Before Dr. Carl V. Phillips was being presented as an expert witness at wind development planning hearings, he was a fixture in courtrooms related to tobacco health suits. His ties to the tobacco industry and acceptance of tobacco funding ultimately caused the end of his academic career. Phillips then set up his own research foundation and has come out against peer-reviewed research, specifically regarding wind turbines.

Phillips published a paper related to epidemiology and wind energy in the un-indexed Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society. He is also a member of the Science Advisory Group of the Society for Wind Vigilance.

In late 2013, Phillips testified in an Alberta court related to the Bull Creek Wind Project. The final judgment stated:

The Commission carefully reviewed the evidence provided by Dr. Phillips and finds that his prediction that three per cent of area residents will experience severe health effects and approximately 50 per cent will experience some health effects is not supported by the evidence for the following reasons.

First, Dr. Phillips provided little rationale for his predictions regarding the number of people who would experience health effects from the project. Dr. Phillips stated he based his prediction that 50 per cent of nearby residents will experience health effects on “things like the Nissenbaum study” but did not elaborate further…

Second, Dr. Phillips confirmed that his conclusions were not based upon any particular adverse event reports and, in fact, he had not reviewed any adverse event reports in the preparation of his written evidence…

Third, Dr. Phillips confirmed that the data he looked at was not organized in a systematic way and that he did not break down the data to determine a dose-response relationship between wind turbine operation and the symptoms he described. In other words, he did not correlate the prevalence or the intensity of the constellation of symptoms he identified with the sound levels at the persons’ residences or the distance between the person experiencing the symptoms and the turbine(s) in question.

Fourth, Dr. Phillips conceded that he had not specifically defined the population upon which his conclusions were based upon…

Posted by Energy and Policy Institute