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Wind Power News: Vermont
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational effort to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Developer decides not to submit application for Stamford wind project
A developer considering a 2.2-megawatt wind power project in Stamford has announced it won’t continue in the permitting process before the Vermont Public Utility Commission. Norwich Technologies, manager of the Stamford Main Renewables wind turbine proposal, said in a media release, “To date, the project has had to delay its [permit application] filing multiple times due to the project being fed by a line from outside of Vermont with a utility that is not under Vermont rules. These delays have . . . Complete story »
Green Mountain Club seeks wind project viewshed study for proposed Stamford site
The Green Mountain Club is requesting a study of visual impacts a proposed 500-foot wind generating turbine on a site in Stamford would have from the Long Trail/Appalachian Trail corridor. In a letter sent to the state Public Utility Commission about the proposed 2.2-megawatt facility planned by Norwich Solar Technologies, the club, which maintains the Long Trail, requested “a viewshed assessment of the proposed turbine from the trail treadway … so that the visual impact of this proposal can be . . . Complete story »
Green energy movement hijacked by the ‘eco-industrial complex’
“We must take control of our environmental movement and our future from billionaires and their permanent war on Planet Earth. They are not our friends.” —Jeff Gibbs, filmmaker, Planet of the Humans Jeff Gibbs drove all the way from his home in Michigan to share his documentary – Planet of the Humans – at the Essex Cinemas in Vermont last week. What began as a quest to save the planet and shed light on the widespread environmental damage happening at . . . Complete story »
Pay attention to corporate climate profiteering
Up to now criticism of the Clean Heat Standard bill (S.5) has focused on its intended result of driving up prices of heating oil, propane, kerosene and natural gas somewhere from seventy cents to four dollars a gallon, in order to finance $2 billion worth of subsidies to people to quit using those fuels and install “cold climate heat pumps”, “advanced wood heat”, and home weatherization. The bill is built upon a complex “credit” system managed by the unaccountable Public . . . Complete story »
Climate is less an energy problem than an ecological problem
As an environmental journalist, I am watching the Shaftsbury Solar discussion with great interest. One concern is that the discussion is often framed as people who care about climate change (those favoring solar projects) vs. those more worried about their own assets (e.g., natural vistas) when the reality is more complex. It must be said: We are not going to solar panel our way out of the climate crisis. Somehow climate change has been defined as an energy problem – a . . . Complete story »
Upgrades planned to major Franklin County power line
The company that operates Vermont’s electric transmission system plans to replace a key power line in Franklin County over the next several years, saying the project will increase the state’s capacity for ferrying renewable energy throughout New England. Vermont Electric Power Co.’s “K-42” line runs from Highgate in the north to Georgia in the south, and it’s a major transmission path for energy from Quebec and wind and hydroelectric power that’s produced in Vermont, the Rutland-based company says. But officials . . . Complete story »
Deerfield black bear wind turbine study ongoing
Vermont wildlife officials are sifting through a decade’s worth of data to learn more about the impacts of wind turbine development on black bears. The state commissioned a study on black bears and the Deerfield wind development built in 2017 in Readsboro and Searsburg. It looked at how the bears interacted with the different phases of the development from baseline studies through the construction of the 15 turbines there now. Jaclyn Comeau, the black bear project leader for Vermont Fish . . . Complete story »
What I learned at REV
Much of the conversation focused on loosening the noise rules, with the participants citing them as the biggest issue to wind development in Vermont. Complete story »
When wind turbines caused sleep deprivation, key lawmakers sided with Big Wind
Editor’s note: This is Part Two of a critique of Vermont’s government-renewable power industry complex written by Monique Thurston, a retired Addison County physician. She has been on the ground floor of opposition to wind power and the subsidized renewable power industry for over a decade. See Part One in yesterday’s Vermont Daily Chronicle. Many Vermont lawmakers – including some now holding powerful positions on energy committees – have ignored the physical and financial suffering created by industrial wind turbines . . . Complete story »
Firm considering wind generating project in Stamford
An alternative energy developer is considering a 2.2 megawatt wind turbine project in Stamford. Norwich Solar Technologies would construct the facility if the firm’s yet-to-be submitted permit application to the Public Utility Commission wins approval. The project is proposed for the same general area as Deerfield Wind and Searsburg Wind in Vermont and the Hoosac Wind wind facility in Monroe and Florida, Mass. – in a region considered favorable to wind power generation. STANDARD OFFER BID What the developer has done . . . Complete story »
