Coal mines and wind farms coming to Midlothian?

Adding to the plans for wind factories at Mount Lothian, there are now plans for a huge surface mining operation (what used to be called opencast) near Penicuik and Rosewell. More info on this project can be found here:
http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=3155

http://www.scottishresources.com/Projects/Cauldhall/default.aspx

Good news — if only to stick it up the noses of 'coalactionscotland', who as usual with these people can only see the negatives.
Well, if you're happy to sit around by candlelight knitting your sandals and getting chilblains on your finger ends, that's fine. Just don't inflict your obsessions with 17th century living on the rest of us.

Like your comments!!
Any truth in the rumour you are heading back to this cold, wet
Wonderful place?

Only for a week at Christmas.
I'm afraid that rural France has too much going for it!
Though if this rain doesn't stop soon ...

Application for the windfarm has now gone in so we need lots of objections to keep it away!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-21461226

In the U.S., one of the great ironies about wind energy is that the people you might expect to cheer for it most — wildlife conservationists who care about the planet — are its most vociferous critics.
It’s not hard to see why when you glance at the statistics. The American Bird Conservancy estimates wind turbines kill between 75,000 and 275,000 birds each year.

The conservation cause is not the only issue. There are horror stories about turbines falling over, catching fire after being struck by lightning, lethal shards of ice being hurled from the blades, the nerve-racking low frequency noise (like a pulsing disco) and the disorientating strobe effect in sunlight.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116877/Is-future-Britains-wind-rush.html#ixzz2KtxelzlG

There are many hidden truths about the world of wind turbines from the pollution and environmental damage caused in China by manufacturing bird choppers, the blight on people’s lives of noise and the flicker factor and the countless numbers of birds that are killed each year by these blots on the landscape.

The symbol of Green renewable energy, our saviour from the non existent problem of Global Warming, abandoned wind farms are starting to litter the planet as globally governments cut the subsidies taxes that consumers pay for the privilege of having a very expensive power source that does not work every day for various reasons like it’s too cold or the wind speed is too high.

The US experience with wind farms has left over 14,000 wind turbines abandoned and slowly decaying, in most instances the turbines are just left as symbols of a dying Climate Religion, nowhere have the Green Environmentalists appeared to clear up their mess or even complain about the abandoned wind farms.

http://toryaardvark.com/2011/11/17/14000-abandoned-wind-turbines-in-the-usa/

I see that Wind Prospect has withdrawn its application for Mount Lothian but says it is coming back soon with a revised application.
Clever stuff. It now means that the 1000+ objections are all null and void. So much for being ecologically friendly! How many trees will be felled to produce the new mounds of documentation (most of it unchanged from the last time)?

The wind farm application is going in again so more money can be wasted objecting to it just so that rich companies and landowners can get paid money for nothing!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-25880210

  

Application now re-submitted. Another half forest demolished to make the paper.
Lots of lovely jubbley for poor Sir Robert stuck up there penniless on his estate.
Plenty of other bribes on offer as well. Special funding for local schools and colleges so the council can save its own money and divert it to other pet wheezes. And of course absolutely no effect on tourism - tourists will travel for miles to view these wonderful structures in the landscape. The best bit of all is that Sir Robert and the French operators will still get paid even if the wind doesn't blow! Isn't life a wheeze!?

I love the leaflets they have sent out which say how the project will help the environment and provide lots of cash for the community. Of course, they fail to mention how much money the developers and landowners will make from it (paid by us in subsidies!)

More info and details of how to object can be found here:

http://www.auchencorth.org.uk/

Looks like the new, higher turbine for Loanstone will be waived through at next week's planning committee. Why don't they just cover the Pentlands and have done with it?