Essay by Eric Worrall
“… The clean energy company strongly denies this allegation, saying that no such offer was ever made. …”
Farmer claims he was offered lap dance if he agreed to wind turbine on his land
Energy company offering Welsh landowners incentives to sign up to green schemes denies the allegations
Telegraph Reporters8 January 2024 • 11:09am
A farmer was offered cash and a trip to a lap dancing club in exchange for allowing a company to build a wind turbine on his land, according to a council document.
The apparent bribe was made as part of an alleged “dirty tricks” campaign to use financial incentives as a sweetener for more turbines across the Welsh countryside.
During an emergency meeting of Nelson community council near Caerphilly, South Wales, to discuss controversial new green power installations, minutes show a member of the public claimed that Bute Energy, a Scottish company focused on green power schemes in Wales, had made the offer to a local farmer.
The clean energy company strongly denies this allegation, saying that no such offer was ever made.
…
Read more (paywalled): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/08/farmer-claims-he-was-offered-cash-and-trip-to-lap-dance-clu/
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of interesting incentives being offered, though offering an erotic experience in return for allowing wind turbines, if this is what happened, is a new low.
I was at a power line protest a few months ago in which one of the participants accused companies of offering $500 shopping vouchers in return for signing away land rights. The extent of the land right giveaway was allegedly obfuscated in the small print.
I don’t know what actually happened in this particular case, but I am getting a strong sense that some renewable energy developers are getting desperate, especially in places where a future change of government is on the cards, and their short term payoff is proportionate to hitting progress milestones. Most of the low hanging fruit has been picked, and remaining landowners who haven’t already accepted offers are in some cases proving to be a significant obstacle to renewable developers receiving their next tranche of taxpayer cash.