December 12, 2012
Vermont

Lowell Six face community service, continued fight

WPTZ.com | December 11, 2012 | www.msnbc.msn.com

A Orleans District Court judge has sentenced six opponents of the Kingdom Community Wind Project to 25 hours of community service each.

The Lowell Six, as they have been called, were convicted of trespassing at the site of the wind project in Lowell.

The six said they are not sorry for the December 2011 protest, which called attention to what they said are misconceptions of green energy.

“As long as Vermont policies allow for the destruction of natural resources, with no benefit to fight against climate change, we will continue to fight,” said Ron Holland.

The fight will continue in court.

First, the Lowell Six are appealing their conviction.

A judge said the group will not have to serve their 25 hours of community service until that appeal is decided.

Second, a civil case is working its way through the courts, to decide who actually owns the land the protesters were on when they were arrested.

Green Mountain Power was building its project, but a neighbor alleges the land is actually part of their property.

Until that case next year, the group hopes to educate the public on what they said are the realities of green energy.

“Green energy is not green,” said Anne Morse. “It’s destroying people’s home and it’s destroying our environment.”

The group said though renewable energies appear cleaner than others, getting them here and building them are not environmentally friendly.

“You can’t ship those wind turbines from Denmark to the United States and get them up on the Lowell Mountains, and you can’t cut the forests and all that stuff without burning a tremendous amount of fossil fuels,” Morse said.

With a day’s worth of service mandated by the state ahead of them, the Lowell Six said their fight is not over.

“This is a problem of education and the deception is profound,” Holland said.

Following their sentencing, the group handed out a draft of a report from the Public Service Board. They said the documents shows Green Mountain Power is selling off renewable energy credits to out-of-state non-renewable energy generators, which would violate FTC guidelines.

The official report is due in January.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/12/12/lowell-six-face-community-service-continued-fight/