The latest windmill proposal is not part of a comprehensive green energy policy which is vital and necessary. It is, in my opinion, an opportunistic big business approach that is green only by coincidence, and which would invasively industrialize a rural area whose bread and butter is natural beauty, not industry. What we really need is a comprehensive nationwide energy policy that isn’t written by oil companies. Until democracy in America is reclaimed (impeach) , why not have statewide policies in which everyone decides to plan the most suitable locations for wind development, solar, and anything else to lessen our dependence on foreign oil?
Instead, because we are disorganized, what we have are corporations proposing projects designed to benefit their bottom line. We are passive instead of active, and as such, living as we do among corporate behemoths, we are likely to be trampled.
It all seems a bit much just to provide for half a percent of Vermont’s electricity needs. I bet you we could eliminate that half percent and then some were everyone in Vermont merely to agree to turn the lights off when we’re not using them (or stop putting up holiday lights months in advance of and subsequent to the actual holiday). The room for improvement in efficiency is so vast it ought to be considered an energy source—actually, I think it is—watts saved by efficiency are called negawatts. We ought to at least exhaust that option before we go tearing into pristine alpine habitat (again).
Best wishes
Marc Beaudette
Wilmington
21 November 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/11/22/windmills-not-comprehensive-green-policy/