April 15, 2013
Rhode Island

New Stamp Farm wind turbine

Here we go again. After all the debates and discussions on wind turbines in North Kingstown, the Stamp family together with Mark Depasquale are promoting a new bill at the State House that would allow wind turbines OF ANY SIZE on Rhode Island farms. This bill would override any local ordinances and any moratorium on wind turbines.

At an April 11 hearing at the State House William Stamp Jr. and William Stamp III said Rhode Island farms are constrained financially by a lack of land, escalating costs and a short growing season. Any other industry with those problems would be allowed to fail. I agree that we need farmers so we can have food on the table, but maybe farmers should follow the trend in the rest of society – combine smaller farms into bigger more efficient ones.

Stamp Jr. said a single turbine like the one at the North Kingstown Green supplies electricity for 500 homes. “It’s taking a resource and uses it as something that is productive and useful for the community. This is energy for everyone.” he said. This is only true if the turbine is owned by the community. The turbine at NK Green is owned by Mark Depasquale’s company and the only people who benefit financially are the people living in NK Green and Mark Depasquale. The turbine that was previously denied for Stamp Farm was to be owned by Depasquale and not the community.

Over the past two years the state and URI have worked hard to come up with guidelines for the responsible siting of turbines. The guidelines are almost ready to be published, but this proposed bill would take no notice of the states guidelines when it comes to safety setbacks, shadow flicker and noise.

Actually, they do. Just do a Google search and you will see how wrong he is. Here are just two examples:

Mr. Depasquale also takes a very arrogant stance to Wind Turbine Syndrome, which causes nausea, sleeplessness and headaches in some people, saying “If you believe it, you’re going to have it. It’s in your head”. The fact that it doesn’t affect everybody, does not mean “It’s in your head” of those who are affected.

Both the Stamp family and Mark Depasquale are showing a complete lack of consideration for anybody except themselves. The community of North Kingstown clearly showed WE DO NOT WANT YOUR TURBINES.