Donald Trump brands Alex Salmond ‘insane’ over windfarms
Donald Trump has hit out at Alex Salmond over windfarms. Picture: Greg Macvean
DONALD Trump is to fund an international crusade against “monstrous” windfarm developments around Scotland’s coast, after launching an astonishing broadside over First Minister Alex Salmond’s plans to streamline the offshore planning process.
In a furious attack, the billionaire US businessman accused Mr Salmond of being “hell-bent on destroying Scotland’s coastline and therefore Scotland itself”.
In a letter to Mr Salmond, Mr Trump said: “You will single-handedly have done more damage to Scotland than virtually any event in Scottish history!”
Only four years ago, the two men appeared to be best of golfing friends, when Mr Trump invited the First Minister and actor Sir Sean Connery to join him on the first tee at the opening of what he called the “world’s greatest golf course”, after the Scottish Government stepped in to rescue his £750 million luxury resort in Aberdeenshire.
But yesterday, there was a spectacular fall-out between the two as Mr Trump launched his blistering tirade against the First Minister’s refusal to intervene and block plans for an “eyesore” offshore wind farm in Aberdeen Bay he claims is jeopardising his future investment in Scotland.
He fired off a letter from Trump Tower in New York after Mr Salmond announced plans to speed up the approval of offshore renewable developments and said: “As we re-industrialise this nation then, eventually, just about everybody will get on board – even Donald Trump”.
The tycoon’s tirade was condemned by political leaders and pro-renewable energy groups. But one anti-windfarm group praised Mr Trump’s stance, saying such projects would “destroy the tourism industry”.
The businessman warned last month he would not spend “another penny” on his £750 million golf resort at the Menie Estate until it had been confirmed the planned 11-turbine European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre was being moved away from the coastline flanking the site of his main championship course.
The development, spearheaded by Swedish electricity company Vattenfall, will stretch from Aberdeen to an area off Blackdog, an estimated mile and a half from the Menie links. The turbines will be up to 640ft high, and the Trump Organisation claims the “ugly industrial park” will ruin the coastline.
In his letter sent yesterday, Mr Trump told Mr Salmond: “I have read your recent comments about so called ‘wind power.’ For the record, taxing your citizens to subsidise wind projects owned by foreign energy companies will destroy your country and its economy.”
He warned investment in renewables would not create jobs in Scotland because these “ugly monstrosities known as turbines” were made overseas. “These countries, who so benefit from your billions in pounds in payments, are laughing at you,” he wrote.
Describing the drive to install wind turbines as “reckless”, Mr Trump said he would “never be ‘on board’ as you have stated I would be, with this insanity. You will be long gone, but the people of Scotland will forever suffer.”
He warned that, in a campaign to “save Scotland and honour my mother, Mary MacLeod”, he had authorised his staff to “allocate a substantial sum of money to launch an international campaign to fight your plan to surround Scotland’s coast with many thousands of wind turbines”.
In the letter, Trump said the offshore turbines would mean that looking out to sea from the shore would be like looking “through the bars of a prison”.
He went on: “Luckily, tourists will not suffer because there will be none as they will be going to other countries that had the foresight to use other forms of energy.”
Mr Salmond declined to respond personally to Mr Trump’s remarks. A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “An application for consent for the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre has been submitted to Marine Scotland, and we are currently considering the views of consultees, interested parties and the public.
“Scottish waters are estimated to have as much as a quarter of Europe’s potential offshore wind energy. A recent study suggests that harnessing just a third of the practical resource off our coast by 2050 would enable us to generate enough electricity to power Scotland seven times over.
“An independent Scotland will be able to take full responsibility for this renewables revolution, along with the investment and thousands of jobs it brings.”
But opposition MSPs rounded on the billionaire businessman.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie branded the letter a “desperate attempt by a rich man” to get his own way.
He said: “First, Mr Trump accuses Scotland of being the laughing stock of the world, now he threatens to launch an international campaign.
“What Mr Trump needs to understand is that Scotland will live up to our responsibilities to tackle climate change. This letter is a rather desperate attempt by a rich man who is used to getting his own way, but his latest tizzy is embarrassing.
“Instead of the world laughing at Scotland, Scotland is laughing at Mr Trump.”
Mr Rennie went on: “Mr Trump’s dislike for turbines several miles from his golf course should not derail Scotland’s ambition. I would urge the First Minister to listen to Mr Trump, but no more and no less than anyone else. We won’t be bullied by Mr Trump and his millions.”
North East Scotland Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald accused the businessman of “bully-boy tactics”, saying: “This is an extraordinary piece of political theatre. Donald Trump needs to realise that simply because he is investing in one project, it does not give him a veto on any other project.
“Alex Salmond needs to make a choice. The right choice for the North-east is to support the offshore renewables development – a crucially important industry for our part of Scotland.
“Alex Salmond will no doubt recognise the bully-boy tactics that are being applied to him, but I hope he will also recognise that the right thing to do is to stand up to the bullies.”
David Milne, a Menie estate resident and a long-standing opponent of the Trump resort, said: “It’s a rather extreme and childish rant, rather than a letter. This is the sort of letter you would expect to be written by a 14-year-old who would then normally have the gumption not to actually send it.”
Environmental bodies also attacked the tycoon’s outburst. Niall Stuart, the chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said: “Who is Donald Trump to tell Scotland what is good for our economy and our environment? He completely overblows the impact of the proposed windfarm and, to be honest, there are so many mistakes in the ‘trumped-up’ nonsense that it’s difficult to know where to begin.
“There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that these two developments cannot exist side by side.”
But Kim Terry, a spokeswoman for the campaign group Communities Against Turbines Scotland, backed the tycoon.
“I think he’s right,” she said. “Offshore windfarms are going to destroy the tourism industry. These turbines are going to make it difficult to navigate and difficult for fishermen, and it is going to make the coastline unattractive to look at.”
She added: “I don’t care what anybody says – they are eyesores. They are grotesque and they are destroying our most beautiful landscapes onshore and offshore as well now.”
Email to a friend
Print this page- Scottish independence: I don’t want ‘separatism’ says Sir Tom Farmer
- Rangers administration: End game nears for fallen icon
- USA 5 - 1 Scotland: Donovan grabs hattrick as Scots routed in Florida
- Vatican poised to make more arrests in papal leaks scandal
- Rangers administration: Duff & Phelps ‘hopeful’ that Taxman will agree to CVA
- Scottish independence: I don’t want ‘separatism’ says Sir Tom Farmer
- Scottish independence: Labour voters ‘will deliver independence’
- Rangers administration: End game nears for fallen icon
- Leaders: Blurred vision on independence
- Rangers administration: Duff & Phelps ‘hopeful’ that Taxman will agree to CVA
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Edinburgh
Monday 28 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
Comments
There are 370 comments to this article
Page 1 of 25
Flakey
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 05:14 PMThe arguement for and against wind farms will go on for a long time yet. The fact is Donald Trump is not doing this because he cares about Scotland and the Scottish people, it's is purely because it is affecting HIS investment. He has no place dictating to Holyrood that it should be changed because of his investment. If he hadn't built a much needed golf course (As he has said before, Scotland NEEDS him and his golf course) Then he'd not be here trying to dictate to us what we should do. Its bad enough having Westminster telling us what we want and need, now we have to endure Donald Trump telling us what we want and need and what we should do.
AuldLochinvar
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 09:47 PMIn 2004, total electrical energy demand in the UK was 402,960,000 MW*hours. But that's only about 46,000 MW*years. But although this means that the average power was 46,000 megawatts -- or 46 gigawatts, it doesn't mean that you can supply the country's demand with 46 one-gigawatt power stations, and certainly not with 10,000 5-megawatt wind turbines. In fact, even if you figure in the capacity factor of about 25% for most locations, 40,000 turbines still won't do it, because when the wind is strongest, it's gusty, which means the power of the wind is jumping up and down. A turbine that produces 5MW when the wind is blowing at 37 mph produces a miserable 1MW at 21.5 mph. At 13 mph, the wind can give you only 4% of the power available at 37. It's proportional to the cube, the third power of the wind speed. See a Dutch engineer's analysis at http:www.countryguardian.nethalkema-windenergyfactfiction.pdf
AuldLochinvar
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 08:38 PM"A recent study suggests that harnessing just a third of the practical resource off our coast by 2050 would enable us to generate enough electricity to power Scotland seven times over." Aye, perhaps it would provide seven times as much electrical energy in a year as Scotland consumes in a year. But I do not believe for a moment that it would ever provide peak demand at the time the peak occurs. My brother was chief biologist at Dinorwig pumped storage station, when it was being built. It was then owned by the CEGB, which belonged to the people of Britain as a national asset. Margaret Thatcher "privatised" the CEGB, and Dinorwig is now owned by Matsui. A pumped storage plant has rotors which can be set either to pump or to be driven by water. You have both a motor and a generator attached. The point of pumped storage is, that at night your base load generators, especially nuclear, are not needed to meet the demand, and you can very well use the energy to pump water uphill into a pond, lake, or other reservoir. During the day, and especially at sharply rising demand, you let the water come down again, to drive the turbine-generators, and can very swiftly pick up heavy electrical loads. You get back about 75% of the energy used to pump the water up, which is pretty good since the fuel cost of nuclear is negligible. It's not quite so good with coal, because of course burning coal is filthy.
AuldLochinvar
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 06:43 PMOhhh! This is awful!! I've consistently detested Donald Trump, and here he is, absolutely in the right about these horrible stupid bird-killing, feeble monstrosities. One Arc100 nuclear reactor, which needs a fuel core load of 20.3 tons, can run for 20 years with no more fuel, producing as much power all the time as 20 wind turbines can do in a Beaufort scale 7 (half a gale) wind. AT the end of that time, the nuclear waste is 2.5 tons, and it can be refurbished with 2.5 tons of natural - or depleted -- uranium.
cajwbroomhill
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 06:57 PMThose supporting renewables,wind either ken nothing about them or seek to benefit from them, financially or,and politically.
bodach
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 06:49 PMwhat a lot of rubbish people speak-there is no evidence whatsoever to support the argument that the very ugly wind towers deter tourism
tested
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 12:11 PMbridgetthecat #353, 351.350 et al either your a windpower company plant or you dont know the first thing about commercial electricity generation. Wind cannot be used to replace nuclear; coal or gas can be used but not wind as by its very intermittent nature it cannot provide baseload. Haven't bothered reading past your anti nuke rant as anyone who cannot get their head round basic facts doesnt have anything worthwhile to contribute.
Eddison548
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 04:29 AMMr Salmond should listen to the people,we do not want these wind farms they are destroying Scotland please regain some sense and stop it now.Use some common sense.
Richard Lionheart
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 04:49 PMFor once I think Alex Salmond and David Cameron should listen to this guy. At least when he tells them they have to listen. It will be the people of Scotland who will be paying the price for these Wind farms for decades to come. Bearing in mind that they have a shelf life of 20 years! Tony and Godron have a lot to answer for, and Alex is proving through his energy policy that he can make as big a mess of our economy as they did, but at least Alex has got a little time left to change course. End Green Anarchist Polices NOW = save the Human Race and the Planet. Great to have your support Donald.
saltpeter
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 02:09 PMtake a look at the picture at the top of this page. Is this not a classic spoiled bullyin brat not getting his own way Im going to shake my fist and scream . Wind Turbines are a waste of space but I would rather have them of his golf course than on some highland hill
The one that got away
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 12:08 PMSo Fat Boy is not going to get a job in Trumpety golf links which he assiduously supported, when he finally throws in the towel after defeated by the independence vote? Hence the idiot is clinging onto DevoMax.
norfolkboy14
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 08:00 AMAt least Donald Trump acknowledges that wind farms are having a detrimental effect on the leisure and tourist industries. When will the rest of the country wake up to this fact? Are you disillusioned by rising electricity prices, over dependence on the "green" dream [especially uneconomical and inefficient wind farms] and the destruction of our countryside then please register your objection to the Government by GOOGLING "E-PETITION 22958" and following the link.
bridgetthecat
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 02:01 AM354, You could be right but Salmond will not and should not cave in.
Canton-eze
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 01:57 AMAddendum to #356 and reference to D-troll #129. ............"some of your SNP and SDA posters ..." Aye, another of your on-the-spot made-up accusations. Struggling, eh? And ... "why not cut back on the cheap vodka ..." Christ, resort to childishness when the game is up, D-Donut. Just like Donny Pump and his out-with-the-peasants and in with the golf balls. You assume (slander me) that I drink vodka, but then you are a proven seer, and who am I to dispute such intellect? Truth is, vodka of any quality is nowhere close to my palate. I do however appreciate a fine red wine, and most of all a Scotch malt WHISKY, be it WHISKY from Orkney, Speyside, Isla or Campbeltown, to name but four areas of choice, but you will not be aware of such niceties in your trolling career. Dream on Donut. Your transparent Scottish affectation is worthy only of the derision it deserves and receives here. Putty medal for effort though.
Canton-eze
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 12:04 AM#295 DanielTrollmonger - Scotland does NOT have a “Whiskey Industry”. Demonstrating your ignorance of Scotland again.
Page 1 of 25
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.