[news] Greenpeace Erects Windfarm Outside Gordon Campbell's Office

[Press Release Media Service]

Greenpeace
                                          
GREENPEACE ERECTS WINDFARM OUTSIDE 
GORDON CAMPBELL'S OFFICE

For Immediate Release

Victoria, May 13th, 2004 - Greenpeace today erected a wind farm on the lawn of the BC Legislature on the same day as the federal government began its public meetings in Victoria into offshore oil and gas off the coast of British Columbia. 

Erecting 35, 8 foot tall and 6 foot wide wind turbines, all pointing directly at Gordon Campbell's office inside the provincial Legislature building, Greenpeace sent a clear message to the premier and his government -  which continues to aggressively lobby the federal government into allowing offshore oil development in BC - that wind, not oil, is the future.

"Gordon Campbell is so blinded by the dead end oil industry, Greenpeace wanted to make it impossible for him to ignore the cleaner, safer option - wind," said David Fields, Greenpeace Canada's Energy campaigner. "We urge the federal government to send the same message to Campbell - no offshore oil."
 
Greenpeace called on the federal government, in Victoria to hear what British Columbians think about offshore oil development in BC's waters, to not only maintain the moratorium it put in place in 1971, but ban offshore development once and for all.

"Wind is the fastest growing source of electricity in the world, and yet here in British Columbia, greenhouse gas emissions are rising faster than the national average," said Fields. 

According to a Helimax study commissioned by Greenpeace last year, Port Hardy, Prince Rupert and Port Alice alone have the potential wind generation capacity of  4800 MW, which is one third of Germany's installed capacity.  Germany is a world leader in wind power generation.

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For more information, please contact:
David Fields, Greenpeace Canada Energy Campaigner, Cell. (604) 722-4775 
Andrew Male, Greenpeace Communications Coordinator, (416) 597-8408 ext. 3030