of turbines in Perthshire on the grounds that the development would damage the environment…
- In a policy document to be published next month, the association - which has almost 140,000 members and whose president is Labour peer Chris Smith - pledges its commitment to pushing the government towards other forms of non-fossil energy, including nuclear power. The move is a radical departure from the stance of groups such as Greenpeace, which welcome wind farms and criticise plans to increase use of nuclear power…
- [T]he Ramblers' Association decision goes against the stance of Godfrey Boyle, one of Britain's leading experts on renewable energy…'The United Kingdom is the Saudi Arabia of wind energy,' he said. 'The resource is huge, like off shore oil and gas was. We should be going for it with enthusiasm, rather than timidly as we are now.'