Developers have withdrawn a controversial proposal to put seven wind turbines on a Swanton ridgeline. Swanton Wind, which is run by the Belisle family, announced Monday that it was “pausing development work” because of anti-wind sentiment among state officials and uncertainty around potential changes to the federal tax code.
In a press release, spokesman Nick Charyk, a former Vermont Democratic Party operative, said that “the project currently faces a hostile environment from an administration opposed to wind energy, regulators and monopoly utilities who import a majority of Vermont’s power while opposing many independent local power projects.”
Although Swanton Wind’s application has been withdrawn from the Vermont Public Utility Commission, Charyk said the project will resume at “a more predictable time.”
Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, has called for halting large-scale mountaintop wind projects. Earlier this year, he appointed Tony Roisman, who’s also expressed concern about ridgeline wind turbines, to chair the Vermont Public Utility Commission.
The Swanton project has faced resistance from residents living nearby, including former Republican lieutenant governor Brian Dubie.
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We will get the future we deserve.
Very pleased.
Bill C
The “future we deserve” will not be dictated by developers like David B who use public tax money to enrich himself while foisting his monstrosities on the rest of us.
Some (smart) Vermonters worry about climate change…..other people worry about taxes going to the wind industry.
I wonder if these NIMBY rubes have any idea about the public tax money that goes to support the fossil fuel industry.
Great news! Lets promote solar. It can be put on rooftops, in parking lots and in fields, etc AND, as the technology gets more efficient and becomes more sensitive and thus smaller, it can be more easily changed out. Way less destructive to the environment. And no Noise Pollution.
BEST BENEFIT: NO massive Destruction of Vermont ridgelines: Acres and acres of clear cutting for access roads and the 500 turbines sites! No poorly mitigated storm water run off silting up streams and contributing to flooding. No massive destruction of animal habitat. No suffering neighbors, sick from audible sound and vibrating inaudible infra-sound. The list goes on. Industrial scale wind is not good in just any old location. The devil is in the details! I am pro appropriate renewals and FIRST, before we churn out more and more energy: CONSERVATION! Lets put our energy into CINSERVATION PROGRAMS & INCENTIVES now!
Meanwhile a wind project in Quebec is making someone sick so Brian Dubie doesn’t have to look at one….
The spin around this is typical of the wind industry when they lose, blame someone else and neglect the facts. Swanton Wind was required by the PUC to do a System Impact Study, which was ongoing. The best guess about why the project was dropped was that the SIS showed up something expensive. That’s what caused the developers of the Seneca Mountain Wind project to pull the plug, and they correctly did their SIS before filing the application. The circumstances these developers likely hope will change have nothing to do with the governor’s office or the PUC chair, but ways to shift the cost of transmission upgrades onto ratepayers. Right now wind does not have the right of eminent domain and has to pay for transmission upgrades. It would a breath of fresh air if this industry would be honest instead of constantly spinning, blaming, and denying responsibility.