I have always thought it would be incredibly easy for terrorists to shutdown oil pipelines if they tried. 1000's of km of completely isolated unguarded pipeline. But Sabotage would be devastating to the local environment, even if it would save the global one long term.
It doesn't have to be environmentally damaging. Years ago there was a group called "valve turners" who just closed emergency shut off valves all over the place.
The journalist got their two sources, quotes, and met deadline, but they didn't explain what happened.
It's weird the reporter didn't interview opponents. There's a tonne of interesting questions waiting to be answered:
Why the hostility?
What were the actual objections, from the objectors, not "locals had safety concerns, felt the process was rushed and that Baseload Power wasn't providing adequate information" from a second-hand source.
Was there organized opposition? If so, who organized it?
How did people find out about the plan?
How did people find out about the meeting?
And some harder stuff from the company would have been good:
What were the peoples concerns? Why did they hate the idea of this so much? It was surrounded by farms and not like it was a nuclear power plant or something... I'm a little confused by the people's response.
I guarantee they were fed at least in part by conspiracy theories off of Facebook, spread by pro-oil groups. The article mentions something about older, more toxic battery systems which these were confused for.
Because it's new and green, and green is for sissies!
Ya, thats probably true. I always hope there is some type of rational thought to this behavior that I havent thought of. But I doubt it here. Only thing I can think of is they wouldn't like the look of it. Hardly a reason to go as far as dealth threats...
I've noticed the same people who always have a issue with batteries are ones who are Motorheads, whose only ability to get attention is by having the most powerful car (and the loudest).
Electric cars however don't make noise, so they can't simply spend money on a loud one to get noticed, and they probably can't get a big one, because they don't have as much capacity. We're going to possibly see people such as in the new electric mustang who associate with new car communities.
The petrol car communities have seemingly created an echo chamber for themselves where they literally have even started to believe the nonsense they've been spouting, which includes the misconception that lithium batteries are blowing up all over the place. They aren't...
Don't you think it's good for the company if the death threat is received before they've spent millions of dollars on construction/procurement? While they can still afford to shift locations to a welcoming community? Don't you think the consultation process may have alerted the company to the threat of vandalism and sabotage to their project?
If I was building an industrial facility in a small town, I'd want to know the locals' priorities re: noise vs visual aesthetics vs smells vs funding local community projects so that I could keep the electorate happy and not have to go head to head with a hostile local government making new rules to make my life miserable.
If I was building an industrial facility in a small town
You’ve never held a battery in your hands?
They make no noise.
They produce virtually no smells.
They would be inside featureless buildings.
I don’t know what grid storage you’ve been looking at, but battery storage is usually even more unobtrusive than distribution substations. We’re literally talking about some warehouse-looking building that is eminently forgettable.
Hire a bunch of just-out-of-high-school kids, give them a bunch of training about the proposed solution, to go door to door in groups or two or three, telling the neighbours about it. Keeps the kids busy, and folks aren't likely to threaten kids with death.
Screw them. Let this be a lesson to any new business that thinks of investing in moving to the area. Kill any chance at a job in the area and let the community rot away.
A Toronto-based power corporation says it's halting its proposal for an eastern Ontario battery storage facility after facing intense local pushback — including someone uttering a death threat during an open house.
The mayor of Elizabethtown-Kitley said while police were called to the meeting — and he regrets how it went down — Baseload Power ultimately failed to gain traction because it did not consult widely or early enough.
It comes as the Independent Electricity Systems Operator (IESO), which manages the province's energy needs, is soliciting pitches from companies on how to help shoulder Ontario's growing power demands.
Baseload Power proposed to build an eight to 10 hectare lithium-ion battery energy storage system with a maximum generating capacity of 300 megawatts in a rural northern part of Elizabethtown-Kitley, a township bordering Brockville whose southern boundary is more than 100 kilometres south of Ottawa's core.
The project's development would continue, the letter said, while community engagement — including providing reports from experts in the battery energy storage industry — would resume early in 2024.
Sandler said Baseload Power shared information and notices with the township and councillors well in advance of the Nov. 2 open house, where it did not get a chance to talk in detail about the project's benefits.
The original article contains 825 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 77%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!