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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Simon Jenkins

Ed Miliband would let a turbine farm destroy Brontë country. We need net zero, but at what cost?

Residents of Walshaw Moor in Yorkshire, the proposed site of Calderdale Energy Park.
Residents of Walshaw Moor in Yorkshire, the proposed site of Calderdale Energy Park. Photograph: Jon Super/The Guardian

Nowhere does landscape marry passion quite so much as in Yorkshire’s Wuthering Heights. The tempestuous Pennine contours and tumbling streams perfectly frame Emily Brontë’s turbulent romance. Wild storms and dark gullies echo the cries of Heathcliff, Cathy and sexual jealousy. From moorland peaks to the historic Brontë village of Haworth below, the scene is unspoilt.

I cannot think of any British government for half a century that would have dreamed of destroying this place. Yet the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, apparently wants to do so, with the largest onshore windfarm in England, the Calderdale Energy Park. He clearly regards this unique landscape as the perfect spot for 41 giant wind turbines, each no less than 200m tall. Their height would top Blackpool Tower by 40m.

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