October 18, 2016
Letters, Vermont

Iberdrola offer pales compared to what will be lost

The Chester Telegraph | Oct 17, 2016 | www.chestertelegraph.org

My husband and I, frequent visitors to the area over the past 10 years, are dismayed at the project being proposed by Iberdrola Renewables. As a health-care practitioner and master gardener and environmental steward respectively, we are amazed that the proposal has gotten this far. Here’s why.

  1. What makes this project necessary if the state is already enjoying the lowest prices in the northeast and other options are available?
  2. Who are the residents of Windham and Grafton that are so impoverished that they would sell their most valuable asset, the mountains that attract so many for skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, hiking, theater, dining and shopping?
  3. How can the ‘residents’ justify making a decision that affects all involved while Iberdrola specifically excluded the non-resident homeowners who pay 60 percent of their taxes?
  4. How can voters consider this minimal short-term profit that creates a forever afterward affected landscape? With the town’s former glory of Magic Mountain and the charm of Grafton altered it makes it that much easier to take our tourist business elsewhere. They will forever be known as the ‘turbine town’s’ of Vermont.
  5. Where is the consideration of learning from those that have gone before them? Ask anyone who lives near a mine, an existing turbine collection, an oil field, high power lines and you’ll get lots of stories of compromised health. Is the risk worth it? Who will pay for those costs?

Having worked in the oil and gas business for more than 20 years, I know there is no free lunch. Any money being spent is strictly for the company’s bottom line gain.

While the dollars Iberdrola purports to ‘give’ the townspeople seem large, they are a drop in the bucket compared to what they will make and what these two towns will lose if this proposal passes.

Jean Grossman,
Dr. Steven Grossman
Montclair, N.J.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2016/10/18/iberdrola-offer-pales-compared-to-what-will-be-lost/