The makeshift wind turbine erected in front of the Statehouse, emblazoned with the governor’s last name, was the first hint. Then there were the sign-bearing protesters flanking the Statehouse doors.
Inside, in the halls of the Statehouse, the cafeteria and committee rooms, scores more were dressed in bright green vests to highlight their presence and emphasize the danger they feel.
Wednesday brought the biggest show of force yet by Vermonters upset with the state’s siting process for energy projects. What has in recent years been a relatively small group of wind opponents has grown into a legion of people worried about wind and solar, including town leaders from across the state.
“Now, it’s being taken more seriously,” LuAnn Therrien said of the opposition. Therrien has spent years speaking against the Sheffield wind project, which she said drove her family out of town.
The proliferation of solar projects around Vermont has changed the volume of the opposition, said Mark Whitworth, who is with the organization Energize Vermont. The group has long opposed decisions about the siting of wind projects, and it now finds new friends opposed to suggested solar sites. “That is what really has lit a fire under this energy rebellion. When it was wind in the Kingdom, it was pretty easy for people in other parts of the state to ignore it,” Whitworth said.
Now, many town officials are also fired up. The Vermont League of Cities and Towns, not exactly a rebellious organization, joined in Wednesday’s event. Nearly a dozen local officials testified to legislative committees about how their towns have spent thousands of dollars and still feel powerless during the process to determine renewable energy sites.
“We’ve been inundated with solar,” Russ Hodgkins, Westminster town manager, told the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee on Wednesday. He said his town supports renewable energy, but the locations chosen so far are taking prime agriculture and industrial sites out of the economy. “There’s not one of them that’s in a great location.”
Whether this growing throng of rebels will get their way is another matter. While they are railing against what they consider poorly sited projects, Gov. Peter Shumlin has been touting the growth of renewable energy and the jobs it brings.
Wednesday’s events — hours of meetings with the Senate and House Natural Resources and Energy committees and a noontime press conference and rally — were organized by Sen. John Rodgers (D-Essex/Orleans), author of a bill calling for a ban on industrial wind projects.
“In 1968, Vermont passed a landmark anti-billboard law,” Rodgers told those gathered for the press conference. The “billboard ban is what inspired me to do what I’ve known to be right for years, and that is introduce S. 210, to ban industrial wind from Vermont.”
Prospects for a ban seem as weak this year as in previous years, however. “We’ll listen, but I think the problem with that proposal is we have an orderly development process,” said Sen. Chris Bray (D-Addison), chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee.
Bray insists, though, that he’s working on changes that will help, at least on the solar front. “That is the most urgent need we are responding to,” Bray said.
His committee is putting together a bill — S.230 — that he hopes will offer incentives to build solar projects in specific locations and direct the Public Service Board to consider town plans in approving projects. Changes coming to the state’s net metering regulations will also likely slow down the proliferation of solar projects, he said.
Bray’s House counterpart, Rep. Tony Klein (D-East Montpelier), said he’ll await the Senate’s bill, but he agreed changes to energy-project siting should be made this year, even if there is not yet agreement on what those should be. He said, “There’s a pretty clear message that towns do not think they’re being heard.”
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When Vermonters were asked if we were in favor of renewable energy there was a resounding yes.
What we didn’t know was the following:
1. We would get carved out and blasted mountain tops.
2. Roughshod riding over local planning and zoning.
3. A governor that said,”if towns don’t want it I won’t support it”. Lying in his teeth.
4. Government subsidies (our tax money) that makes the whole thing a windfall for the financially connected.
5. The likes of Klien, Shumlin, Powell, Burns, Rechia and Blittersdorf telling us what’s good for us.
6. The use of the attorney general’s office to squelch or harass any opposition.
7. A PSB that ignores the health of families that have to live with monster wind and the loss of property values.
The backlash is underway. An election is coming. Changes are going to be made.
It is all about Eco-Fascism!
see
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/vermont-ag-s-office-investigating-complaints-against-annette-smit
Support Annette Smith and wind opposition in Vermont, they are right!
This action by the Vt. AG office is abhorrent to all that is just and in our bill of rights!
Help defend her first amendment rights from the onslaught of President 0 and Eco-Fascism in Vt.
The irony is the wind and solar industrialists and their blind supporters cry NIMBY at any concern without recognizing that Shumlin’s closure of VT Yankee in his Windham County backyard represents the biggest NIMBY action of all. Shummy was determined to close VT Yankee to protect his property values because of concerns with VT Yankee and not once suggested rebuilding it with 3rd generation safe and carbon-free nuclear. But he’s shown with renewables and the F-35 that he cares not a whit for anyone else’s neighborhood or property values and happily sacrifices the ordinary taxpayer for the profit of his campaign donors.
Shumlin and wind fanatic Tony Klein have even called F-35 opponents NIMBY and denigrated multi-generation Winooski and South Burlington families by saying, “Hey, the airport was there, you knew there was an airport, get over it, etc.” Guess what? VT Yankee was already there also & Shumlin well knew it when he moved back to Windham County after college and started buying properties. Worst governor we’ve ever had.
dynamiting head waters is BAD
Vermont had the most environmentally friendly power source ever invented–small footprint with minimal disruption to the environment–Vermont Yankee. Unfortunately, due to shortsightedness, radiophobia and the renewables religion, Vermont will now be carved up for wind turbines and access roads. What a pity.
Remember folks, decarbonization is the goal, not 100% renewables. We need to ramp up nuclear power (and keep the plants we already have) in addition to increasing solar and wind sources. So say the IPCC, the IEA, COP21 and most climate scientists. But, hey, those with the 100% renewables religion don’t care about what the IPCC has to say. Just like climate change deniers, they don’t give a damn about science when it goes against their ideology.
Better technology is coming e.g . hydrogen cars now a reality. This technology will lower pollution while offering a solution to our energy needs.
We should not be rushing into loss of quality of place which is just as important as clean air.
You folks who are questioning the health effects of these monstrous industrial turbines should be ashamed of yourselves for belittling your fellow Vermonters who are suffering. Wind turbine syndrome is recognized by the United Nations. It is real. Here in Maine, we’ve had more and longer experience with these huge turbines and it is difficult to listen to what rural residents near these machines are experiencing. The vibrations, the shadow flicker, the low level noise that goes on and on. I listened to a resident explain how she felt like a tuning fork on some days with the vibration going from her feet to the top of her head. She was a regular Mainer and spoke of how she is becoming an expert in weather, wind speed and direction, etc because the variations create different awful sensations to deal with. When these huge turbines are spinning, the peace in her home is gone. This has happened to hundreds of Mainers. And all for a lie, because these goddam industrial turbines notoriously and consistently underperform. The wind is unpredictable and very often blows when more energy is not needed such as at night. Putting them up destroys mountain tops and ridge lines, destroys wildlife habitat, kills federally protected eagles and endangered bats, removes tens of thousands of carbon sequestering trees. Why do you think such filthy companies as TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone pipeline, love the wind energy scam? They and their Wall Street/Big Bank pals love the federal taxpayer giveaway and their guaranteed rip off profits. Vermonters: put an end to the industrial wind scam as fast as you can. Protect your natural heritage, your precious wild life, your fellow citizens and your special quality of place.