June 3, 2014
Letters, Vermont

Re-thinking wind power

Brattleboro Reformer | 06/03/2014 | www.reformer.com

I was very interested to read in the VTDigger article by John Herrick “Electricity Supplier Won’t Buy Vermont Renewable Energy Credits” (Wednesday, May 21, Reformer). The article quotes Lyndon State College physics professor Ben Luce, who is highly critical of Vermont’s unique practice of double counting Renewable Energy Credits. I urge the Reformer to run the May 21 VTDigger article by Professor Luce: “Vermont’s REC Shell Game.” It places this issue in a larger context.

I was also interested to see in the May 28 Reformer a small AP article on the abandonment of a major commercial wind power project in New Hampshire by Iberdola Renewables, the Spanish company proposing to build a large wind power project in Windham County. A fuller account of this New Hampshire event, including the Iberdola mindset, is available in an article from the Manchester Union Leader. [Editor’s note: We ran a full story the Windham meeting in the Thursday, May 29, edition.]

It is rather surprising, and encouraging, to learn from this case, and others in New Hampshire, that New Hampshire seems to have a more inclusive, perceptive, and effective way of evaluating industrial wind power proposals than supposedly democratic, community friendly, and environmentally conscious Vermont.

Michael Boylen,

Marlboro, May 29


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/06/03/re-thinking-wind-power/