April 11, 2012
Massachusetts

Shelburne Falls wind project opposed

Yoojin Cho, WWLP, www.wwlp.com 10 April 2012

Shelburne Falls residents are meeting Tuesday night at 7 at the Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School to discuss a petition that calls for prohibiting commercial wind projects and only allowing small scale private wind turbines.

A developer named Don Fields has proposed to build four industrial scale wind turbines on Mount Massaemat.

Saving money is on many people’s minds, so if these wind turbines mean lower electricity bills, many residents told 22News, they are on board.

Jane Parsons of Greenfield told 22News, “If it’s going to save anything on the energy. We have to start from scratch.”

And Buckland resident Judy Purinton said, “It will help the community. Save money on electricity.”

But some people say, negative effects will be greater than the benefits.

Each wind turbine in the proposal will be 480 feet tall. That’s three times the height of the Statue of Liberty, and the word, industrial, is what bothers some people who are against this proposal.

Dave Patrick of Shelburne told 22News, “All the economies of scale change, much more damaging in terms of health of human beings, much more damaging to the environment. So small seems good. Large seems a bad idea.”

Lamia Holland of Buckland also signed the petition.

She said “We’ll see a large decrease in our property values. And I think it destroys the image of Shelburne Falls. This is a country setting. This bridge is an icon in western Massachusetts.”

Residents will vote on this petition on May 1st.

If residents vote it down, there will not be any commercial wind projects allowed in Shelburne Falls, but if they vote yes, the zoning board will decide.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/04/11/shelburne-falls-wind-project-opposed/