Gone with the wind
Credit: The Caledonian-Record, caledonianrecord.com 7 January 2010
Green Mountain Power Company (GMPC) has announced it will submit its plans for constructing the Green Mountain Power Wind Farm in Lowell to the voters by Australian ballot and do what they decide, i.e., build it or not according to how the vote turns out. That decision seems a good one, democratic and more than fair.
It only seems fair, though, because it lacks one important element. It will be a vote by Lowell registered voters only. It will not reflect the wishes of the citizens of the towns in the view shed area around the proposed wind farm, who don’t live in Lowell.
It is very likely that Lowell voters, who will get a big tax windfall from GMPC, will approve the wind farm. Based on their vote alone, their non-voting neighbors will be looking at the towers and huge fans from their living room windows.
It is a given that Vermont’s ridges and valleys, and the views to and from them, belong to all Vermonters, not just the ones who own the real estate or who live in the towns that contain the view shed. Nobody would agree to 100 or more windmills on the Mount Mansfield or Camel’s Hump ridges, even though they are within the limits of the towns of their location. We would bet the farm that Vermonters would not stand for the voters in those towns trading our birthright views for the mess of potage of a tax bribe.
For any wind farm vote up or down to be binding, it should include the eligible voters in all of the towns from which the ridge to be despoiled by a wind farm is visible. Without those votes being included, a vote by the citizens of the taxing town, in this case Lowell, is nothing more than a clever public relations gimmick that guarantees that the birthright of the rest of us will be gone with the wind.
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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