Why bother with PSB hearings?
The Chronicle, 22 June 2011
The servile-to-industry Public Service Board has given us another decision “in the public interest” (in a corporation’s interest, rather) – approval of the wind turbine proposal on the pristine Lowell Mountain Range. (The project of the Green Mountain Power Corporation, a wholly owned Canadian company.)
Thus far, the Public Service Board has approved each and every out-of-state applicant who wants to turn Vermont into a wind farm.
Why does the Public Service Board hold hearings anyway? Why bother? Save time and money – issue carte blanche to all comers.
How is it that a three-man Public Service Board (two are part-time) has the power to determine crucial changes to the Vermont landscape? With no legislative oversight, no overall plan for these changes.
The landscape transformation (disfigurement) isn’t just a matter of scenic or environmental disruption either – it’s tourist money that’s at stake. Consider the cynical choice for wind development in low income, off-the-beaten track towns like Lowell and Sheffield, where the lure of tax reduction is irrestible for voters’ approval.
Why no talk of wind development on Camel’s Hump or Mt. Mansfield? Relatedly, why have an anti billboard law?
Since dependence on foreign oil is the issue, it’s worth repeating that Hydro-Quebec sits there with enough excess energy to supply Vermont for a thousand years. And there are other options.
I would add: Henry David Thoreau said “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.” I’d say beware of any wind corporation which approaches your town and tells you how exciting it is that you’ve been chosen – and proceeds to rip up and plaster your landscape with new roads, waving mechanical arms, and red strobe lights at night to boot. A night and day invasion.
Yours truly,
Addison Merrick
Crafstbury
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/06/22/why-bother-with-psb-hearings/