GMP’s error
The Orleans Record, orleanscountyrecord.com 17 November 2011
Green Mountain Power has to shoulder the blame for any delay in their schedule on the Lowell industrial wind project.
I attended the blasting meeting in Lowell on 8/18/11 in which a spokesperson for Maine Drilling and Blasting described a project where the company removed ledge so a medical facility could be expanded. He said that the facility never closed during construction. He never mentioned a safety zone for that project or for the Lowell project. GMP and MDB assumed that they could blast without regard to the property rights of the adjoining landowner. Their plan, presented to the Public Service Board, contained no blast safety zone.
When the neighboring land was not used to GMP’s liking, they had the court intervene. The fact that this landowner is now being denied the use of his land so that GMP can carry out an ill conceived blasting plan is outrageous. What is equally outrageous is GMP’s concluding that the rightful use of property, outside GMP’s project zone, will be the sole cause of the loss of the federal production tax credits and a burden on ratepayers to cover the loss.If the PTCs are unattainable it is GMP’s and MDB’s error.
What about the stop work order for cutting trees and filling in wetlands without a permit? Storm water issues that should have stopped construction were overlooked by Shumlin’s Agency of Natural Resources. PSB hearings will look into these issues.
Stay tuned.
Dennis Liddy
Westfield, Vt.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/11/17/gmps-error/