Don’t disregard science and destroy a fragile environment
The Chronicle, 9 March 2011
I am writing to oppose the forward movement by the Governor for the Lowell wind project.
In an apparent effort to offer an alternative to Vermont Yankee, it seems that Governor Shumlin has decided to disregard science to support a project that will destroy a fragile environment forever.
Opponents of the Lowell project support renewable energy solutions- we just don’t support THIS wind project, which is out of proportion and inappropriate for Vermont. I have four issues:
1. Exploitation of impoverished towns – these proposals would never have been suggested for Stowe or Woodstock. The power brokers in charge of big business are trying (and succeeding) in throwing a few dollars into local tax coffers to buy support. I find this very offensive.
2. The towers themselves – reported to be erected are up to 39 turbines, each 460 feet tall. The Washington Monument is 555 feet tall, these are 82% of that height. Try to imagine this- a pristine wooded ridgeline with miles of mammoth cement and metal structures.
3. The night lights – anyone who has been shocked by the flashing red lights of the “test towers” can only imagine the enormity of the impact of 39 towers at night. The lights are visible for many miles, at unexpected angles, and we are only seeing two illuminated sites. Proponents of the project can laugh and trivialize my concern for aesthetics, but I did not move to Albany to look at flashing red night lights in the sky, which I could have found at an airport. One great pleasure of rural life is viewing stars in the pitch black sky, visitors from urban areas are always amazed at the unspoiled environment here.
4. The natural environment – it is obscene in my opinion to allow the northeast kingdom to lose another precious area of plant and animal habitat. To blow up and bulldoze miles of forest, wetlands, and wildlife corridors demonstrates either ignorance or disregard for the creatures who cannot speak for themselves.
Trash this obscenity and think smaller- think Vermont size.
Linda Libby
Albany
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/03/09/dont-disregard-science-and-destroy-a-fragile-environment/