Australian senators John Madigan (DLP) and Nick Xenophon‘s (Ind.) private members bill attempting to insert a new noise standard for wind turbines in the Renewable Energy Target legislation has reached a dead end. Despite the active support of Australia’s anti-wind energy campaigners throughout the submissions process and recent hearings on the matter, the senate’s Environment and Communications Legislation Committee have recommended the bill be rejected.

“The committee concludes that, while it is possible that the human body may detect infrasound in several ways, there is no evidence to suggest that inaudible infrasound (either from wind turbines or other sources) is creating health problems. In contrast,  there is an established literature confirming the existence of psychogenic, or “nocebo”, effects in general, and at least one study suggesting they may be responsible for symptoms in some wind turbine cases.”

For more information, read Giles Parkinson’s coverage of the senate committee’s rejection of the Madigan/Xenophon bill at RenewEconomy.

UPDATE: Ketan Joshi has had a detailed analysis of the senate committee’s report published at RenewEconomy.  It can be found here.