A wind energy development company, Plantree Limited, has been fined an abysmal €1,500 over the Meenbog peat slide in 2020.
The peat slide in November 2020 saw hundreds of cubic metres of peat and debris entering a stream and on to the Mournebeg River from the site of the wind farm, near Ballybofey on the Donegal-Tyrone border.
It is astonishing that the courts find €1,500 an acceptable amount to fine a company that has created such massive ecological damage to an internationally protected Salmon habitat.
Most people would agree that clean renewable energy is something we should strive for but flagrant destruction of unique upland bog lands and the diverse flora and fauna that inhabit them must also be protected.
Slap on the wrist fines like €1,500 to major companies like Amazon, who were to benefit from the power of the 19 turbines on the site, only embolden their destructive tendencies, green capitalism is just capitalism with flowers.
Until capitalism is taken out of green energy it will never truly be green.
